By Barry Gray

Silva Screen, out now

Music for the World Intelligence Network’s Most Special Agent…

Silva Screen have brought out quite a few Gerry Anderson show soundtracks and compilations over the last couple of years, including the likes of Stingray and The Secret Service, and now it’s Joe 90’s turn.

This falls right into Barry Gray’s definitive golden period, opening with the wobble electronic Gray signature sound that you might remember from the Peter Cushing Dalek movies and their trailers, before launching into that highly memorable title theme, which will surely catch the attention of both Gerry Anderson fans and nostalgia fans.

The theme is, of course, a major part of the album, being worked into the vast majority of the tracks in some form. For example “A Wolf In The Fox’s Den” slides into an atmospheric version in its third quarter, after a solid bossa nova type first half worthy of any 1960s score, and them booms out into an actiony version. Great stuff.

The other element heard quite often is a lighter set of flute and percussive motifs that imply youth and play, and do a nice job of reflecting that the titular superspy hero is actually just a boy – yay for grooming children to be spies whose lives are threatened every five minutes. It may be an unethical brainwashing programme, but it makes for exciting music.

There are some other nice touches – and cliched ones, such as the snatch of generic Volga boat song type track to represent Russian threat in “A Dream Come True” – throughout the score. Mainly these come in the form of different instrumentations for the theme tune, from the military snare drum in “Wagon Train Of Fear” to the Latin mix in of “The Tragedy Aboard The UB5 And Porto Guava.” There’s even a hint of Bluegrass – or hillbillies from Beverly Hills or elsewhere – in “Race Of Intelligence,” which is pure Looney Tunes. In fact, it’s very clear that there’s a lot of musical national or at least regional stereotyping going on in the score. This was typical for the era, of course – you hear this musical shorthand in almost everything.

There’s also a full on piano recital in “Sladek’s Recital,” while “Balloon Ride” sweeps from Big Band sound to Christmas Waltz and all over the place. There’s even a touch of Martin Slavin (a contemporary electronic artists of Gray’s, perhaps best known for having his work used as the original Cybermen theme in 1960s Doctor Who) stylings about “Divine Intervention.”

Despite the reliance on the theme tune and a number of obvious musical tropes, this soundtrack never actually gets monotonous or repetitive. It has its less-good tracks, but overall it’s a solid nostalgic sound trip for both Gerry Anderson fans and fans of 1960s Spy-Fi. In fact, really, what this is is the score The Man From UNCLE wishes it had, to release on CD and download.

Verdict: Barring a few missteps, great stuff, and better still if you’re a fan of any of the markets it’s aimed at. 8/10

David A McIntee