An excellent 70s Italian film score – penned for a political thriller, but handled with a fair bit of sweet and lovely themes! The album's one of the best we've ever heard from Francesco De Masi, and it nicely mixes his usual strong talents for action with a bit more warmth that befits the sexier side of the Italian cinematic spectrum. Sweet strings glide in alongside tighter electric basslines on some tracks – and others feature evocative woodwind bits, haunting piano, and a few more dramatic orchestrations – all wrapped up with really lovely sound throughout, and reissued here in a wonderful new package that really fits the music! There's a few vocal tracks – "Tomorrow Is A Foreign Land" and "Time On My Hands" – sung in English by Melody – and other titles include "The Story Of A Dream", "Running Against The Time", "Cape Town Harbour", "Soldiers Aboard", "Red Clouds", "Ending A Dream", "Suspect & Love", and "You'll Kill Her". LP, Vinyl record album

A totally cool little compilation – kind of the sonic equivalent of a night at the drive-in movies! The package digs through some really raunchy exploitation rock of the 60s – gritty garage tracks, freaky exotic numbers, and other rough-edged gems – then mixes the music with rare horror film trailers and movie dialogue from the time – creating a combination that's totally out of this world! There's a creepy feel to the whole thing – an edgey sensibility that goes way beyond the novelty mode you might expect – and which really gets at the eerie undercurrent that lingered in the farther reaches of film production during these glory days. The collection was first cooked up two decades ago, but it's just as powerful today – a must for any fan of the Norton, Kicks, Svengoolie, or Roctober side of the spectrum! Titles include "Shook Out Of Shape" by Carol Kay & The Stone Tones, "You Is A Rat Pfink" by Ron Haydock & The Boppers, "Twist Fever" by Arch Hall & The Archers, "The Lemon Grove Kids" by Don Snyder & Pee Wee Flyn, "The Bird's The Word" by Rocky Roberts & The Airedales, "She Devils Instrumental" by R Lewis Band, and lots more great stuff – including trailers from Girls From SIN, Maniacs Are Loose, Thrill Killers, Strange Rampage, Hypnovista, and lots more weird movies! (Rock, Soundtracks) CD

The great John Barry as a young man – stepping out here on songs that are a lot more rocking than his later fame as a soundtrack composer – served up in a massive 3CD box that collects together singles for Parlophone and Columbia, plus some early rock songs from films! The style here is quite different than the Barry of the James Bond years – as the Parlophone tracks include a number of vocal singles that are clearly trying to challenge the US rock hits of the time, mixed with more instrumentals by the John Barry Seven – and the Columbia years follow with more of the instrumental vibe, often using cool production to bring the most out of the twangy guitars or bright trumpet lines. The set concludes with a CD that features the Beat Girl soundtrack and the Stringbeat instrumental album – both a strong extension of the Columbia years – and the package features 92 tracks in all – with a big booklet of notes – titles that include "Get Lost Jack frost", "Big Fella", "Beat For Beatniks", "Hit & Miss", "Zip Zip", "Little John", "Hideaway", "Farrago", "Big Guitar", "Tit Willow Twist", "Watch Your Step", "The Menace", "Blondie's Strip", "The Challenge", "Moody River", "A Handful Of Songs", "Zapata", and lots lots more. CD

An excellent collection of work from the great John Barry – one that focuses on his famous contributions for the James Bond films – but also includes other soundtrack and instrumental material as well! The set begins with the John Barry Plays 007 record – a brilliant album that not only features some instrumental soundtrack themes, but also includes some great mod Barry instrumentals from the 60s – kind of a nice link to his sophisticated film music, and some of his smaller combo work! Titles include "Kinky", "Fancy Dance", "007", "From Russia With Love", "Big Shield", "Aliki", "Monkey Feathers", and "The London Theme". Next are two tracks from Elizabeth Taylor In London – "Lovers & Browning", with a recitation by Taylor – plus the jazzy instrumental "The London Waltz". Next are two tracks from Zulu – a colonial period film that starred Michael Caine – followed by 15 more groovy instrumentals that include "Tit Willow Twist", "Hit & Miss", "Easy Beat", "Beat Girl", "The Lolly Theme", "Spinnerree", "Roman Spring Of Mrs Stone", "The Sun's Hooray", and "Saturday's Child". CD

