Spy Music?

Cakey

My girlfriend is a working screenwriter. I have the pleasure of being the lame sidekick to a working screenwriter. Right now, her agent has her developing a cool comedy project involving spies, and I'd like to hook her up with some music to get her in the right mood.

I think there was a thread on this way back when, and I wish I'd saved it.

Instrumental preferred, can be a bit silly sounding or serious, but no too-familiar themes (Bond, Pink Panther, etc.).

What I've found so far--
Stereophonic Space Sound Unlimited
a few Dizzy Gillespie big band tracks
a handful of hard-bop era jazz
a couple of decent covers of "A Shot in the Dark"
Henry Mancini's music for Peter Gunn, which fits the bill

I dunno, my music-finding powers are coming up really short on this one. Suggestions?

Calamity Jane

Queens of the Stone Age - Monsters in the Parasol.

It seems like something sneaky would be going down to this one.

Edit: There is singing, but tonally if you're going for comedy and spies give it a listen.

Feral

Thievery Corporation - Focus on Sight
Downtempo electronica, but definitely has a 'spy movie' feel.

ben0207

Check out the Propellerheads - their full album decksanddrumsandrockandroll has an awesome remix of the "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" theme, as well as "Spybreak!" which you should recognise as the lobby theme in The Matrix.

UndefinedMonkey

Check out this Propellerheads CD. "Spybreak", "On Her Majesty's Secret Service", "Cominagetcha", and "Bang On" are all appropriate. See if you can dig up some stuff by Lalo Schifrin as well. You probably won't be able to get by with the Mission: Impossible theme, but he's done tons of other stuff (Bullitt, etc...)

Also, :^: on the Peter Gunn soundtrack... lots of great stuff there.

edit: daaaaaaamn youuuu!

ChrisDude

R.E.M. - Suspicion

It's off of their "Up" album I believe. Everytime I hear it I think it would be perfect in a spy movie.

ElectricTurtle

UndefinedMonkey is on the right track with Lalo Schifrin, specifically I would recommend Secret Code or The Man from Thrush, as well as Hugo Montenegro's Secret Agent Man (the instrumental arrangement) and The Man from UNCLE.

As a side note, you do not want to be in a car with me when any of the car chase music from Bullitt comes on my playlist. It's like the universe is asking me to squeal my tires around corners.

Ninja Bot

Bob James - Nautilus

Do it.

Æthelred

Some of the soundtrack to Space Channel 5 would fit pretty awesomely to a 60s spy caper.

Gage

Tune in to the Secret Agent station on SomaFM for a while, maybe? Might be a good way to sample some of the artists you're looking for.

embrik

Feral wrote: »

Thievery Corporation - Focus on Sight
Downtempo electronica, but definitely has a 'spy movie' feel.

Had to pull out my Mirror Conspiracy disc to see which one you were referring to. Excellent track.

Gage wrote: »

Tune in to the Secret Agent station on SomaFM for a while, maybe? Might be a good way to sample some of the artists you're looking for.

That's a bookmark!

Also, some of the tracks on Tourist by St. Germain have a bit of a spy feel to them.

Additionally, the Bond theme is probably not what you want, but there was a lot of excellent music besides the main track that definitely fits the bill. Two separate volumes were released entitled "James Bond - Back in Action". They're all instrumental music from the earlier films (nothing after Goldeneye), and a lot of the music from them is very good.

Edit: Oh, almost forgot - check this soundtrack out. It's also available through iTunes, where you can hear samples. I think a few of the tracks were used in more recent movies. I haven't seen the film for this , but I hear it's not really very good, which is a shame, since the soundtrack is so good.

VeritasVR

Check out the Deus Ex soundtrack. Lots of good cyberpunk sneaking music in there.

Mai-Kero

My favorite spy-themed song is The Bagman's Gambit by The Decemberists. It's a sad song.

Not exactly spy music in the sense of the sound, but it's the story of a spy, so it could be kind of inspiring I suppose.

