Soundtracks — All Formats  

What a movie! Bob Hope, Frankie Avalon, and Tuesday Weld on the same screen! But even better, the great Jimmie Haskell handled the music – and he comes up with some excellent touches that make the record groove a bit more than many of its contemporaries. Jimmy contributes some cool instrumental tunes that pop organ, guitars, and drums around other instrumentation – and also brings a nicely syncopated approach to vocal numbers by members of the cast, giving them the punch of some of his work for Reprise at the time. Frankie sings "I'll Take Sweden", "Would Ya Like My Last Name", and "The Bells Keep Ringin"; Tuesday sings "Give It To Me"; and Bob does "Nothing Can Compare With You" over instrumentations that sound a lot like Dean Martin's at the time. Instrumental titles include "Watusi Jo", "Kissin Polka", "I'll Take Sweden", and "The Bells Keep Ringin".

Fantastic! This excellent double CD set is an amazing batch of grooves put together by the brilliant German film composer Peter Thomas, for a set of films from the 60s based on super G-Man Jerry Cotton. The music's a wonderful batch of swinging swinging grooves, with cool jazzy bits, nice swirling basslines, wild wordless vocals, and lots of the sort of crazy arrangements that you'd expect from the man who did the music for Raumpatrouille and Chariots of the Gods. The sound is electric, and leaps off the disc in crackling fidelity that matches the glossy garish images from the films pictured on the cover and in the booklet. It's a great set, with over 60 cuts of fantastic soundtrack stuff that you'll probably never find in the original! Another treasure from the folks at Crippled Dick.

A seminal soundtrack from the legendary John Carpenter – one of those key records that showed the world that he was as great of a composer as he was a director! The album's a Carpenter-esque masterpiece – lots of cool, spare electronics – used in ways that make the whole movie a whole lot scarier than even the images on the screen – a quality you'll definitely appreciate here as you listen to the album on its own! Some of the best sounds are the most subtle – spare use of basslines and keyboards that almost make you feel as if Moebius and Rodelius have gone over to the dark side – and these are mixed with just a few more "action" based moments. Titles include "Up The Wall/Air Force 1", "Everyone's Coming To New York", "The Duke Arrives/The Barricade", "Back To The Pod/The Crazies Come Out", "Police State/Romero & The President", and "Chase Across The 69th Street Bridge". Also features a few previously unreleased bonus tracks too!

A striking soundtrack for this Italian horror film – not really a zombie flick exactly, but one with a very similar bent – scored by the great Stelvio Cipriani with loads of cool keyboards and rhythms! The horror mode's definitely of the John Carpenter generation – which means that Cipriani does a great job of balancing action and space throughout – using his instrumentation sparingly at just the right moments – then surging forward to really move things along! Titles include "Sustain", "I'll Find My Way To You", "L'Attesta", "Metropolis", "Agguato", "Incubo", and "Masquerade". CD also features 18 more bonus tracks – all previously unreleased!

What can we say? This is one of the greatest soul soundtracks ever! In a market that was dominated by the big-selling Shaft and Superfly albums, Roy slipped in this masterful blend of jazzy vibes and wah wah funk that's easily one of the best-composed records of the blacksploitation genre! The album's much more unified than your average funky soundtrack – and each track moves between styles that you'd hear on any of Roy's great albums from the time. There's heavy funk on the track "Brawling Broads", cool vibes and electric piano on "Aragon", off-beat jazz on "Coffy Sauna", and great soul on cuts like "Coffy Is The Color" and "Coffy Baby". Wonderful all the way through – and another jewel in the already-big crown of the great Roy Ayers!

What can we say? This is one of the greatest soul soundtracks ever! In a market that was dominated by the big-selling Shaft and Superfly albums, Roy slipped in this masterful blend of jazzy vibes and wah wah funk that's easily one of the best-composed records of the blacksploitation genre! The album's much more unified than your average funky soundtrack – and each track moves between styles that you'd hear on any of Roy's great albums from the time. There's heavy funk on the track "Brawling Broads", cool vibes and electric piano on "Aragon", off-beat jazz on "Coffy Sauna", and great soul on cuts like "Coffy Is The Color" and "Coffy Baby". Wonderful all the way through – and another jewel in the already-big crown of the great Roy Ayers!

What can we say? This is one of the greatest soul soundtracks ever! In a market that was dominated by the big-selling Shaft and Superfly albums, Roy slipped in this masterful blend of jazzy vibes and wah wah funk that's easily one of the best-composed records of the blacksploitation genre! The album's much more unified than your average funky soundtrack – and each track moves between styles that you'd hear on any of Roy's great albums from the time. There's heavy funk on the track "Brawling Broads", cool vibes and electric piano on "Aragon", off-beat jazz on "Coffy Sauna", and great soul on cuts like "Coffy Is The Color" and "Coffy Baby". Wonderful all the way through – and another jewel in the already-big crown of the great Roy Ayers!

