Probably the greatest album ever by the Art Ensemble of Chicago – and also one of their rarest! The album was cut for Pathe Marconi in Paris in 1970, and was the soundtrack to a film that was as obscure as the album. The group's never been finer – and plays with a creative tightness that you'll be hard pressed to find on other records. Some tracks are almost straight jazz – but there's all these wonderful little breakdowns and burst of creative energy that keep the AACM spirit alive and true. The centerpiece of the album is the massive "Theme De Yoyo", a righteous powerful groover that features vocals by Fontella Bass (wife of Lester Bowie of the group), and which has become an all-time jazz dance classic! Other tracks have a sparer soundtracky feel, and a few more are in the experimental vein of the Art Ensemble's other Paris work at the time. Wonderful overall though – and an incredibly righteous album filled with power and imagination! Titles include "Theme De Celine", "Proverbes", "Theme Libra", and "Variations Sur Un Theme De Monteverdi". (Jazz, Soundtracks) CD

Probably the greatest album ever by the Art Ensemble of Chicago – and also one of their rarest! The album was cut for Pathe Marconi in Paris in 1970, and was the soundtrack to a film that was as obscure as the album. The group's never been finer – and plays with a creative tightness that you'll be hard pressed to find on other records. Some tracks are almost straight jazz – but there's all these wonderful little breakdowns and burst of creative energy that keep the AACM spirit alive and true. The lead track of the album is the massive "Theme De Yoyo", a righteous powerful groover that features vocals by Fontella Bass (wife of Lester Bowie of the group), and which has become an all-time jazz dance classic! Other tracks have a sparer soundtracky feel, and a few more are in the experimental vein of the Art Ensemble's other Paris work at the time. Wonderful overall though – and an incredibly righteous album filled with power and imagination! Titles include "Theme De Celine", "Proverbes", "Theme Libre", and "Variations Sur Un Theme De Monteverdi". (Jazz, Soundtracks) CD

Probably the greatest album ever by the Art Ensemble of Chicago – and also one of their rarest! The album was cut for Pathe Marconi in Paris in 1970, and was the soundtrack to a film that was as obscure as the album. The group's never been finer – and plays with a creative tightness that you'll be hard pressed to find on other record. Some tracks are almost straight jazz – but there's all these wonderful little breakdowns and burst of creative energy that keep the AACM spirit alive and true. The centerpiece of the album is the massive "Theme De Yoyo", a righteous powerful groover that features vocals by Fontella Bass (wife of Lester Bowie of the group), and which has become an all-time jazz dance classic! Other tracks have a sparer soundtracky feel, and a few more are in the experimental vein of the Art Ensemble's other Paris work at the time. Wonderful overall though – and an incredibly righteous album filled with power and imagination! Titles include "Theme De Celine", "Proverbes", "Theme Libra", and "Variations Sur Un Theme De Monteverdi". Very hard to find original French pressing – with different cover image! (Jazz, Soundtracks) LP, Vinyl record album

James Brown gets even better than before – working here in the setting of a blacksploitation soundtracks – which makes the album a doubly funky outing from the 70s! James is a master throughout – beating Isaac Hayes and Curtis Mayfield at their own games – as he works with super-tight work from the JBs, plus a bit of vocals from Lyn Collins – all in a massive batch of tracks that further expand his funky palette! Unlike other blacksploitation soundtracks, which usually have one or two key funky tunes, this one's almost entirely overflowing with gems – including Lyn Collins on a version of "Mama Feelgood" that's worth the price of the record alone! The whole thing's great, though – and titles include the classic "Down & Out in New York City", plus "Blind Man Can See It", "Sportin' Life", "The Boss", "Dirty Harri", and "Chase". (Soul, Soundtracks) LP, Vinyl record album

