gullbuy music review

Meco

title

Music Inspired by Star Wars

label

DM Records

format
CD

Meco CD coverDomenico Monardo became a rich and famous man he released a disco Star Wars LP as Meco in 1977. The Star Wars 7inch he released from the record is still the biggest-selling instrumental single of the last 50 years.

He continued to score disco alternative soundtrack songs for such movies as An American Werewolf in London and Superman, and TV shows such as Star Trek Deep Space 9.

This CD is the first new material from Meco in many years. He has created a new piece of work encompassing all six Star Wars movies. He has made great effort to keep his music contemporary, which is the problem with this CD. There are several tracks that are fun to listen to, but the plain fact is that this CD will not be loved by his old fans, and won't gain him a legion of new admirers. The question to ask is, who IS this CD made for?

The disc is put out by DM Records Group from Boca Raton FL. How much do you want to bet that is where he lives, and he in effect put this CD out himself?

John Williams is given writing credit on 5 of the 10 tracks. Those tracks use the familiar melodies of Star Wars, and add re-enacted movie dialog along with the beat. These are the biggest successes on the disc. Across The Stars, The Imperial March and Yoda's Theme are all pretty excellent. The Star Wars Theme is OK, but THAT melody is just so overused already.

Meco penned tracks such as Star Wars Party end up getting into your head, but they won't be jumping out as instant faves, with the alternative rock styled vocals they employ.

The disc closes with Boogie Wookie, which sounds like it would be a safe bet for fans of Meco's past disco glory, but the track is not a four on the floor dancefloor bomber.

Though this is (currently) the easiest Meco disc to find, you should only enter this door if you already own his earlier work, of which the Star Wars and other Galactic Funk disc can still be found.

---Carl, October 18, 2005