The early 1980s found Ennio Morricone at a fascinating crossroads—his reputation firmly established through the iconic Western scores and giallo masterworks, yet his creative restlessness driving him toward increasingly experimental territories within genre filmmaking. This newly remastered edition of Copkiller (1983) captures the composer during one of his most fertile periods, when his work on poliziotteschi thrillers and collaborations with Henri Verneuil pushed his musical language into darker, more psychologically complex realms.

Directed by longtime Morricone collaborator Roberto Faenza, Copkiller presented unique challenges that played directly to the composer's strengths. The film's casting of Johnny Rotten—the notorious Sex Pistols frontman—alongside seasoned actors Harvey Keitel and Nicole Garcia suggested a work straddling multiple cultural worlds. Morricone responded with a score that mirrors this cultural collision, creating music that feels simultaneously rooted in his established crime-film vocabulary and surprisingly prescient of alternative music aesthetics. The score's psychedelic undertones represent Morricone operating in full experimental mode. His use of heavy percussion and ostinato-based structures creates a claustrophobic urban soundscape that perfectly captures the "steamy chaos" of corrupt New York City police work. These aren't the romantic melodies of his Western scores or the Gothic grandeur of his horror work—this is Morricone as urban anthropologist, documenting the moral decay at the heart of Reagan-era America.

What makes this score particularly compelling is how Morricone anticipates musical developments that wouldn't fully emerge until the later 1980s and early 1990s. The repetitive, hypnotic patterns and industrial textures feel remarkably contemporary, suggesting that Morricone's engagement with the punk aesthetic of Johnny Rotten's presence influenced his compositional approach in subtle but significant ways. The percussion-heavy arrangements create a sense of urban paranoia that aligns perfectly with the film's themes of corruption and moral ambiguity. Morricone's use of synthesizers—still relatively new technology in his arsenal—adds layers of synthetic menace that complement rather than replace his traditional orchestral palette. This hybrid approach would become increasingly important in his later work, making Copkiller a crucial transitional piece in his evolution.

Chris Malone's remastering work, built from first-generation stereo master tapes, reveals the full spatial complexity of Morricone's arrangements. The percussion elements now breathe with proper separation, while the synthesizer textures emerge with clarity that was impossible in previous editions. This technical restoration allows us to fully appreciate Morricone's sophisticated layering techniques and his prescient understanding of how electronic and acoustic elements could coexist. The score's rarity—limited to the original 1983 General Music LP release and a brief 2002 GDM CD appearance—has made it one of the more elusive entries in Morricone's extensive filmography. This absence from the broader discourse around his work seems particularly unfortunate given how the score anticipates many of the musical developments that would define urban cinema in the following decades.

Daniel Schweiger's liner notes provide essential context for understanding both the film's unique production circumstances and Morricone's musical response. The cultural tensions inherent in casting a punk icon alongside established actors created a creative environment that pushed everyone involved toward unexpected territories. For scholars of Morricone's work, Copkiller represents a missing link between his 1970s genre masterworks and his later, more electronically-influenced scores. For fans of 1980s crime cinema, it offers a glimpse of how one of cinema's greatest composers approached the decade's particular brand of urban paranoia.

This remastered edition restores a crucial piece of Morricone's puzzle—music that reveals his remarkable ability to absorb and transform contemporary cultural influences while maintaining his distinctive voice. Essential listening for anyone seeking to understand the full scope of his artistic evolution.