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A rare soundtrack for a very offbeat 70s documentary – one that more than lived up to its title by showing footage of sexual acts of a wide variety of different creatures – including frogs, kangaroos, rhinos, monkeys, and others – each of whom was given some very special scoring attention by composer Gerald Fried! Each track has a slightly different feel – as Fried is clearly watching the documentary footage, then composing the music – with all sorts of instrumental flourishes and odd effects that must have been a wonder next to the animal porn onscreen! The CD features 25 tracks in all – and titles include "Aphids", "Snails", "Buffalo Birth", "Rattlesnake", "Chimp Lullaby", "Trout Eggs", "Cheetah Chase", and "Primal Ooze". CD

Music that's a definite "sekrety" to most of us western listeners – as the set brings together some rare and overlooked soundtrack material from the great Polish composer Andrezj Korzynski – served up here in a range of modes that really show him going strong well into the 80s! A number of tracks showcase that great ear for odd, offbeat sounds that has made Korzynski such a key rediscovery in recent years – served up both on electric instrumentation with nice variations in styles and techniques, but also with some larger orchestrations that are pretty darn great too. As with other Gad label titles, the presentation here is wonderful – and the 2CD package features 54 tracks in all – titles from the projects Akademia Pana Kleksa, Pan Kleks W Kosmosie, and Podroze Pana Kleksa – plus bonus material too! CD

Some of the coolest work we've ever heard from Polish film composer Andrezj Korzynski – material from an important movie from the early 70s, presented here in two different sections of the soundtrack, which were each made for different chapters of the film! The style is wonderfully hard to peg – a mix of orchestrations, Fender Rhodes, stepping basslines, and these light lyrical passages – often wrapped together, but in ways that are quite unconventional – as exotic currents mix with dramatic ones, but often with a slightly offbeat vibe, as you'd find in the music of Francois De Roubaix! And while not entirely like De Roubaix's material of the time, the approach here is similarly unique – very aware of funky elements, yet not overly dressed in them – and instead just used lightly to augment larger musical passages in this really cool way. Book features notes in English and Polish – and titles include "Oaza/Hamis", "Porwanie", "Chora Nel", "Nowa Oboz", "Stasiu Slon", "Pozar", "Smain", "Fatima", "Skorpion", and "Bitwa". CD

A trio of western soundtracks from the great Riz Ortolani – music that's not in the usual spirit of his bigger film scores of the 60s! I Tre Spietati begins with the sort of theme that should have been huge – a driving, powerful melody that has the best anthemic modes of the generation, and which appears in instrumental variations through the dozen tracks within – mixed with some more dramatic moments as well – but all with a vibe that's very different than more standard spaghetti western styles. Next up is Requiescant – a beautiful western score with a big, brooding use of guitar – and a sound that's even more robust than usual! About half the tracks feature the guitar strongly – used in a twangy way, unfolding slowly, with lots of echo – very cool, very striking, and almost more powerful than use of the instrument on most other spaghetti western scores of the time! Other numbers are more scene-setting – some brassy trumpet flairs, barroom piano, or harmonica lines on the trail – and overall, the soundtrack features 21 short numbers from the film, with guitar tracks nicely juxtaposed against the others! CD also features two tracks from the film O'Cangaceiro – the excellent percussive "Mulhe Rendra", and the mellower vocal track "Vou Caminhando". CD

A rare soundtrack session from Japanese jazz legend Hideo Shiraki – maybe one of the earliest recordings we've ever seen from the drummer – and one that also features work from pianist Takeshi Inomata and saxophonist Hidehiko "Sleepy" Matsumoto as well! The cover's somewhat unassuming, but the music inside is quite vivid and rich – jazz tracks used as a film score, often with a quality that's like the best jazz soundtracks coming out of French and Italian cinema at the end of the 50s – with a very different vibe than some of Shiraki's later albums as a leader! There's a nicely moody, late nite quality to many of the tracks – and instrumentation shifts throughout, but includes vibes, tenor, guitar, and piano – all elements used without as much heavy drum work from Hideo as you might expect. The set features dozens of short tunes, and runs for over 70 minutes in length – a huge document of this rare Japanese jazz material from the postwar years. (Jazz, Soundtracks) CD

A stunner of a soundtrack from the maestro Barry White – his only entry into the blacksploitation film genre of the 70s, and a complete doozy throughout! For the album, Barry's stripped down the bigger space of his own records, and his Love Unlimited productions – into some shorter tracks that really focus on that blend of funk and strings that he could do so well – making for a batch of killer instrumentals that really offer up a special Barry White take on the funky film sound of the 70s! Love Unlimited also sing on two tracks – "Somebody Is Gonna Off The Man" and "People Of Tomorrow Are The Children Of Today _- but most of the record is instrumental, played by the Orchestra – and tracks include "Killer's Lullaby", "So Nice To Hear", "Killer Don't Do It", "Can't Seem To Find Him", "Alive & Well", "Theme From Together Brothers", "Do Drop In", and "Here Comes The Man". (Soul, Soundtracks) CD

A very cool collection – one put together in celebration of the centennial of the Hollywood sign that rises above Sunset Strip in LA – and which brings together a whole host of unusual performances by actors who sing, singers who act, and other artists who made some key contributions to the American film scene in the postwar years! Most of the music here is from the late 40s through 60s period that you'll usually find on Bear Family collections – but there's also some surprises from later years too – a few tracks near the end from later films, thrown in for good measure. As always with Bear Family, the package is as cool as the set list – a set of 61 titles that feature work from Jane Russell, Anthony Perkins, Julie London, Robert Mitchum, Sophia Loren, Henry Manciny, Jayne Mansfield, Telly Savalas, Hugo Montenegro, Twiggy, Richard Chamberlain, Ray Campi, Carl Parkins, Gene Ray, Laurel & Hardy, Gina Lollobridigda, Jerry Lewis, Fred Astaire, Val Kilmer, and dozens of others. CD