PRICE:
$12.50
IN STOCK
ARTIST
TITLE
The Clangers: Original Television Music
FORMAT
CD

LABEL
CATALOG #
SOUP 001CD SOUP 001CD
GENRE
RELEASE DATE
10/29/2013

2013 repress. Both beautiful and charming, this is the long-lost music from one of the UK's most popular and important children's TV shows. Started in 1969 and produced by Smallfilms, The Clangers is a series about a small planet and the little woolen creatures who inhabit it. It ran for just 26 episodes, and grew organically as a show, with the little eco-friendly Clangers discovering music on "Music Trees," learning how to make flying machines and being aware of any space junk crashing into their planet. The music was written (like most of the Smallfilms productions) by Vernon Elliott, a composer and established bassoonist. His pastoral space music is at times slightly abstract, and builds throughout the album from small passages to larger, more complex musical sequences. On its original release (in 2001), the album gained a stunning 10 out of 10 from the NME: "Created in 1969 by Oliver Postgate, the genius who also made landmark kids TV like Bagpuss and Ivor the Engine, The Clangers was an enchanting animated program about a gang of pink alien mice who lived on a blue planet and had friends called the Soup Dragon, the Froglets and the Skymoos. Even now, it's a joy to watch. Fuck The Magic Roundabout and Pigeon Street. One of the best things about the series was the music, and this lovingly packaged collection of original material collects it and revels in its slightly sinister, otherworldly, even free jazz, feel. Sure, there's cute little oboe flourishes and sweet, clinky clanky noises, but underneath all that, there's a definite sense of being lost and alone in a vast, awesome universe, with only pink mice and a flying metal chicken for company. There's 47 minutes and 22 tracks of undiluted Clangers magic on this CD as well as some excellent, illuminating sleeve notes and the cutest 'behind the camera' picture of The Clangers you're ever likely to see. Like the best things in life, it's warm, fuzzy and makes you feel slightly nauseous." The CD version comes with a 12-page full-color booklet with archive extracts, pictures from the TV series and more.