Music For TV Dinners

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"Who in their deepest desires hasn't wanted to live inside a vacuum packed world?" Thus asks Joseph Lanza, obsessive historian of musical ephemera, documenter of the space age bachelor pad syndrome and author of Elevator Music, at the the head of his sleeve notes to this collection of production music from the 50s through to the 70s. Curated by Lanza himself, Music For TV Dinners sees the light of day courtesy of Caroline NYC's subsidiary Scamp, specialists in exotica and kitschedelia, from Martin Denny and Les Baxter to, er, Robert Mitchum and Maya Angelou. Lanza's question is apposite: a casual listen to these bright 'n' breezy, constantly chirpy little two minute ditties could well confirm why one wouldn't want to live in a vacuum-packed world. Yet, just as JG Ballard has pointed out that the true shape of the future can be read in suburbia rather than in more classically sci-fi dystopian urban environments, these anonymous, anodyne, lushly orchestrated tunes are perhaps the true sound of the anaesthetised future which we inexorably approach. Or perhaps not. But they're a gas at any rate (and a must for collectors of Laurie "Professionals" Johnson, who does feature large here).