Bryse Eayo

So I'm going to go more with badass sneaky music because going back to the old throw backs is boring. Check out King Cob Steelie, Cinematic Orchestra, Amon Tobin, Jaga Jazzist, Animatrix album, Some of Ratatat, Quantic, Muse for those epic fight scenes, Meat Beat Manifesto, and finally pick up the Zero 7 compilation "Another Late Night" if you want some laid back Jazz.

Akilae729

Lucifer Sam - Pink Floyd

Gunstar

Beulah - A Good Man Is Easy To Kill
Mew - Apocolypso

DrFrylock

John Barry defined spy music - he did the instrumental compositions for many Bond films and there are many albums of his music available. The instrumental soundtrack for The Incredibles was inspired by his work and might be useful to you. For CIA-type spies, maybe the soundtrack from Patriot Games, by James Horner (which liberally borrows from his other soundtracks as is his custom).

Fawkes

ben0207 wrote: »

Check out the Propellerheads - their full album decksanddrumsandrockandroll has an awesome remix of the "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" theme, as well as "Spybreak!" which you should recognise as the lobby theme in The Matrix.

Thread done.

Also bear in mind that...

John Barry defined spy music

...Propellerheads have remixed & based a lot of their stuff off John Barry originals, so you get the best of both worlds.

japan

Amon Tobin's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory soundtrack.

TychoCelchuuu

The soundtracks to No One Lives Forever and No One Lives Forever 2. NOLF also had a Game of the Year edition with a bonus CD with AMAZING AWESOME songs that are perfect. The soundtrack to The Incredibles, even though it's a superhero music, is quite definitely spy-like. Finally, the soundtrack to Evil Genius captures the mood perfectly.

Cakey

Awesome stuff, guys! The Propellerheads were off my radar, so that's an instant acquisition for me, and the best part is, I already had some of this other music but had forgotten all about it. How did I blank on Lalo Schifrin, never mind Amon Tobin, Cinematic Orchestra, etc.? I need to start tagging my music with keywords.

Thanks, all. This is a great start.

clsCorwin

The theme song from Spy Hunter?

Cakey

That would be Mancini's "Peter Gunn" theme--at least in the versions I've played. Always my favourite aspect of that game.

Vindicta_

Anne Dudley - The Full Monty

The song itself is from The Full Monty sound track, but it has a very sneaky sort of quirky sound to it. It's all instrumental.

Everywhereasign

Johnny English Soundtrack by Edward Shearmur.

Noteably; The Theme, Parachute Drop, and Russian Affairs.

It's perfect music for "action spying" and makes me want to jump out of a plane or climb the side of a building.

Samples from Amazon

EDIT: For general background listening try www.soma.fm Their "Secret Agent - The soundtrack for your stylish, mysterious, dangerous life." It's great background. I like to turn down the lights and mix a martini for me and the Missus. It makes you feel like you're wearing a tux, even if you're in boxers and a T-shirt with maple syrup stains. Not only that but the songs are broken up with Bond audio clips.

Grimm

clsCorwin wrote: »

The theme song from Spy Hunter?

I was just about the suggest that but it looks like you beat me to it. The theme is a remix of the peter gun theme i think.

EDIT: It lookes like spy hunter is actually being made into a movie.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0382315/

Bryse Eayo

Anotehr suggestion is some of the harder prog rock. Like of the new(and old) Porcupine Tree stuff like the track Sleep Together. Nice bit of tense, thriller music that is based on drum rythms and guitar solos. Not Jazz but a spy movie based on that sort of music would be so cool. So cool.

UndefinedMonkey

I just found my copy of Mr. Bungle's "Disco Volante" and remembered something; there's a hidden song at the end of track 3 (Carry Stress in the Jaw) that's apparently called "Spy." It's suitably cool and covert (in a psychotic, Mike Patton kind of way.) the only problem is that their bassist got ahold of the track before they pressed the disc and decided to make a "contribution", in the form of a running commentary in a Grandpa Simpson-style voice, and a solo in the style of Pee-Wee Herman. Still, there's plenty of instrumental stuff, and the goofy voices might actually work if you're using it for a comedy. It's a good track for Inspector Clouseau-style antics.