by RUPERT BOTTENBERG

Sure, they play strictly instrumental retro sounds loaded with twangy reverb, but you’d be off by not only a coast but a continent if you slotted Ottawa band the Flaps into the surf category. Their initial reference points aren’t the Ventures and the Surfaris, but rather the soundtracks to an assortment of sleazy European exploitation flicks from the late ’60s and early ’70s, like the infamous Vampyros Lesbos—films often as bad as their scores are good.

For the composers behind those scores, American instrumental rock was merely a starting point. Likewise, the remarkably skilled and inquisitive players in the Flaps follow a slew of tangents on their self-titled CD, arcing up into classic-rock overdrive, dipping down into eerie organ grinding, or spiralling off into a Dead Kennedys quote.

Guitarist Melvin Intrilligator (or Pat Lawlor, to his mom, boss and mailman) admits that he hasn’t necessarily seen all the films that the soundtracks he loves accompanied. He’s psyched, however, to chatter about the tunes themselves, the gleeful musical thievery behind them and the confounding contradictions they often present. “These soundtracks often seem to have more thought put into them than the scripts,” he says.

The German composer Gert Wilden is a particular favourite, and his score to the 1970 soft-core sleaze parade Schulmadchen Report (that is, “schoolgirl report”) is a standout. “I’m not sure you can get it here,” says Intrilligator, “because, from the liner photographs, it seems there may be some nudity involving pre-teens. Those wacky Germans!

“One of the reasons we love these old soundtracks is because the music is often so oddly out of whack with the themes in the movie. Just try and have sex while listening to this album! It’s more likely to cause laughter or anxiety than arousal. However, there is one sexy number, ‘Madame und ihre Nichte’—if you like breathy, non-verbal vocals and chromatic harmonica, this will get you going.

We like to listen to these songs to hear the way soundtrack musicians interpret and draw from the pop music of the day. Gert Wilden blatantly rips off Led Zeppelin basslines all over the place. You can hear ‘Whole Lotta Love,’ ‘Heartbreaker’ and ‘Good Times Bad Times’—only done in a sleazier, German context. It’s actually sort of neat. Zeppelin ripped all the old blues guys off anyway, so I guess they had it coming!”

With American Devices at Playhouse on
Saturday, Oct. 21, 8 p.m., $5

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