It certainly gets my vote!

When I was in Tokyo in the mid-1990s, there was a dance-floor craze for the soundtrack of Sesso Matto (“sex-crazy”), a silly, sleazy 70s Italian sex comedy romp starring Giancarlo Giannini and sexy screen siren Laura Antonelli in multiple roles. It was released as How Funny Can Sex Be? in the rest of the world. I’m pretty sure that this was the direct inspiration for Cibo Matto’s name. Almost any hip Japanese person of a certain age would definitely know it.

I brought a copy home with me and it has occupied an honored position in my record collection ever since and is a front line choice for inclusion on most of my (coveted!) mixed CDs and to this day it’s my secret weapon when I’m DJ’ing. But don’t tell anybody.

The 1973 comedy film is nothing great, but the awesome soundtrack… OMG is that soundtrack freaking sublime. An absolute revelation.
 

 
Composer Armando Trovajoli’s memorable score featured horn sections, an especially funky drummer and bass player, Mini-Moogs, the sounds of a female in loud orgasmic bliss and bongo drums. What could be more perfect than that? It’s a weird and groovy pastiche of sounds that shouldn’t work together, but DO. The Sesso Matto soundtrack album even has a Rossini number played on the Arp synthesizer, a kissing cousin of Switched on Bach by way of Looney Toons.

In 1976 West End Records put out a 12” disco mix of the title theme which was well known to New York DJs and heard in places like The Loft and Studio 54. “Sesso Matto”—which was clearly influenced by Manu Dibango’s “Soul Makossa”—is part of hip-hop’s DNA, heard in many of the earliest rap hits thanks to Grandmaster Flash’s frequent use of its several clean break beats.

Have a listen to the ‘Sesso Matto’ soundtrack after the jump…