What can we say? This is one of the greatest soul soundtracks ever! In a market that was dominated by the big-selling Shaft and Superfly albums, Roy slipped in this masterful blend of jazzy vibes and wah wah funk that's easily one of the best-composed records of the blacksploitation genre! The album's much more unified than your average funky soundtrack – and each track moves between styles that you'd hear on any of Roy's great albums from the time. There's heavy funk on the track "Brawling Broads", cool vibes and electric piano on "Aragon", off-beat jazz on "Coffy Sauna", and great soul on cuts like "Coffy Is The Color" and "Coffy Baby". Wonderful all the way through – and another jewel in the already-big crown of the great Roy Ayers!

Fantastic funk from the Italian scene – penned for a cop movie that was also known over here as The Hired Gun! The style here is even more of a cut above than usual for Italian crime – really on a par with the best American work of the period, particularly some of the extra-hip stuff you might hear on TV – like some of those gems from Sunday Night Mystery Movie that would blend sophisticated strings, offbeat orchestrations, and some great funky basslines and keys! The keyboards are especially nice – snaking through over these bass bits that roll out wonderfully and there's some moody woodwind moments that further deepen the sound in ways you wouldn't expect. Plus, the whole package is totally great – full, well-written notes in English – almost at a Film Score Monthly level! CD features 15 tracks from the film – plus 5 more bonus cuts from the vaults.

Wow! Funky guitarist Billy Butler runs through Galt MacDermot's score for Via Galactica, with music conducted by the funky composer himself. The sound is spacey and electronic, with drums by Bernard Purdie, bass by Wilbur Bascomb, and piano by Galt himself. Tracks include "Hush", "Life Wins", "400 Girls Ago", and "Other Side of the Sky". Not really a breakbeat record, but with a bunch of cool spacey moments and some very nice spacey laidback sounds. We used to sell this for a lot more, but we found a bunch at a low price, so take advantage of our good luck and get this lost record at a nice new price!

A trio of cool cop soundtracks from Stelvio Cipriani – all brought together in a beautiful package with a really unified feel! Cipriani's easily one of our favorite Italian composers for the cop/crime genre – as he's got a way of bringing sensitive sounds into play with driving action – in ways that are different from Morricone, Piccioni, or any of his other contemporaries! These tunes have a great balance between careful strings, warm themes, and more pointed action – often hanging their sound on a key element, such as a keyboard line, or off-tuned piano – and moving carefully forward with a really great ear for space and timing. Things are never sleepy, even when spacious – and the tunes ring out with a heavenly quality that could almost sanctify the acts of crime for which they were initially scored. CD features 3 tracks from La Polizia Sta A Guardare, 3 from La Polizia Chiede Auto, 9 from La Polizia Ha Le Mani Legate, and 9 more bonus tracks from the films – including some previously unreleased numbers. A really wonderful package too – with great graphics, notes in English, and a really beautiful look overall!

Finally – the long overdue release of one of the funkiest soundtracks ever! The music to Black Belt Jones has always been the stuff of legend – mostly only issued as a promo single back in the 70s, but funky enough that it's ranked among the best soundtracks of the decade! The score was composed and performed by Dennis Coffey and Luchi De Jesus – the former a funk star in his own right, the latter the composer of the ultra-hip Friday Foster soundtrack – and together, the pair have crafted some killer grooves that mix guitars, congas, and blasting orchestrations that could plow Enter The Dragon into the dust! Plus, the soundtrack nicely mixes together bits of dialogue and sound effects from the film – making things sound a lot like some of those cool Japanese Bruce Lee soundtracks that were floating around from years back. Titles include "Love Theme", "At The Beach", "Main Theme", "Opening Theme", "Drama", "Mafia Theme", and "Sexy".

A surprisingly great score – quite different than what you might expect for a JD film set on the mean streets of Chicago! Bill Conti's score has some very vibrant moments at times – not just those larger charts which reflect the surprising depth of this film, but also some breakout passages that showcase some of his jazzier talents – and which remind us that at the end of the 70s, Conti was one of the coolest cats to score a story in an urban setting! This reissue brings together a huge number of tracks from the film, plus some unused tracks as well – over an hour's worth of music, with titles that include "Chicago Night", "Meet Paco", "Welcome To Rainford", "Food Fight", "The Rape", "Reunion", "Calm Before The Storm", and "They Got Me".

A wicked double-header – a pair of rare French vampire soundtracks, packaged together in a single CD! First up is Fascination – a totally cool score from Philippe D'Aram – one that's heavy on electronics, amidst the usual horror movie moods – which gives the music a cold, stark feel that's really amazing – incredibly spooky at points, and nice and spacey at others! D'Aram doesn't just use the usual familiar moog and Rhodes elements – and instead seems to be working with early sample-type textures – using blocks of sound in these slow-building ways that are almost an electronic equivalent of a Phantom Of The Opera-type organ – especially at points when dark voices filter in to the mix, alongside acoustic elements on tuned instruments. Titles include "La Louve", "Apparation Du Chateau", "Bizarre Cult 2", "L'Amour Des Deux Filles", "Death Brigitte", and "La Valse Grincante". Next up is Requiem Pour Un Vampire – a Pierre Raph soundtrack for a really moody film – and one that's scored with music that's surprisingly sensitive at times too! There's a mix of dark and sweet here that really creates a great sort of tension – a mix between light acoustic instrumentation and some heavier sounds in the background – and really offbeat styles of tuning, and of putting the sounds together for the record! The music often features little snippets of sound effects – which pop out in a nice sense of surprise – reflecting the interplay of drama and sensuality in the film's images – and as the set moves on, the arrangements get fuller, and darker too. Titles include "Dominique's Organ", "Jade Vampyre", "Crimson Gates", "Steps To Eternal Youth", "Jade Lake", "Crimson Pond", and "Sad Clowns In The Cornfield".

