Album Review: Various - Morning Of The Earth Complete Original Soundtrack And Reimagined

Forty-odd years ago Australia helped invent the surf movie, and most importantly, the surf movie soundtrack. Morning Of The Earth (directed by Albert Falzon) was dominated by the sounds of producer/musician G Wayne Thomas, with a prog-by-the-sea sound which was infamously known as a type of romantic (if not fantastic) sonic ode to the then still-emerging local surf culture. The soundtrack has come to be held dear to hippies and surfers of a certain age, so remaking it was always going to have to go somewhere new. This “reimagining” of the cult classic has been paired with a reissue of the soundtrack itself, all in one double-CD set.

The change is contemporary surf sounds that are now more relaxed and varied, so that the epic title track entrusted to Mick Turner and the Xylouris Ensemble (with Oliver Mann on vox) is less echoey than the original, now more diverse and meandering. Bonnie 'Prince' Billy's I'll Be Alright sounds like a comfortable low tide, while Matt Corby's First Thing First takes the track back to the beach bar with a slightly blues-inspired take on the original. Busby Marou's Getting Back is also well worth getting sand in your cossie for. The original's big single Open Up Your Heart is given a lovely lightness and androgyny by Jack River, while it seems Sand Pebbles couldn't resist getting just a bit of original '70s in with Dream Chant. Also well worth it is Machine Translations' Simple Ben; just sweet and easy in its approach.