A huge collection of later work from these two Italian maestros – material done long after their fame in film during the 60s and 70s, but with a richness that really matches those classic recordings! The work here is much more obscure than some of their famous film scores, and served up in a massive 7CD box that really fills in the gaps during these later years – bringing together work that we never would have heard otherwise, and in modes that update some of the instrumentation of previous decades, but which also reflects some greater care with orchestrations over leaner modes. The set features many tracks from each show – programs that include Tomorrow, Nel Gorgo Del Peccato, A Big Man, Passi D'Amore, Il Cielo Non Cade Mai, Quando Ancora Non C'Erano I Beatles, La Storia Spezzata, Il Ragazzo Dal Kimono D'Oro, Uomo Contro Uomo, Cinque Ragazze A Parigi, Ti Ho Adottato Per Simpatia, La Moglie Nella Cornice, Un Amore Rubato, Il Prezzo Della Vita, Vite A Termine, La Storia Di Chara, Mia Per Sempre, Addio E Ritorno, Dove Comincia Il Sole, and Sotto Il Cielo Dell'Africa. CD

An early 60s Italian tale of love between a boy, a girl, and a shark – scored here with some great exotic elements from Francesco De Masi! The approach is slightly in the mode of the early exotica scene in late 50s US – more conventional charts mixed with just a few island-styled elements – either an exotic woodwind, unusual keyboard passage, or twangy steel guitar – all used in lots of different ways to spice up the sound of the film! Think some of the more serious Les Baxter albums – like Ports Of Pleasure – and you'll get part of the feel here – although the overall soundtrack has a lot more variety, including a few sweet jazzy moments. 2CD set features a massive 50 tracks in all – with loads of rare, unreleased, and alternate titles! CD

2 massive Isaac Hayes soundtracks in one set – both from the magical cinematic year of 1974! Truck Turner is a hard and heavy soundtrack that we like even more than his classic work on Shaft! Unlike Shaft, Ike actually starred in the film Truck Turner – which may be one reason why he brought his full game to the table for the record – and scored a batch of badass tunes that still stand with some of the best funky soundtrack work of the 70s! The rhythm's especially hard on the best cuts – really crackling with a lot of intensity, and a stark, hard funky sound that's made the record a favorite of beatheads for years! Ike kicks it hard on cuts like "Pursuit Of The Pimpmobile", "House Full Of Girls", "Drinking", "Give It To Me", "Now We're One", "Breakthrough", "House of Beauty", and the massive title cut "Truck Turner". Tough Guys is deeper and more complicated than the groove of Shaft and Truck Turner, and filled with some great tunes that glow with color, life, and imagination – showing an Isaac Hayes that almost seems to be moving beyond the usual blackploitation groove! The album sports 2 really classic tunes – the title theme "Tough Guys", and the classic "Hung Up On My Baby" – both of which have a solidly funky feel that will more than please the usual soundtrack beathead crowd. But overall, the other tunes twist and turn in a delightful mix of modes – expanding on the soulful territory Ike first explored in his original soundtracks, and offering up a great range of moods and emotion. The album's got some especially great chromatic guitar work – and other titles include "Joe Bell", "Randolph & Dearborn", "Buns O Plenty", "Run Fay Run", and "Red Rooster". (Soul, Soundtracks) CD

Massive work from Isaac Hayes – a hard and heavy soundtrack that we like even more than his classic work on Shaft! Unlike Shaft, Ike actually starred in the film Truck Turner – which may be one reason why he brought his full game to the table for the record – and scored a batch of badass tunes that still stand with some of the best funky soundtrack work of the 70s! The rhythm's especially hard on the best cuts – really crackling with a lot of intensity, and a stark, hard funky sound that's made the record a favorite of beatheads for years! Ike kicks it hard on cuts like "Pursuit Of The Pimpmobile", "House Full Of Girls", "Drinking", "Give It To Me", "Now We're One", "Breakthrough", "House of Beauty", and the massive title cut "Truck Turner". (Soul, Soundtracks) LP, Vinyl record album