A soaring, joyous score from Francesco De Masi – not nearly as dark as some of the other spaghetti western soundtracks of the time – and filled with the sort of proud, bold sounds you might expect from a more mainstream American western! There's still plenty creative going on in the orchestrations, though – lots of cool woodwind and brass passages, layered with the strings to create rich textures in sound – and often holding back energy with this sort of inherent drama that really keeps things moving nicely. There's a bit of chorus vocals at points, from I Cantori Moderni – who sound more heavenly than usual – and titles include "Armonica Western", "Arkansas Commento No 1", "Arkansas Suspense", "Yucca Theme", and "Non Sparate Sul Cantate".

Dramatic action from Francesco De Masi – scored with plenty of exotic touches as well! The style here is a mix of spy/crime with touches of the peplum genre too – some of the cooler, leaner modes of the former – mixed with the sensitive, sensual sounds of the latter – more than enough to fit the far-flung mood of the film's locale! The balance is what makes the score so nice – a bit lighter than some of the heavier Italian offerings from few years before – yet quite different than some of the simpler spy soundtracks that were coming on the market at the time. The package features 16 tracks in all – newly remastered, in a sweet-looking package!

Incredible soundtrack work from one of the coolest composers of the 70s – the groovy Francois De Roubaix, equally at home with electronics and funky orchestrations! We've loved the music of Francois De Roubaix for years – and treasure it for its unique blend of electric and acoustic elements – often coming together in mad juxtaposition, but doing so in a way that always makes for a nice little groove, and often a strong undercurrent of funk! This set brings together a nice collection of rare electronic soundtrack work by De Roubaix – tracks from the films La Scoumoune, L'Antarctique, and RAS, as well as music from the TV series La Mer Est Grande, plus a few bonus tracks from other sources. Together, the tracks paint a rich picture of the electric side of Roubaix work – a side that's shown up a bit on other reissues over the years, but which has never been shown so strongly until now! The whole thing's incredible, and packaged with some great notes and especially cool vintage photos of Francois in action – showing him to be the consummate hipster of the French soundtrack scene in the early 70s! 20 tracks in all – all brilliant!

Mindblowing work from French film composer Francois De Roubaix – an artist who's perhaps gotten more credit in recent years for his electronic sounds, but who's featured here in a fantastic batch of vocal numbers too! Many of these tracks have that great messed-up funky style of the era of Gainsbourg, Jean-Claude Vannier, and Michel Colombier – bouncing bass, psyche-inspired instrumentation, and lots of weird production that trips things out in these subtle, wild ways. Vocals are sung by a host of different artists, and the styles vary up nicely too – but the whole thing's really unified with that sense of madness we've always loved in the instrumental work of De Roubaix! Titles include "Les Poupons" by Olivier & Louis De Funes, "Le Rapace" by Los Incas, "Loin" by Joanna Shimkus, "Just Be Cool" by Fire Exit, "Mon Ami Thia" by Serge Reggiani, "Chacun Son Homme" by Brigitte Bardot & Annie Giradot, "Pour Qui Pourqui" by Nicoletta, "My Sky Is Blue" by Alice Herald, "Un Peu Beaucoup Passionnement" by Vaea Sylvain, "La Ballade Du Heros" by Farid, and "Avec Des Cubes" by Chapi Et Chapo. 24 tracks in all – and some very copious notes!

A 70s soundtrack from Guido & Maurizio De Angelus – their work for 1975's A Mezzanotte Va La Ronda Del Piacere – a cool one that covers a lot of stylistic territory! This soundtrack is built with fairly stripped down sounds for the most part – small combo material with some spacey and straighter touches alike. It's got some 70s jazz funk touches along the way – in particular, the occasional keys, heavy drums and flute – plus some sweet, acoustic guitar and piano-led sequences – which range from folky to suspenseful. Includes "Mister Love", "Il Tango Delle Capinere", "Mister Love Beguine", "Carillon", "Gino", "Seduta Spiritica", "Mister Love Tango", "Imcomprensione" and more from the original 70s release – and a wealth of bonus material – alternate sequences and different orchestrations. 24 tracks in all!

The cover's a bit goofy, but the music is a nice blend of offbeat sounds and more serious numbers – presented here in a wonderful package that includes the original unreleased album, and lots of bonus tracks too! The main theme has kind of a sentimental blend of jazzy elements, but it's also offset by other numbers that bounce around in some cool comedic modes – sometimes with a twang, sometimes with a bit more funk in the mix too – creating a sense of variety that's mighty nice! Instrumentation includes some acoustic guitar, heavy piano, and nice electric basslines – and the set features the vocal number "I'm Football Crazy" – plus lots of instrumental tracks.

