René Costy

Expectancy: Collected Library Gems From The ’70s

SDBAN. CD/DL/LP Double slab of wobbly library funk from boundarybreaking Belgian violinist.

René Costy had it sorted. The classical violinist and music teacher led a discreet double life that saw him play in a classical quartet by day and slip into his jazz slacks after supper, notching numerous TV and radio scores while loading the library vaults for boutique imprints Editions Montparnasse and Selection. Boiled down from over 400 tracks (and leaning heavily on 1977’s hyper-rare Danger, Suspense Et Eprouvettes), Expectancy is the gift that just keeps on giving, vaulting from the funky, horny breakbeat of Scrabble (infamously sampled by Common, Howie B and J Dilla) to the taut, multistringed horror score of Angoisse, the Cadbury’s Smash Moog-phonics of Activity 2 and widdling Hawaii Five-0 psych-out Strange Dream. Serious cratediggers should prepare to pillage.