Franco Micalizzi was one of the unrivaled maestros of the action score on the Italian scene of the 70s – and here, he does a great job of blending that experience with some slightly moodier touches – creating a really nice blend of tunes that swing effortlessly between clubby groovers and mellower numbers – sometimes with soaring strings, sometimes with spare keyboards – all delivered with that sweet Euro style that Micalizzi did so well at the time! Titles include "Stridulum Theme", "Here's The Dream", "Atmosphere", "Sadness Theme", "Running Away From Jerzy", "Hospital Sequence", and "Voices For Sadness Theme". This CD version features a massive 26 tracks in all – almost 75 minutes of music! CD

A madly grooving late 60s French soundtrack by Jean-Pierre Mirouze – and a masterful one at that – with sounds that range from a moody, dramatic vocal tune to some killer instrumental funk! The haunting "Together" opens the record in a great way – with a mystical mellow vibe and English language vocals by Barry Green. Subsequent instrumental tunes have a similarly evocative or sultrier vibe – while others such as "Sexopolis" have heavy Hammond, massive rhythms, and a totally freaked-out groove! Includes "Tivoli Garden", "Ulla Et Georgie", "Karin On The Ryke", "Lovers Party", "Tivoly By Night", "Scene Du Port" and "Tandoori Dance". LP, Vinyl record album

A gorgeous second volume to this amazing set – every bit as career-spanning as the first edition, but with a nicely different focus! This time around, the set has some especially rare material for fans of the Italian soundtrack genius – including a full CD of rare TV soundtracks scored by Ennio Morricone – plus additional themed CDs that include one disc of Vocal Songs and Covers, one of Lost Horizons, one of Unique Collaborations, and other CDs titled Comedy, Faces Of Italian Cinema, French Cinema, American Cinema, War Stories, and International productions! The package is stunning too – a book-style hardcover set, with 48 pages of notes and interviews! There's a massive 310 tracks on the 14 CDs – and the set mixes classics with rare material and some previously unreleased tracks – further testament to the endless depths of the soundtrack genius of Ennio Morricone. CD

Fuzzy funk from the Italian scene of the early 70s – a really landmark record that ties together all the best elements happening in the soundtrack, sound library, and psych scene at the time! The group features two guitars and lots of organ and keyboards from the leader – really stretching out on the side-long title track "Under Pompelmo", which is a massive jam, but one that never trips out too much to stop being funky – a surprisingly great groove that stays right in the pocket for all of its 16 minutes and 50 seconds! The flipside features shorter tracks, but equally great – all like some lost sound library funk numbers of the period, but served up by a small combo with more focus on guitar and weird production styles – on titles that include "Honda", "When I See You", "Echoes From Canyon", and "To Rebound". (Sound Library, Soundtracks) CD

The soundtrack for one of the most popular John Hughes films of the 80s, and the soundtrack for a generation as well – a mix of songs that were partly pulled from other sources, but which went on to make the idea of a compilation soundtrack every bit as important as a full original film score! The set kicks off with the massive hit "Don't You Forget About Me" by Simple Minds – the virtual theme of the film – then moves through tunes that include "Fire In The Twilight" by Wang Chung, "Waiting" by Elizabeth Daily, "We Are Not Alone" by Karla DeVito, "Didn't I Tell You" by Joyce Kennedy, and "Heart Too Hot To Hold" by Jesse Johnson & Stephanie Spruill. And the set also features a few instrumentals – "I'm The Dude", "Dream Montage", "The Reggae", and "Love Theme". LP, Vinyl record album

A stunning set of work from the glory days of the Italian film scene – a huge CD collection that brings together nine different soundtracks from the Cinecitta studios – a really wonderful range of music, with styles that go way beyond some of the more familiar modes usually associated with Cinecitta! This isn't just a batch of short tracks from each film – as the soundtracks here are presented in great depth, with many songs from each – and detailed notes within the very well-designed package – to really illuminate not just the music, but the way it was created for the individual films. The package has a massive 207 tracks – and features the full soundtracks to the films La Ragazzola, Il Trapianto, Cara Sposa, Una Jena In Cassaforte, Il Divorzio, Eutanasia Di Un Amore, Il Prato Macchiato Di Rosso, Il Debito Coniugale, and Verso L'Avventura! CD