A pair of action soundtracks from Georges Delerue – both mighty darn nice! Cent Mille Dollars Au Soleil is from a cool early 60s thriller with Jean-Paul Belmondo and Lino Ventura – done by Delerue with music as bold as the action in the story, but balanced out nicely with some leaner, more evocative passages that hint at the direction Georges would take in years to come. The main theme recurs often, creating a nice sense of elliptical energy in the music – and tracks include "Quartier Arabe", "Mitch Mitch", "L'Enlisement", "Une Nuit Marocaine", and "L'Appel Du Desert". Next is a film from 20 years later – Les Morfalous – but also starring Belmondo, and scored by Delerue with surprisingly subtle touches – far less of the schlocky electronic music that was often used in other 80s thrillers. A few tunes are a somewhat bold, but mostly the style is spare and tense – orchestrations held back to a minimum, and some nice accordion lines that step out gingerly to feel the space of the music. Titles include "Objectif GMC", "C'Est L'Aventure", "Helene", "Piege Au Cimetiere", and "Les Morfalous".

2 rare soundtracks by French composer Eric Demarsan – 1978's Attention Les Enfants Regardent and 1983's L'Indiscretion – back-to-back! Attention Les Enfants Regardent kicks off with an ethereal choir overture, and from there rolls out some laidback, but moody tracks that steadily build tension as the soundtrack plays out. Nice use of harpsichord at the beginning and heavier use strings as it goes. Sweet! Titles include "Les Enfants Du Soleil", "Le Serment", "Strip-Tease", "La Mort De L'Ogre", "Le Diner", "Supermarche", "La Recontre" and more. "L'Indiscretion" has some similar attributes, but also cool, pared down fusiony touches – with echoey electric guitar, sultry sax, synth and some rumbling drums and bass grooves in particular. It's also got a nicely alliterative tracklist – including "Indiscretion", "Elimination", "Impulsion", "Premonition", "Interrogation", "Liberation", "Fascination" and more.

A definite killer from the great Gianni Ferrio – one of his grooviest soundtracks ever, and a set that's filled with lots of mod 60s touches! There's a bit of electric sitar, cool bubbling Hammond, and even some jazzy horn parts that make for nice flourishes over the top – all changing up in cool and different ways from track to track – creating the kind of instrumental variety that we love in soundtracks like these! The album features vocals on two tracks – and titles include "Strana Gente", "Mr Ice Cream Again", "Week-End On Ice", "Billy's Ice Cream", "Pedigree", "Semifreddo", "Nuovi Ricchi", and "Fino All'Ultimo Gelato". CD also features 16 more bonus tracks – practically a whole extra album of music!

Fantastic! Easy Tempo scores again with this beautiful rerelease/repackaging of Gianni Ferrio's lost score for the film Una Farfalla Con Le Ali Insanguinate. The music has lots of spare spooky keyboards, with a slow building sound that's similar to Francis Lai's best soundtrack work, and a warm wash of sound that's very similar to some of Morricone's best stuff – like La Donna Invisible. Don't go looking for funky breaks on this one, but if you love cool swirling Euro soundtrack material, this set's an amazing piece of work, and it's been repackaged with the usual sexy Easy Tempo look. God, we love their stuff! Tracks include "Concerto Blues", "Soliloquio", and "Inutile".

Ouch – what a cover! The image is so graphic, it makes the grooves on the record sound tame by comparison! Yet given that the soundtrack's done by Nico Fidenco – well-known for his sexy work of the 70s – there's plenty of great stuff going on here – a mix of Italian and horror modes – all quite fitting, given that the film features a horny zombie! Keyboards are great – and sometimes have these cool moogy touches that glide along nicely – slow-stepping in that slinky, sexy, Euro erotic way that you'd expect from Fidenco. Other modes are slightly spookier, yet usually with an undercurrent of whimsy – to keep in line with the tongue-in-cheek plotline – and the CD reissue features 18 tracks from the film, all remastered nicely!

A trio of groovy soundtracks from Giovanni Fusco! First up is Violenza Segreta – one of those cool early 60s Italian scores that uses a fair bit of jazz, and brings in some other groovy touches too – especially in the way the instruments are recorded, often with some light echo touches that make for some very cool sounds! La Corruzione follows in a slightly similar vein, but has a bit more of a badass vibe too – more horror touches, and a mix of groovy moments with darker sounds – often served up by some sweet electric guitar! Last up is I Sovversivi – a score that has a really vibrant, dynamic sort of approach – often a bit subdued, but still with this range that really stands out – in ways that have the instruments speaking volumes with just a small amount of effort! The package is great – a whopping 27 tracks in all – with great sound, and some rare unreleased tracks too.

2 of our favorite action soundtracks from French maestro Georges Garvarentz – the funky mid 70s Killer Force and the groovy late 60s Corrupt One – in one fantastic set! Killer Force is up first – and it's filled with strident grooves that are right up there with some of the best mid 70s cop/thriller soundtracks! We've never seen the film – which starred O.J. Simpson, Peter Fonda, and Telly Savalas – but with a cast like that, you can guess what the sound is like. You probably know George's work from some of the compilations we've stocked – and this soundtrack's right in keeping with the work on those sets. Tracks include "The Chase", "A Diamond Love", "Forget That Time", "Love Theme", and "Diamond Robbery". The Corrupt Ones is another pulpy gem – featuring a totally cool theme song by Dusty Springfield, with a great mix of funk, easy, and soul! The instrumental tracks range from orchestral/dramatic, to more of a crime jazz style – with some John Barry-like touches, and other more serious numbers. Titles include "Torture Room", "The Gambling Den", "The Bar", "Treasure Cave", "Illusion & Escape", "Man Hunt", "Jasmine's Dance", "The Mortuary", and "Suspense In The Sun". Includes 3 bonus tracks: "Riksha Ride", "Casino Fight" and "Finale".

