King Khan - The Invaders: Original Score

There are plenty of famous examples of film soundtrack artists improvising their score while screening the source material for the first time, such as Neil Young’s angst-ridden coat of reverb that pairs eerily well with Jim Jarmusch’s Dead Man. Yet King Khan took the opposite approach while penning what would become the musical accompaniment to Prichard Smith’s new documentary spotlighting the rise of the Memphis Black power group the Invaders during the civil rights movement.

“The Mighty Hannibal taught me an amazing lesson about blindness,” Khan shares, referring to the late R&B legend. “[He] sent me a gospel song he wrote about how lucky he was to have gone blind because he could never judge anyone based on what they looked like—rather it was now by their actions. When he told this to me I decided to do the entire soundtrack ‘blind.’ This meant I made the music without seeing the images.”

The film’s soundtrack is slated to be released August 18 via Ernest Jenning Recording Co. and Khannibalism, with the first sample arriving today in the form of “John B’s Lament”—referring to Invaders leader John B. Smith. It’s a crunchy bit of guitar-focused improv that recalls the mischievous rock sounds of the period the doc spotlights, while hewing close to much of the garage-rock icon’s two decades of consistent output under various guises.

Continuing on about the film itself, Khan adds: “The Invaders film is not just a documentary, it’s a hardcore lesson to all activists to put in the work and find out what every community needs, addressing these individual needs and simply caring for the wounds that rot when ignored. Before you wallow in self-pity and misery, take a deep breath and learn to breathe. Just a simple act of inhalation and exhalation is what brings us back to reality and calms our nerves and prepares us for the task at hand.”

Tracklist:
1. John B's Lament
2. Hot Dog for Melvin
3. Hurtin Class (Dub)
4. J Edgar Hoovers Knickers
5. America Goddamn
6. Do You Wanna Ride
7. A Tree Not A Leaf Am I
8. Heart of Trash
9. Gone Are The Times (instro)
10. 400th Overture
11. A Man Don't Stand A Chance (pt1n2)
12. John C Invades
13. Memphis is Burning
14. Redemption at Last
15. Badalamemphis
16. Darkness (Instro)
17. Never Hold On (instro)
18. Children of the World

Jake Ferguson featuring Malcolm Catto - Emotions Run Dry

The Madlib Invazion Music Library Series was created by Madlib and Egon over the course of the Pandemic, and was a chance to give their creative friends the ability to stretch out and indulge in whatever type of music they wanted for release on the label.

The music had to be great and able to be presented as a stand alone album – like the best “Music Library” releases of the past, on labels like Italy’s Sermi, Germany’s Bruton, France’s MP2000 and the UK’s DeWolfe. And, like those albums, it had to work as easy, one-stop clearance for background cues in film and television production and, as producers have been indulging since the 1990s, for sampling.

The series contains 12 releases by DJ Muggs, Karriem Riggins, J-Zone, the Heliocentrics’ Malcolm Catto and Jake Ferguson, JJ Whitefield of Karl Hector/Whitefield Brothers/Poets of Rhythm, Motif Alumni and Music Research Library, Mario Luciano of Polyphonic Music Library, Henkel, Gabriel Rowland of Los Yesterdays, Dan Hastie and Terin Ector of Orgone, Dan Ubick and Joe Harrison

The albums will be released on the Madlib Invazion Bandcamp on the first Friday of each month over the course of one year. Listen, ponder, repeat.

Tracklist:
1. Freestyling
2. 21st Century Blues
3. Well Well Well
4. String Fantasy
5. Train A Coming
6. I Wonder
7. Emotions Run Dry
8. M For Drums
9. Salamander
10. Moroccan Firecracker
11. Dune