Written by Shatter Soundtrack: Hong Kong Heat, Hammer
Funk & One Mean Groove
Back in 1974, the martial arts craze was running hotter than a Hong Kong street corner at midnight.
Bruce Lee had changed the game, Shaw Brothers were pumping out kung fu pictures like nobody’s
business, and Western producers were scrambling to get a piece of the action. Hammer Films and Shaw Brothers had already thrown one hell of a curveball with The Legend of the 7
Golden Vampires, the deliriously entertaining East-meets-West cocktail of Chinese kung fu and Gothic horror. Starring Hong Kong legend David Chiang alongside Peter Cushing, the movie was picked up for international distribution and became a cult favourite.
Get your copy here: SHATTER Original Soundtrack Selections
Then came Shatter.
Directed by Michael Carreras and Monte Hellman and starring Stuart Whitman, Ti Lung, Lily Li, Anton
Diffring and Peter Cushing, Shatter was a very different beast. No vampires. No ancient castles. No
Gothic cobwebs. Just hard men, dirty money, double-crosses and enough Hong Kong action to keep the fists flying.
Whitman plays Shatter, a professional hitman who discovers that the contract he has taken isn’t quite as straightforward as advertised. After being double-crossed, he finds himself caught in a deadly
conspiracy and reluctantly joins forces with a martial arts expert played by Shaw Brothers star Ti Lung.
And if that wasn’t enough muscle for one movie, Peter Cushing turns up as a government official,
providing another welcome dose of Hammer class.
The film’s troubled history is almost as interesting as the picture itself. Unlike The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires, Shatter didn’t receive anything like the same level of theatrical exposure and became something of a forgotten footnote in the Hammer/Shaw Brothers story. For years it remained a difficult title for fans to track down, acquiring that delicious reputation shared by movies that seem to exist somewhere between cult legend and dusty VHS shelf.
Now, thanks to Hammer Films, another piece of the Shatter puzzle has been dragged out of the
shadows.
And this time, baby, it’s all about the music.
The Sound of the Hit
The newly released Shatter soundtrack brings together the original score by David Lindup, a composer whose career crossed television, film and jazz, and who was closely associated with the British jazz scene.
This isn’t some polite background music designed to sit quietly behind the action.
This soundtrack comes swinging through the door wearing shades.
Lindup’s score captures that unmistakable early-1970s atmosphere when jazz, funk, thriller music and experimental sounds were colliding in spectacular fashion. There’s tension, swagger, strange little electronic flourishes and funky rhythms that give the music a distinctly urban, cinematic edge.
You can practically see the opening credits rolling over a rain-soaked Hong Kong street.
A car pulls up.
Somebody gets out.
The camera doesn’t trust him.
The bassline definitely doesn’t.
The music has the kind of gritty, muscular quality that makes you want to hear it outside the film. It
belongs to that wonderful period when film composers weren’t afraid to get funky, weird or downright
dangerous.
And that makes the Shatter soundtrack a fascinating companion to the movie itself.
Hammer Goes Hong Kong
What makes Shatter particularly interesting today is the collision of filmmaking cultures behind it.
This was Hammer Films stepping outside its traditional Gothic territory and into the rapidly expanding
world of Hong Kong action cinema. Shaw Brothers, meanwhile, brought with them the expertise and
screen presence of stars such as Ti Lung and Lily Li.
The result is an unusual cinematic hybrid: part British thriller, part Hong Kong action picture, part
international crime movie and, thanks to Lindup’s score, part funky 1970s fever dream.
It may not have the cultural impact of Enter the Dragon, but that’s precisely why Shatter remains such an intriguing piece of martial arts movie history.
It is a snapshot of an industry trying to catch the lightning Bruce Lee had unleashed.
Put the Needle on the Groove
For collectors of Hammer, Shaw Brothers, vintage film scores and 1970s jazz-funk, this release is
therefore more than just another soundtrack.
It’s another piece of the puzzle.
Shatter may have spent decades lurking in the shadows, but David Lindup’s music proves that even
forgotten films can leave behind some seriously funky fingerprints.
If you’re collecting the music associated with Hammer’s extraordinary flirtation with Hong Kong cinema, this is one release that deserves a place in the collection.
The film may have been about a professional killer getting double-crossed.
The soundtrack?
It never betrayed anybody.
It just kept laying down the groove.
Recommended for fans of Hammer Films, Shaw Brothers, 1970s film music, jazz-funk, kung fu
cinema and obscure soundtrack gold.
Hammer Films is releasing Shatter on vinyl and CD as part of its continuing programme of classic
Hammer soundtrack releases.
Get your copy here: SHATTER Original Soundtrack Selections
For collectors, this is one to grab before somebody else gets there first.
Because in the world of 1970s crime cinema, there’s always another man waiting around the corner.
And he’s probably got your record.
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The post SHATTER: Hong Kong Heat, HammerFunk & One Mean Groove first appeared on World of Martial Arts | WOMA.