Marvin Marvin Marvin – just when we thought you couldn't impress us any more, you took it to the next level! Trouble Man is a heck of a wonderful surprise from an artist that most folks really only knew as a singer – a fantastically funky blacksploitation soundtrack, conceived and composed by Marvin himself – and served up with some occasional vocals that work beautifully with the album's cool instrumental grooves! The set's easily one of Gaye's most righteous records ever – almost a second chapter to What's Going On, but more instrumental – and like that classic set, it really shows the whole new range of vision that Marvin was able to work in the studio. Gaye gets a bit of arranging help on some tracks from Gene Page and JJ Johnson – and the album's filled with great cuts – including the landmark "T Plays It Cool", plus other gems like "Don't Mess With Mister T", "Main Theme From Trouble Man", "The Break In", and "T Stands For Trouble". Very funky, very sophisticated, and very soulful!

Marvin Marvin Marvin – just when we thought you couldn't impress us any more, you took it to the next level! Trouble Man is a heck of a wonderful surprise from an artist that most folks really only knew as a singer – a fantastically funky blacksploitation soundtrack, conceived and composed by Marvin himself – and served up with some occasional vocals that work beautifully with the album's cool instrumental grooves! The set's easily one of Gaye's most righteous records ever – almost a second chapter to What's Going On, but more instrumental – and like that classic set, it really shows the whole new range of vision that Marvin was able to work in the studio. Gaye gets a bit of arranging help on some tracks from Gene Page and JJ Johnson – and the album's filled with great cuts – including the landmark "T Plays It Cool", plus other gems like "Don't Mess With Mister T", "Main Theme From Trouble Man", "The Break In", and "T Stands For Trouble". Very funky, very sophisticated, and very soulful!

A very cool sci fi soundtrack from Marcello Giombini – as sexy as the image on the cover might imply, but also pretty darn electric and spacey as well! The album echoes some of Giombini's earlier electronic sound library material – and is often spare, with heavy use of keyboards – in ways that are more like late 60s sci fi scoring than some of the more disco keyboards you'd hear in other space soundtracks from the time! The spareness really works well, and creates an evocative mood on both the mellower tracks and some of the more action-oriented ones – which even get slightly funky at points. CD features 16 tracks from the film – all of them pretty great!

A pretty great record issued in conjunction with the cartoon version of the Harlem Globetrotters – an Archies-like Don Kirshner's co-production in which a studio band is used to provide a groove to the cartoon. A number of cuts on here are in Kirshner's straight late 60s pop mode, but there's also some other ones that get a bit funky – in kind of a Fat Albert kind of way, one that's dated nicely, with some really cool touches! Titles include "House Party", "Gravy", "Cheer Me Up", "Sneaky Pete", "Meadowlark", "Put A Little Meat On Your Bones Lucinda", and "The Globetrotters Theme".

3 rare French jazz soundtracks on one CD! First up is the music from the film Les Loups Dans La Bergerie, written by Serge Gainsbourg, and performed by Serge's arranger Alain Goraguer – in a hip modern mode that recalls some of the best soundtrack work by Barney Wilen, Miles Davis, and Art Blakey from the same period. Next up are 5 tracks from Les Tripes Au Soleil, written and performed by Andre Hodier – with a feel that's similar to that of Gourager's work, but perhaps a bit more modern. Hodier's tunes feature solos by Roger Guerin on trumpet and Pierre Gossez on alto, plus some performances by Christine Legrand. Last up are tracks from the Freddie Redd's score for The Connection – played by the Daniel Humair Soultet, a very cool group that features Humair on drums, Eddy Louiss on piano, Sonny Grey on trumpet, Jean-Louis Chautemps on tenor, and Rene Urtreger doing the arrangements. The work on the set's a wonderful variation on the American recording of the work – done by Redd and Jackie McLean – with a very different kind of energy that opens up the compositions nicely. Titles include "Wigglin", "Overdose", "Danse", "Le Desert", "Rhythm & Blues No 1", "Les Loups Dans La Bergerie", and "Cha Cha Cha Du Loup".

A standout 60s soundtrack from the great Manos Hadjidakis – penned for a heist thriller from director Jules Dassin! The music follows slightly off the Dassin/Hadjidakis pairing on Never On A Sunday – using lots of familiar Greek elements, but moving these into more complicated film score modes as well – particularly on some of the cool mood-setting numbers you'd find in a heist film of this vintage – a surprisingly great setting for some of the more exotic moments in the music. There's plenty of bazuki in the mix, and some nice percussion too – and titles include "Meet Hans", "Istanbul", "Meet Arthur Simpson", "Main Title", "On The Road", and "The Road To Riches".