A very unusual soundtrack from the Italian team of Guido & Maurizio De Angelis – best known for their crime work of the 70s, but here working on the music for an "unofficial" sequel to the Alien film, done as a low-budget production overseas! In this movie, the Alien has come to earth – and the sounds are very different from what you might hear in space – an unusual mix of electronics and acoustic guitar, the latter of which is clearly used to give the music a sense of place – with echoes, maybe, of some of the earlier western modes the brothers might have done. The best tracks are the ones that achieve a great balance between the electronics and guitar – which comes off with a very unique vibe. CD features two vocal tracks song by Maurizio De Angelis – "Ballad" and "Big Star" – plus some other bonus tracks too. CD

A nice little shark-themed soundtrack, but one that comes across with a vibe that's quite different than any of the music used for Jaws – partly because there's a number of vocal tunes in the mix! The set features three standout songs – "Hollywood Big Time" and "You've Changed The World For Me", sung by Yvonne Wilkins – and "Ballad", which is sung by composer Maurizio De Angelis himself – which are then mixed with instrumental numbers that are electric and keyboard-heavy, maybe more in line with Italian slasher/horror work of the period than you might expect! The colder electronics must have given the watery scenes a really great vibe on the screen – and the package features great sound throughout, and a mighty nice graphic appeal. LP, Vinyl record album

A nice little shark-themed soundtrack, but one that comes across with a vibe that's quite different than any of the music used for Jaws – partly because there's a number of vocal tunes in the mix! The set features three standout songs – "Hollywood Big Time" and "You've Changed The World For Me", sung by Yvonne Wilkins – and "Ballad", which is sung by composer Maurizio De Angelis himself – which are then mixed with instrumental numbers that are electric and keyboard-heavy, maybe more in line with Italian slasher/horror work of the period than you might expect! The colder electronics must have given the watery scenes a really great vibe on the screen – and the package features great sound throughout, and a mighty nice graphic appeal. CD features 29 tracks in all – 13 more than the LP version. CD

One of the more obscure Ennio Morricone soundtracks of the 80s – done for an erotic Italian film at the same time he was rising to greater fame for big budget scores in Hollywood! Yet despite the less arty setting of the music here, Morricone is completely at the top of his game – not resorting to electronic shortcuts, as so many of his contemporaries were doing, especially on sexy films and comedies – and instead rolling out a full set of orchestrations that include some amazing woodwind and string passages, sometimes with a rich dramatic vibe, other times with the leaner Morricone modes of the 70s. Titles include "Mini Can Can Grottesco", "Da Vienna A Vienna", "Malessere", "Lei Bensata Da Lui", "Funebre E Pomposo", and "Quattro Frammenti Per Orchestra Da Camera". CD

An overlooked score from a time when Riz Ortolani was really making big waves on the international soundtrack scene – doing music both for films in his homeland and overseas – which may be why this gem of a record never issued at the time! The CAM label only put two tracks out as a 45rpm single, which makes the other 17 here a new discovery for the listener – a great suite of sounds that offers plenty of warm, wonderful variations on the theme – a number that has a slight current of sadness and sentiment, but never too much – and which is balanced out by a few cuts that groove in more of a mod 60s-styled way. CD features 19 tracks in all – handled with the usual care we love from Beat Records! CD

The sharp Bomb Squad-spearhead soundtrack to Juice – standing the test of time very well over the years, thanks to the genuine dopeness of prime early 90s tracks by Cypress Hill, Brand New Heavies, Eric B & Rakim, EPMD and more! Some of the nicest includes Naughty By Nature's "Uptown Anthem", Eric B & Rakim's "Juice – Know The Ledge", Too Short's "So You Wanna Be A Gangsta", Son Of Bazerk's "What Could Be Better" and Big Daddy Kane delivering his long lost fast rhyme style while riding a very hyped Bomb Squad beat on "Nuff Respect". (Hip Hop, Soundtracks) CD

Easily one of the funkiest albums that James Brown ever recorded – and one of his few entries into the blacksploitation genre of the 70s! James really outdid himself for this one – working at a hard burning pace that had the JBs cooking up some killer funk for just about every number in the set – and which also has James himself stepping out vocally for a few key tracks. The album features the massive groover "People Get Up and Drive Your Funky Soul" – a slamming track that beats nearly every number in the JB 70s catalog – plus other cuts that include "To My Brother", "Brother Rapp", "Sexy Sexy Sexy", "Slaughter Theme", "Transmogrification", "King Slaughter", and "How Long Can I Keep It Up". (Soul, Soundtracks) CD

