A warm and sexy score from Stelvio Cipriani – penned with a beautiful blend of woodwinds, keyboards, and sweet bossa-styled grooves! There's a bit more fullness here than in some of Cipriani's more erotic work, and a bit more groove too – although most of the music moves at a wonderfully mellow pace, and just steps around with lots of great jazzy inflections – even though the music itself isn't really jazz! The blend of softness and fullness is wonderful – and the whole thing's easily one of the more captivating scores from Cipriani during these very vital years. CD features 23 tracks from the film – plus notes in English and Italian too! CD

One of the moddest soundtracks of the 60s Italian scene – a great blend of jazzy riffing, bassy bouncing, and some occasional cool vocal touches – all put together in a way that features lots of short tunes all grooving around one another! The approach often has the music coming out in short snapshots – little tracks that change mood quickly, but all often feature some odd variation on the main theme – slightly redone instrumentally, sometimes giving way to sparer percussion or vibes – while at other times picking up the pace to hit a far groovier mode! The work was composed and conducted mostly by Francesco DeMasi, but Alessandro Alessandroni helped out on the famous "Tema Di Londra" – and also conducted I Cantori Moderni on a number of tracks! 28 titles in all – including "Tema Di Londra", "Double Gaming", "Goldsmith", "Pianochain", "Madrid Theme", "Mister Owen's Suit", "Chasing The Spy", "Get An End", "The Game Is Going To", and "Il Mondo Va Cosi". CD

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! CD

A fantastic soundtrack that's maybe even more legendary than the unusual animated film for which it was created – a funky French classic that stands strong in the best tradition of work by Serge Gainsbourg, Jean-Claude Vannier, and Michel Colombier! No surprise, Alain Goraguer is part of the same generation, and did some great early jazzy backings for Serge – but here, his style is much funkier, with lots of sweet keyboard lines, wah wah guitar, and soaring larger orchestrations that really put the whole thing together – clearly one of Alain's best musical moments – and filled with great tunes that include "Le Bracelet", "Deshominisation", "Mort De Draag", "La Femme", "Mira Et Ten", and "Ten Et Medor". Plus, this great reissue is mixed from the original tapes – and features 10 more bonus tracks – all appearing here for the first time ever! CD

Two very playful soundtracks – both composed by Lallo Gori, who we mostly know for more serious action work! Scusi Ma Le Paga Le Tasse is from the start of the 70s, and begins with a vocal number from Franco Fanchi, but soon moves into much groovier territory with a blend of funky jazz and dreamier moments of the sort that you might be likely to hear from some of the bigger Italian composers of the period. There's occasional light piano, ala Stelvio Cipriani – and even an appearance from the Nora Orlandi singers over the course of the 17 tracks from the film. Come Rubammo La Bomba Atomica is from 1967, and the music has some slight currents of spy spoof scores of the period – that nice comedic/dramatic mix of jazz and dynamic pacing, blended with a few exotic elements too. The set features two vocal numbers sung by Elsa, and the rest of the 12 tracks from the film are instrumental. CD

French composer Michel Magne is perhaps best remembered for his soundtrack work of the 60s – but this well-done collection digs farther back, and brings together not only some earlier film score work from the postwar years, but also some extra cool instrumental projects too! Magne's always got a special sort of twist in his music – and he was maybe one of the first French arrangers to incorporate newer ideas in pop and rock to his music, at a level that opened the door for later artists like Jean Claude Vannier or Michel Colombier – and like contemporary Alan Goraguer, he's also got some strong backing in jazz as well! Those many streams of styles really come into play here – in a big 3CD package that features 88 tracks in all – including the soundtracks to the films Le Repos Du Guerrier, Le Pain Vivant, Detournement De Mineures, Le Pique Assiette, and Un Singe En Hiver – plus work from a Musique Pour Films album, the records Musique Tachist, Paris, and A L'Alhambra – and even a rare collaboration with author Francoise Sagan! CD