An amazing collection of music – and essential to any collection of blacksploitation soul and funk, even if you own the original Shaft album on Stax! Disc 1 features the original film score for the Shaft movie, not the record issued by Stax – so although Isaac Hayes handled the music, it's different from what you might have on record – and features a great array of vocal tracks and shorter funky sound cues – all with rhythm by The Bar-Kays and The Movement! Titles on disc 1 include "Bumpy's Theme", "I Can't Get Over Losin You", "Reel 4 Part 6", "Source No 1 6M1C", "Source No 2 7M1A", "Shaft Strikes Again/Return Of Shaft", "Shaft's Pain", "Rescue/Roll Up", "Love Scene Ellie", "Harlem Montage", "Shaft's First Fight", and "Title Shaft". Disc 2 features the killer soundtrack to Shaft's Big Score – written by Gordon Parks, and played with full funky style by Dick Hazard, who's getting a bit of help from the mighty Tom McIntosh. The tracks seem to include everything issued on the original LP, plus a bit more – with titles that include "Symphony For Shafted Souls", "9M3", "Funeral Home", "Don't Misunderstand", "Fight Scene", "Ike's Place", "First Meeting", "Smart Money", and "Blowin Your Mind". That disc and all of disc 3 features music from the Shaft TV series – some really under-exposed music that's totally great too, but almost with more of a crime/cop sort of style – although also with some cool moody moments too. Some of this music was done by Johnny Pate, and titles include work from the episodes The Executioners, The Killing, Hit Run, The Cop Killers, and The Kidnapping. 3CD set also features 2 bonus tracks from a single – "The Men" and "Type Thang".

Herrmann's original score to the film is pretty compelling – almost in the mode of some of his work for Hitchcock – and it's conducted here by Herrmann himself and by Dave Blume. The album's got 2 especially noteworthy tracks – "Diary Of A Taxi Driver", which features a cool monologue by Robert DeNiro, and "Theme From Taxi Driver", which features alto sax work by Tom Scott. Other titles include "Betsy In A White Dress", "Sport & Iris", "The .44 Magnum Is A Monster", and "God's Lonely Man".

A very goofy image on the cover – and some wonderfully goofy music to match! The group's way more than just a rock combo – as they play in styles that draw on jazz, 60s groovy instrumental modes, and even other Euro soundtrack elements of the time – all wrapped up in a sound that's as witty as you might guess from the image on the front. Some tunes have vocals, some are all instrumentals – and although the combo has a core structure of a rock group, they often inflect their instrumentation with lots of weird twists and turns – plus some cool production touches too! One of the best of these is the backward tape used to start off the funky "Leave This Lesbian World" – and other titles include "Don't Know Baby If You Are Safe", "Brooklyn 1146", "Hoppe Hoppe Reiter", "Vienna 69", "Don't You Feel Any Pain", "Sao Paulo Most Exclusive", and "Get Your Kicks On the Hill". Also features a bonus 7" EP – with four more songs from other soundtracks from TV and film!

A great little record that's waiting to be re-discovered! The album quickly tanked as the over-pressed soundtrack to an under-viewed film – but despite years in cutout bins, it's got a fresh quality that we really treasure! About half the album features cool instrumental tunes from Mike Leander – scored in that weird mix of touches that he was using in his "rock to easy" years – and these cuts are interspersed with vocal numbers by Paul Jones, sung in a dramatic style that's a bit Bowie, but with more blue eyed soul. Titles include "Free Me", "It's Overotherness Time", "I'm Alright Jackboot", "I've Been A Bad Bad Boy", and "Stephen".

One of the most unique Afro jazzy soundtrack you could ever hope to hear – African drummer, keyboard player and composer Remi Kabaka's soundtrack to Black Goddess! The film is from Nigerian director Ola Balogun, but was actually cast and shot in Brazil – and this soundtrack is really amazing and covers a whole lot of territory! The opening track is heavy with this fuzzed out bit of keyboards that's almost a precursor to 80s computer grooves – mixed with some laid back electric guitar and sax, it's a strange, really cool vibe that's totally unlike most Nigerian recordings we can think of. As the tracks roll on, though, the sax and percussion get more play and the sound as a whole more dexterously Afro jazzy and funky. Recorded in Lagos, it features Dele Okonkwo on tenor and soprano sax and BD Wright on keys and bass – both contribute additional percussion - plus Joni Haastrup on guitar and keyboard. Includes "Brothers And Sisters", "The Quest", "Slave March", "Black Goddess", "The Quest (Piano Solo)" and "The Warrior".

An amazing little soundtrack – one that's as spooky and eerie as the film for which it was written, and which was also one of the few American recordings issued by Polish jazz great Krzysztof Komeda! The core of the album is an especially haunting theme – one hummed as a lullaby by Mia Farrow on the title, and which is repeated often throughout – a dreamy little number that had a surprising life long beyond the film and this album, in a number of different versions on the market. We still like the original best – and especially appreciate Komeda's blend of soft jazz, odd electronics, and some darker atonal passages – all of which combine here to make the record a masterpiece throughout – on a level that easily matches the best from Morricone at the time! Titles include "Panic", "What Have You Done To Its Eyes", "Dream", "Expectancy", "Lullaby", "The Coven", and "Main Title". This expanded version is incredible – with 24 more bonus tracks (!!!!!), including the full film score on top of the original album – with lots of cool "ritual" tracks – and the source music, and even some tracks from the 45 of the main theme! Great sound, amazing booklet – and the best-ever CD reissue!