Easily one of the funkiest albums that James Brown ever recorded – and one of his few entries into the blacksploitation genre of the 70s! James really outdid himself for this one – working at a hard burning pace that had the JBs cooking up some killer funk for just about every number in the set – and which also has James himself stepping out vocally for a few key tracks. The album features the massive groover "People Get Up and Drive Your Funky Soul" – a slamming track that beats nearly every number in the JB 70s catalog – plus other cuts that include "To My Brother", "Brother Rapp", "Sexy Sexy Sexy", "Slaughter Theme", "Transmogrification", "King Slaughter", and "How Long Can I Keep It Up". (Soul, Soundtracks) CD

The continuing lost legacy of Patrick Cowley – the San Francisco 80s club maestro who made some famous records with Sylvester – but who also did a huge amount of underground sounds for porno films at the time! This set digs deep into that legacy – by featuring music that Cowley did for the 1982 film Afternooners, as well as a few other tracks from the time – material that's a great 80s extrapolation of the sorts of slinky funk you'd know from 70s porn! The sounds here are heavy on beats and keyboards – a much more slowed-down take on territory that Cowley explored on his club singles of the period – and the basslines are plenty heavy, and very seductive – as you might imagine, given the images they were used with on the screen. We should tell you that the package does include a few nude images inside – so be warned if you're offended by that sort of thing. Titles include "Love Come Set Me Free", "Big Shot", "Surfside Sex", "Hot Beach", "The Runner", "One Hot Afternoon", "Leather Bound", and "Bore & Stroke". CD

A biker soundtrack to end all biker soundtracks – one that shares plenty of elements with better-known entries in the genre, but which also has some really wild and offbeat moments! As with most of the short-lived motorcycle soundtrack era, the vibe here is much more rock than other film scores of the time – written and performed by Don Gere, with a variety of styles that echo some of the fake groups that were often thrown together for bigger biker films – but sometimes with looser, weirder elements that really deliver the kind of sounds that we always expected on other biker soundtracks, but which were instead buried under piles of b and c-grade psych. Instead, Don really serves up the goods here – especially on some of the more fuzzy Satanic ritual tracks, which also have some great sound effects – and which then have you embracing some of the straighter rock tracks, almost as a relief. Titles include "Werewolves On Wheels (Main Theme)", "Mount Shasta Home", "Ritual", "Ritual 2", "The Devil's Advocates", "One Foot In Heaven", "Burning Grass", "Tarot", "Tarot Trail", "Dust Bowl", "Ritual 3", and "Werewolves On Wheels (End Theme)". LP, Vinyl record album

A demonic possession soundtrack, and one that's put together with just the right sort of sounds – music that's so creepy and eerie, we keep looking over our shoulders when we're giving it a listen – and which hardly sounds like any other similar soundtracks from the time! Marcello Giombini didn't try to copy some of the bigger satanic possession films of the period – and instead just revels in his own unique combination of instruments – which sometimes includes keyboard passages acting larger orchestrations, which have this weird way of refracting the real so that things really sound unusual and offbeat. There's a bit of wordless vocals from I Cantori Moderni, and a few darker electronic moments – although this isn't really an electronic score overall – and titles include "Tema Ossessa", "Tema Agitato", "Suspence Diabolica", "Esorcismo Ex Abea", "Tema Drammatico", and "Messa Nera". CD

Wonderfully groovy stuff – and one of the best soundtracks ever by the great Italian composer Armando Trovajoli! The record has a very similar feel to his legendary Seven Golden Men soundtrack – with a groovy swinging jazz vocal group (I Cantori Moderni) over jazzy riffing and groovin – on upbeat tunes that are very cool, with a mod 60s style throughout! The whole thing swings mightily – and kind of feels like what might have happened if the Swingle Singers ever recorded with Lalo Schifrin – his best jazz-infused instrumentation, and their wonderfully dynamic vocal approach. Titles include "The Getaway", "Seven Times Blues", "The Big Brain", "Jail", and "Seven Times Seven". LP, Vinyl record album