Decibel Magazine has a feature on their website called 'justify your sh*tty taste' where they get someone to write about a record they hold near and dear (but the public generally pans) - if it's any indication their first one ever was about the record 'St. Anger' by Metallica.
I don't think my taste sucks (um... right?), but f**k it, I'm about to justify the music from the movie Godzilla fans love to hate, Godzilla vs Megalon! (To be honest I even kinda like the movie, but that's another story for another day.) What I hear most when people talk about the music in 'Megalon' is it's (1) a departure from the classically themed soundtracks, (2) it has the 'new' Godzilla theme that was short-lived in the 70s that's also heard in Godzilla vs Smog Monster / Hedorah.
I can see where people are coming from in terms of the 'new-sounding theme' there, but my defense of that is it was the early 70s - everyone was experimenting with funky/jazzy sounds. Plus, at the time the franchise was almost 20 years old and was in serious trouble of continuing due to the decline of the movie industry in Japan. They were trying something new! Which of course explains why it's a departure from the classically-themed soundtracks as well, but to me that departure is what gives it its staying power.
Now, full disclosure: if you're not aware of this I am in a funk band and know my way around hip-hop and the concept of diggin' for records, breaks and beats, so my angle at why I love this soundtrack is it's got beats! There are tracks you could legitimately sample, chop up and turn into bangin' hip-hop tracks like 'Kidnap 1', the intro to 'Underwater Kingdom', 'Crisis in the Container', and the ultra-rugged 'Defense Team Takes Action'. I'm trying to say that Megalon has some samples for dat azz, basically.
Also worth mentioning is the delightfully cheesy, kinda funky, totally-ripping-off Ultraman jawn 'Jet Jaguar Punch-punch-punch', complete with male vocals prevalent in a lot of the Tokusatu stuff of the era (Ultraman, Combattler, Inazuman). Whatever, act like it's not stuck in your head after you listen to it!
There is a 16-volume series of great instrumentals called 'Dusty Fingers' that features a lot of funky, jazzy tracks you'd hear sampled in hip-hop (with a heavy leaning towards library records). Godzilla vs Megalon sounds like it easily could have contributed to a volume of Dusty Fingers, given the sparse, funky soundscapes that weave through the record. If I didn't tell you what this record was before playing it for you I think you'd totally dig it... it's just that it seems out of place to some since it's from a Godzilla film. Godzilla purists may not dig it, but damn. Ain't nothing wrong with Godzilla being into the funk.