A rare document of a short-lived slice of the King Kong myth – a Saturday morning cartoon in which Kong was the friend of some little kids in the jungle, and a much less threatening force than when climbing the Empire State Building! The soundtrack offers capsulized episodes of the show – with music by Jules Bass & Maury Laws, plus narrated adventures by Bob McFadden, voices from the show, and even a bit of sound effects! Adventures include "Under The Volcano", "Dr Who", "The Treasure Trap", and "The African Bees" – as well as nice versions of the cool theme song!

2 killers from the legendary Galt MacDermot – composer, jazz musician, and hero to beatheads and samplers everywhere! First up is Shapes Of Rhythm – a weird off-kilter batch of jazzy instrumentals, with Galt playing acoustic and electric piano – and with backing by a tight little combo that includes Pretty Purdie on drums, Snag Napoleon Allan on guitar, and Jimmy Lewis on bass. Lewis' bass is especially nice, and he lays out some very phat lines next to Galt's groovy piano solos. The record's not an all-out funk classic, but it's got some wonderfully warm rolling riffs in the typical Galt MacDermot style. Titles include "Coffee Cold", which was sampled by Prince Paul, "The Mouse Roared", "Mbabam", "Marsh Gas", "Alive In Dar Es Salaam", and "Spanish Night". Woman Is Sweeter is an excellent funky soundtrack – and features the totally cool sample for Buster Rhymes' big single last year, laid out in the track "Space". Lots of other cool spare funky tunes abound, and the set is a great record all the way through, with loads of weird flatly funky tunes and offbeat rhythms. Titles include "Tango", "Woman Is Sweeter", "Perfume Bottles", "Merry Go Round", "Princess Gika", and "Bathtub". CD also includes a bonus version of "Coffee Cold"!

Reissue pressing of this great Galt MacDermot soundtrack, featuring the totally cool sample for Busta Rhymes' big single last year, laid out in the track "Space". Lots of other cool spare funky ones, and a great record all the way through. Tight grooves, spare electric keyboards with a flat "Wu Tang" sound, and lots of choppy funky sounds. A must for sample heads and fans of off-kilter funky grooves alike! At one time, we had this for a very high price, but we managed to score a whole bunch at a new low cost. Another Dusty Groove price breakthrough!!!

A groovy little jazz mass – written by Galt MacDermot in collaboration with lyricist William Dumaresq – and done in a post-Hair style that's got plenty of subtle funky touches underneath the vocals! The work follows in the mode of similar albums from the time by David Axelrod, Howard Roberts, and even MacDermot – with a mass-like structure, but lyrics that are clearly contemporary – and music that's got plenty of nice bass at the bottom, and some nice Hair-like rhythms rolling through the mix. Vocalists include Salome Bey, Nel Carter, and the Howard Roberts Chorus – and from what we can tell, Bernard Purdie's helping out on drums!

A pretty great follow-up to the original Hair soundtrack – featuring tracks that were outtakes from the musical, presented here with notes, a cool gatefold package, and backings conducted by Galt MacDermot himself! The tracks are all pretty great – lots of them short and really messed up, a lot more down and dirty than the tracks that did make the musical, with subject matter that's a lot raunchier too. Not really that funky, but with plenty of nice moments – and vocalists that include Melba Moore and George Tipton. Titles include "Hello There", "I'm Hung", "Climax", "Washing The World", "Manhattan Beggar", "Exanaplanatooch", "One Thousand Year Old Man", "Dead End", "Mess O'Dirt", and "The Bed".

One of the more laidback western soundtracks we've ever heard – and we mean that in a great way! Franco Micalizzi seems to work here in a way that's more focused on the overall music than the genre of the film – and turns in some really beautiful slow-stepping numbers – some with a bit of fuzz, some a bit of acoustic guitar – often in a warmer style than the usual western score, with a lyricism that's really striking on some of the tracks! Instrumentation includes some cool distorted old piano, a bit of flute, and fuzzy keyboards – and the set includes the vocal number "When Spring Is In The Air" – and 12 more instrumental numbers.

A cool change from the usual from Ennio Morricone – a later soundtrack, and one that features some surprisingly jazzy tracks! Part of the set features the more standard Morricone orchestrations you might expect – some really great tracks that have offbeat larger arrangements that are nicely unsettling, but in a completely charming way. But other tracks are even more striking – and feature performances by the trio of pianist Enrico Pierannunzi – working here at his most fluid and vibrant, with a style that's even more evocative than most of his standard albums! A few numbers have a groove we've never heard from Enrico, and some of the orchestral tracks are mighty groovy too – very different than what you might expect from the 1980 date of the film. Titles include "Cinque Quarti", "Double Face", "Citta Viva", "Madre Assente", "Stranamente Un Giorno", and "Per Enrico Riccardo E Roberto". CD also features 8 bonus tracks too!

