... LP, Vinyl record album

A heavily percussive set from the Polish scene at the end of the 60s – music that appears here for the first time as a commercial release, and which has a mix of drums and different instruments that would have been right at home as a late 50s Living Stereo album from RCA! The music has a very dynamic range – with a mix of percussive sources at the bottom, used in ways that move between Latin and exotica – topped with flute on a number of tracks, in a way that furthers the sonic space of the tracks with some wonderful woodwind action! The whole thing's mighty nice – jazzy at times, more bachelor pad at others – with titles that include "Bank Bank", "Namiastka", "Samba Karnawalowa", "Ostryga Pustyni", "Nadszedl Czas", and "Taniec Grzebienia". CD

America's never sounded better than in the hands of Italian sound library talent Daniela Casa – who does a great job here of serving up all these cool tracks that would have been right at home in a film set during the 70s! The music is a mix of themes that evoke different slices of the American experience – almost all of them with keyboards, and most with a nice current of funk as well – plenty of action elements that resonate nicely with the best Italian soundtracks of the crime/cop variety from the same stretch in time! Titles include "Icarus", "Big Sur", "Spiralys", "Beta Lady", "NYC 42nd", "Fix", "Third World Tango", "Puertorico Slum", "Soft Bird", and "Kentucky Fried Chicken". CD

A slightly different set than some of the others in this mighty nice series – in that this entry's got a vocalist – singer Lauren Santi, who brings some very soulful, wordless moments to the album! Mario Luciano handles a great range of keyboards, and the tunes have a lean, laidback vibe that's really great – like the mellower moments on the Shaft soundtrack, or those cool cuts from a blacksploitation soundtrack when the hero's either finding love, or back home licking his wounds after a fight! Titles include "Cosmic Portals", "The Yellow Field", "Donte's French", "Excursion", "Solar Journey", "Blue Miles", "When It's Real", and "Inner Search". LP, Vinyl record album

That's a pretty dramatic image on the cover, and Brit maestro Alan Tew follows it up with just the right sort of tunes you might expect – many of which are thematic tracks titled "The Detectives", and which would be right at home in some kind of cool 70s cop/crime TV show! As with the best cop show themes of the time, the album mixes funky rhythms with sweet keyboards and all sorts of jazzy instrumentation – keeping things very much in the territory of American work for famous television shows of the time, but also adding in some of the best Brit sound library funk styles too. There's some great moogy bits on the record, mixed in with the funk – and the set features a whopping 28 tracks in all – lots of "The Detectives" variations, plus "Snout", "The Build Up", "Bust Up", "Burn", "Headlights", and "The Big One". LP, Vinyl record album