Shawn Lee's Ping Pong Orchestra - Strings and Things (2006)

The 3rd album from Shawn Lee’s popular Ping Pong Orchestra series includes 15 brand new tracks. More developed and adventurous than the trademark shorts on previous Ping Pong Orchestra albums, Lee stretches his musical muscles to delve even deeper into cinematic film-score territory. The Thievery Corporation recently hired Lee to remix a track on their ESL label and All Music Guide also cottoned-on to the broad appeal of the Orchestra sound stating…“If you're someone who keeps the six-disc CD player shuffling constantly back and forth between St. Etienne, Ennio Morricone, James Brown, and Percy Faith, then you'll get a huge kick out of this album.”

Strings and Things moves between sitar powered grooves, moody soundscapes and orchestral space funk for 15 movie scenes that don’t yet exist anywhere beyond his imagination. Opening with the Air-ish “La Ballade De Mela” the album moves from kung-fu-flick-flavored “Gerrard Street”, the Bollywood sounds of “Gregs Theme” and “In A Hurry”. “Oslo Morning” and “The Message pt. 3” showcase Lee’s ability to make engaging ambient tracks while “Moodbender” and “Quattro Formaggio” provide a change of pace with laid back loungey beats. These are 15 Morricone-like smoke-filled moments, adrenaline-inducing cross-town chase-scene tunes and Bombay-bastic rhythms.

This is the 3rd in the Ubiquity series of Studio Session albums inspired by 1960s/1970s library records. Library records were originally produced by companies like Music de Wolfe and KPM to provide an instrumental musical source for TV, film and radio. While the 15 mood setting tracks on Strings and Things might make great DJ tools, collections for sampling, or music for film, Lee’s Ping Pong Orchestra also make great music to listen to.