A great Morricone soundtrack for a Jean-Paul Belmondo thriller – a score that starts out spare and brooding, then builds nicely as things move on – with lots of cool bottom-end sounds that make the whole thing really move up from the depths! Some tunes echo the sweeter side of Morricone, while others are a bit more brooding – and instrumentation includes some of the same offbeat piano you'd hear in The Burglars, plus light guitar, weird-tuned horns, and other nice bits that are sometimes abstracted beyond recognition! Titles include "Paura Sulla Citta", "Avvertire La Polizia", "La Scorta", "Le Tellier E Helen", and "Maichini". A tremendous package – with 22 tracks in all, and almost 75 minutes of music!

One of the coolest collections of work by Ennio Morricone we've ever seen – a whopping 25 tracks pulled from some of his lesser-known soundtracks, all awash in inventive arrangements, odd instrumentation, and super-trippy production touches! The overall vibe here is slow, mellow, and spacious – but that doesn't mean that the work is sleepy at all – because as with Morricone at his creative best, there's a genius sense of understatement here – so much so that a simple note on an oboe, or a piano key pressed, can come off with a striking sound that simply leaves us breathless! CD features work from the soundtracks to Bluebeard (Barbablu), Burn, Crescente E Moltiplicatevi, La Cosa Buffa, Maddalena, and a few others of the Cinevox catalog – and titles include "Knowing The Ins & Outs", "Ballabile No 4",j "Samba In Tribunale", "Organo Allegro", "Zherzi A Parte", "Quemada Secondo", "Preludio Alla Prima Moglie", "Qui Ci Scappa Il Morto", "L'Aliante", and "Pazzia In Cielo".

Some of our favorite soundtracks by Ennio Morricone – 8 different scores originally issued by the Cinevox label – packaged here as a cool little set of CDs that come in LP-styled covers! The set only features 4 CDs, but each disc features two different film scores – an archetypal range of Morricone modes – with some sweet bossa groovers, some very weird atonal horror moments, and some beautiful action work that balances the two beautifully – creating the sort of tension that made Morricone greater than just about any other film composer at the time! Original album art for each record is offered on one side of the CD sleeve – and the set features the albums Metti Una Sera A Cena, Forza G, L'Assoluto Naturale, Anche Se Volessi Lavorare Che Faccio, L'Uccello Dalle Piume Di Cristallo, Quattro Mosche Di Velutto Grigio, Il Gatto, and Il Giocattolo – plus a booklet of notes too!

A very dark little score by Ennio Morricone – written for an obscure 1969 period film that starred Marlon Brando (and a very disheveled Brando at that!) – filled with cool tunes that mix the Morricone western mode with some haunting elements that almost have a spiritual approach! Many numbers have these moody, airy notes floating through – on organ on some of the best cuts – and even the overall orchestrations tend to hang in the air, but with a lightness that's often different than the usual drama you'd find in such a score. CD features 31 tracks in all – with some vocals by I Cantori Moderni – on titles that include "Qaueimada", "Abolicao", "Jose Dolores", "Verso Il Futuro", and "Preparazione".

Quite different than the usual soundtrack reissue of work from Ennio Morricone – in that the album actually features two long compositions – each from a different movie! The set begins with the beautiful "Requiem Per Un Destino" – a large suite for orchestra and chorus penned for the 1966 film Un Uomo A Meta – and done in a way that's very slow-building and dramatic – sounds that start out on the edges of darkness, then only increase their tension as the music moves on! Next is "Venuta Dal Mare", from the film Ecce Homo I Sopravvissuti – a really cool work for a small combo that features vibes, flute, harp, and percussion – plus wonderfully moody vocals from Edda Ell'Orso! Each track is quite long – and together, they offer up even more moving Morricone music than usual.

Think that Ennio Morricone only made music for soundtracks? Guess again – because this groovy little set features a whole host of tracks that the maestro recorded with singers in the early 60s – great postwar pop numbers that already show his creative touch on the charts! Most of the music here is a bit more straightforward than Morricone's later soundtrack material, but still pretty darn sublime – Italian vocals, cool instrumentation, and lots of sweet production techniques that bring in moody, echoey, and mellow touches that definitely let you know you're in the hands of Ennio. Titles include "Corri Corri" by Gianni Morandi, "La Tua Stagione" by Tony Del Mnaco, "Queelo Che Conta" by La Cuccagna, "Faccio Finta Di Dormire" by Edoardo Vianello, "Se Fatto Tardi" by Helen Merrill, "La Donna Che Vale" by Alberto Lionello, "Arianna" by Nora Orlandi, and "Perdono" by Catherine Spaak.

We don't normally dig spaghetti western soundtrack scores – but this one's pretty darn groovy! The main theme "Trinity" starts off with some cool vocal backing by Alessandro Alessandroni's I Cantori Moderni, singing underneath the English-language lead vocal – and the group also make an appearance on the film's reprise of this song at the end of the movie. Other tracks mix together guitar, organ, whistling, and some other cool sonic elements that give the soundtrack a cool late 60s feel that reminds us more of some lost French gem than an Italian thriller! Titles include "Lazy Cowboy", "Un Cowboy e Due Ragazze", "Di Fronte Ai Killers", "Trinity: Con La Stella Di Viceseriffo", and "C'e Un Tempo Per Vincere". New CD version features an additional 9 bonus tracks – plus 7 more tracks from a rejected score for the film too!