Two very different films, both of which receive some mighty nice scoring from the lesser-known Italian maestro Franco Piersanti! First up is Il Nudo Del Ragno – a creepy film, as you might guess from the cover – but one that's scored by Piersanti with a surprising degree of sensitivity, and some very rich orchestrations that are very different than the stark, more electric modes being used in so much of 80s horror! There's some really beautiful woodwinds in the music, and some darker strings that echo 70s atonality from Morricone – on titles that include "Labirinto", "Omicidio", "Radio Jazz", "Budapest", and "Illusioni Ottiche". Next is Una Prova D'Innocenza, a film of a more serious nature, and which gets equally beautiful handling – with a blend of strings that can get very dark at times, almost with the richness of some of Morricone's global scores of the period – inflected with just the right dose of woodwinds too, matched by the occasional echoey piano line. CD features 15 tracks from the score – a real under-discovered beauty! CD

An amazing little soundtrack that's every bit as groovy as its cover – a great blend of 60s mod and Italian jazz, all in support of the skeleton-costumed master thief Kriminal! This CD represents the first full length presentation of the film's soundtrack – a long-overdue masterpiece that steps off the jazzier modes used in Italian films of the early 60s, touched by some of the more dynamic production and arrangement styles that were creeping in later in the decade – all served up over short, sweet tracks that dance with delight and drama throughout! There's even a bit of the British and American spy modes of the time creeping into the mix – no doubt a way of highlighting the "international crime" reputation of lead character Kriminal. CD features a total of 29 tracks in all, with notes in both English and Italian! CD

An incredibly untapped world of cinematic jazz – pulled from an array of Spanish films of the late 50s and early 60s – most of which have soundtracks as dynamic as work coming from France or Italy at the time! A good portion of the tracks here are scored by Jose Sola – who seems to draw inspiration from some of the west coast jazz soundtracks of the 50s – work by Elmer Bernstein, Shorty Rogers, Leith Stevens, and others – blending standout soloists with fuller backings, but in a way that matches the stark energy of the images on the screen! The CD's an unusual one in that many of the tunes are quite long – upwards of 10 minutes, and very different than the shorter snippets of jazz you might get on other soundtrack efforts from the same generation – and some numbers keep in bits of the dialogue, presenting the music with sound that's more "cinematic" than straight studio recording. Solo instruments include a fair bit of trumpet and alto sax – and the package comes with a great booklet with notes in English and Spanish, plus images from the films. Titles include "Un Vaso De Whisky", "A Sangre Fria", "Altas Variedades", "Los Cuervos", "Regresa Un Desconocido", and "El Salario Del Crimen" by Jose Sola; plus "091 Policia Al Habla" by Augusto Alguero, "Juventud A La Intemperie" by Enrique Escobar, and "A Tiro Limpo" by Federico Martinez Tudo. CD

Totally wonderful spy soundtrack work from Piero Umiliani – done in his best groovy style of the 60s, with a brilliant mix of jazz and mod elements throughout! Umiliani's extrapolating from the more famous spy sounds of Bond and Barry, and takes things very strongly into his own territory with a blend of light woodwinds, moody Hammond, snapping snare, and a bit of strings as well – interwoven with a really fresh feel that includes a bit of the bossa styles you'd hear in other Italian work of the time! Given the obscurity of the film, the soundtrack's a great discovery – and steps out boldly here on this set of 21 tracks from the movie. CD

A really cool spy soundtrack from the Italian 60s scene – put together by Piero Umiliani with lots of jazzy touches! The music here is a nice change from the more obvious, more familiar American spy modes of the time – and often uses some cool vibes mixed with horns, to create this blend of tension and action that flows together wonderfully! The tunes are really evocative – almost little mini-movies on their own, even without the film – and there's a core theme that's very catchy – never dominating the soundtrack, but showing up in little bursts to tie the whole thing together. 20 tracks in all, great sound, and the package includes a little fold-out movie poster! CD

A very cool take on the sound of Studio One – a package of late 60s themes from James Bond films and other soundtrack sources! The mix is maybe not that surprising, given the use of Jamaican music early on in the series – as part of the Dr No soundtrack – and maybe that global moment of understanding helped the groups back home in Kingston to reach for the skies with material like this! The whole thing is a fascinating document of two strands of Brit culture in these post-colonial years – with titles that include "James Bond Danger Man" by The Soul Brothers, "Pussy Galore" by Lee Perry & The Wailers, "Mr Flint" by The Soul Brothers, "Mr Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" by The Soul Brothers, "Hang Em High" by Jackie Mittoo, "From Russia With Love" by Roland Alphonso & The Studio One Orchestra, "Ball Of Fire" by The Skatalites, and "James Bond Girl" by The Soul Brothers. (Reggae, Soundtracks) CD