Vince Guaraldi's wonderful music for the first-ever cartoon to feature the Peanuts characters in animated form – a sublime batch of jazz instrumentals that forever changed the face of music in shows of this nature! Vince steps out with an amazing sound right from the start – even different than his previous jazz records from the San Francisco scene – with a more careful balance of swing and sadness, lyricism and soul – always played in a subtle, understated way that really makes the music come through with a lasting degree of power. Core sounds are from the trio of Guaraldi on piano, Monty Budwig on bass, and Colin Bailey on drums – and titles include key early versions of the "Charlie Brown Theme" and "Linus & Lucy" – plus "Oh Good Grief", Pebble Beach", "Schroeder", and "Blue Charlie Brown". (Jazz, Soundtracks) LP, Vinyl record album

Vince Guaraldi's wonderful music for the first-ever cartoon to feature the Peanuts characters in animated form – a sublime batch of jazz instrumentals that forever changed the face of music in shows of this nature! Vince steps out with an amazing sound right from the start – even different than his previous jazz records from the San Francisco scene – with a more careful balance of swing and sadness, lyricism and soul – always played in a subtle, understated way that really makes the music come through with a lasting degree of power. Core sounds are from the trio of Guaraldi on piano, Monty Budwig on bass, and Colin Bailey on drums – and titles include key early versions of the "Charlie Brown Theme" and "Linus & Lucy" – plus "Oh Good Grief", Pebble Beach", "Schroeder", and "Blue Charlie Brown". (Jazz, Soundtracks) LP, Vinyl record album

The first-ever issue of music from a short UK film of the 70s – nicely trippy sounds from very familiar instruments! The cool 10" album brings together all the music for the short documentary as one piece – nicely drifting sounds created by a combo that features Julian Furniss on guitar, Geoff Jolliffe on bass, Mick Kirby on drums, and Steve Jolliffe himself on keyboards, flute, and saxophones! Given the instrumentation, you might expect jazz – but the results are a lot more unique, and perfect for the offbeat nature of the film. LP, Vinyl record album

A really playful little western soundtrack from Bruno Nicolai – lots of short tunes that often have isolated instrumental sounds – a bit of keyboards here, banjo there, and even some harmonica from Franco De Gemini! The tunes are usually a bit slower, and more quietly melodic than other scores of this nature – but in a way that really makes for a standout soundtrack – one that does a very careful job of creating little scenes that are almost as vivid from the instrumentation as they would be with images on the screen. CD features 26 tracks in all, all remastered – for a pretty creative soundtrack overall! CD

Heavy sounds from two key forces on the Japanese scene at the start of the century – both united here in a fantastic batch of instrumentals for Samurai Champloo! The work at times almost feels as if there's been a return Pacific journey of some of the elements that influenced the Wu-Tang back in the 90s – mixed with some of the warmer soulful currents of the Nujabes generation too – all delivered at a level that's very much a high cut above instrumental hip hop, and use of these styles in a soundtrack! Titles include "Mist", "Vagrancy", "Raw Material", "Dry", "Tubed", "I Sighed", "Sincerely", "New Dimension", "Sneak Chamber", and "Silver Children". (Hip Hop, Soundtracks) LP, Vinyl record album