The great Herbaliser, aka Ollie Teeba, has made many a world class mix in his day. Not simply satisfied with blending 20 or so jams together, the Herbaliser instead creates mixes with large scale concepts, or thematic motifs, that elevate them to the level of soundscape. Such as with this mix for Solid Steel’s 25th Anniversary. For Halloween (and Nina Tune’s esteemed radio show), Teeba celebrates the 75th Anniversary of Orson Welles’ infamous radio staging of War of the Worlds, where he fooled half of America into believing that we were being attacked by aliens — surely one of the first examples of mass media being used as a device of pranking. The musical version of the War Of the Worlds, recorded by Jeff Wayne, was a huge influence on the life and work of Teeba, so it seemed like an apt homage. As Teeba explains:

“When I was 8 or 9 years old I heard Jeff Wayne’s musical version of H.G.Well’s ‘War Of the Worlds’ for the first time. It scared the pants off me. For years afterwards I listened to the record over and over. It is certainly one of the things from my childhood that cemented my interest in film scores. Though not a film score per se. Its marriage of rock music with orchestral arrangements to tell a story, had me transfixed. The combination of funky rock with sinister string parts would heavily influence and partially shape the sounds that, years later Jake Wherry and I would be making in The Herbaliser.

A few years back I was given, as a Christmas gift, the ‘Collectors Edition box set of Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds’. As well as tons of interesting facts about the creation of the original recordings it had several CD’s of alternate takes, remixes etc. On one CD, I excitedly discovered that they had included all of Richard Burton’s dialogue parts, without music. Having already created and performed an alternate live DJ score to silent film ‘The Lost World’ from 1927, this seemed like a great opportunity to do a similar project with one of my favourite childhood stories.

Using records from my own collection of movie soundtracks and other suitable material, I created the original version. This was given to some close friends as a christmas present in 2010. The version you are now hearing is a somewhat revised and extended version, created specifically for the 25 years of Solid Steel. Also, it is the 75th anniversary of Orson Welles’ infamous radio play [edit: am 30. Oktober], that when broadcast on Halloween 1938, had many Americans convinced that they were listening to a genuine attack from outer space. This is by no means intended as an improvement to Mr Wayne’s recording but a tribute to H.G Wells, Jeff Wayne, Richard Burton, Orson Welles and of course Solid Steel.

Full tracklist of the Herbaliser’s “War Of The Worlds” Mixtape after the Jump…

Full tracklist of the Herbaliser’s War Of The Worlds Mixtape:

David Axelrod – A Divine Image
Ennio Morricone – ‘Humanity part 1? (from The Thing)
Lalo Schifrin – ‘Scorpio’s View’ (from Dirty Harry)
Lalo Schifrin – ‘What’s Past is Past – Affirmation of Love’ (from Voyage of the Damned)
Quincey Jones – ‘Slam City’(from The Hot Rock)
Lalo Schifrin – Main Title from Voyage of the Damned
Ennio Morricone – ‘Citta Violenta’ (from Violent City)
Piero Piccioni – ‘Identikit’ (from Colpo Rovente)
Charles Bernstein – ‘Laying the Trap’ (from Gator)
Lalo Schifrin – ‘Tiger Tank’ (from Kelly’s Heroes)
Lalo Schifrin – ‘The School Bus’ (from Dirty Harry)
Lalo Schifrin – ‘Commando Opus’ (from Kelly’s Heroes)
Michel Colombier/Serge Gainsbourg – ‘Breakdown (Suite 1)’ (from Si J’etais un Espion)
The Animated Egg – Sock it My Way
Wilfred Josephs – Nervestretch
Henry Mancini – ‘Dog Eat Dog’ (from The Thief Who Came to Dinner)
Roy Budd – ‘Diamonds’ (from The Black Windmill)
Roy Budd – ‘The Briefcase’ (from The Black Windmill)
Monk Higgins/Alex Brown – ‘Railroad’ (from Sheba Baby)
Michel Colombier/Serge Gainsbourg – ‘Breakdown (Suite 2)’ (from Si J’etais un Espion)
Charles Bernstein – ‘Flight in the Night’ (from Gator)
Henry Mancini – ‘The Patter’ (from The Thief Who Came to Dinner)
Henry Mancini – ‘Main Theme’ (from The Thief Who Came to Dinner)
Roy Budd – ‘The Plant’ (from The Black Windmill)
Jerry Goldsmith – ‘Revelation’ (from Planet of the Apes)
Jerry Goldsmith – ‘New Identity’ (from Planet of the Apes)
David McCullum – The Edge
David Axelrod – A Divine Image