Ben Vaughn "Instrumental Stylings" 1995

"...The disc touches a lot of bases including spaghetti western (the tragic, mournful `Enfermo'), surf'n'drag with Noo Wave attitude (`Pipe Bomb'), rave-up twangabilly (`Toestubber'), and just plain wacked-out, tremelo drenched instro wanderings (`Snake Pit')..." - Option (7-8/95, p.143)
Released in 1995, INSTRUMENTAL STYLINGS is a nice counterpart to Ben Vaughn's album from the year before, MONO USA. Both albums were recorded at his home on an eight-track machine, but where the previous release was a set of lovingly played and sung covers, these are all original instrumentals. Five of the selections were created for film soundtracks, and the remaining all fall into a similarly evocative vein. There are uptempo driving songs, somber midnight mood pieces and everything in between. There's tremendous variety, and that's what makes this album flow so nicely. Soon after releasing this album, Vaughn moved from New Jersey to Los Angeles and made a quick and smooth transition to high-profile television scoring (starting with the theme and incidental music for the successful Third Rock From the Sun program).
Personnel:
Ben Vaughn (various instruments); Dean Ween (guitar); Mike Vogelman (sitar, hand drum); Andy Vaughn (bass); Palmyra Delran (finger cymbal)

trax:
01 Aqua Blue 02 Gumpstumper 03 Enfermo 04 Pipe Bomb 05 Aldente 06 Battery Acid 07 Heaven Above 08 Toestubber 09 Snake Pit 10 Dreadnought 11 Hydroplane 12 Tarot Reader 13 Descafeinado 14 Constellation Drive 15 Illusion 16 Stretch Limo - (bonus vocal track)