Hugo's covering all bases here – as he makes his way through a number of late 60s Morricone spaghetti western themes, all done with his groovier than usual twist on the material! The Montenegro touches here include some augmented rhythms – snapping the tunes along with a much modder feel at times than the original – plus a nice use of electric bass at the bottom, and some sunshine-drenched vocal passages have some great harmonies! Titles include "The Vice Of Killing", "For A Few Dollars More", "Story Of A Soldier", "The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly", "The Ecstasy Of Gold", "Sixty Seconds To What?", and "March With Hope". LP, Vinyl record album

A well-done batch of music for the initial season of Japanese TV show Long Vacation – served up with a sense of variety and depth that's a great change from American television music for a program of this nature! Cagnet put the whole thing together, but they've got a good sense of variety throughout – shifting singers and styles of music, and moving between vocal numbers and instrumentals that have a nice mix of beats and soundtrack elements. Titles include "Long Vacation" by Anna McMurphy, "Silent Emotion" by Calin, "Little By Little" by Section S, "To Live & Die" by David, "What Will I Do" by Natalie Burks, and the tunes "Tiny Tale", "Back Ground", and "Short Wave Radio". (Japanese, Soundtracks) CD

A solid bit of heavy funk – and one of the last strong-selling soundtracks of the blacksploitation era! Sure, you know the hit "Car Wash", but there's plenty of other great numbers that rank the 2LP set right up there with the best of its genre. There's a lot of nice instrumentals on the album that feature a tight smooth funky sound – with good work on clavinet, wah wah guitar, and horns – all quite different than the usual work of Whitfield and Rose Royce at the time. The group do a good job on the vocal cuts, working in that soulful early 70s Motown mode that Whitfield was working on with other acts – and the whole album's as great a debut for Rose Royce as anyone could have hoped for. Features the hit title cut, plus "I Wanna Get Next To You", "Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is", "Zig Zag", "Mid Day DJ Theme", "I'm Going Down", "Crying", "Doing What Comes Naturally", and "Righteous Rhythm". The Pointer Sisters sing on one track, "You Gotta Believe". (Soul, Soundtracks) LP, Vinyl record album

Not as famous as other Henry Mancini soundtracks of the 60s – but a gem through and through, and a record that really shows the maturing talents of the maestro! The album mixes together lush orchestrations with some of the lighter jazz you'd expect from Mancini – the latter a nice counterpoint to the former, which in itself is still light years better than most of what was coming from mainstream Hollywood at the time. There's some really inventive instrumental moments on the record – played by Jack Sheldon on trumpet, Dick Nash on trombone, Ted Nash on alto sax, and Jimmy Rowles on piano. Check out the bongo-driven "Something For Sophia", a great little number dedicated to Sophia Loren, one of the stars of the film – or groove to the "Arabesque Theme", a dark-toned number that has some nice descending parts that keep things nice and spooky. "Shower Of Paradise" has some nice moody themes with strings – and the album contains a 5 minute "Zoo Chase" suite that has some good crime moments too! CD

David Rose is in fine form here – turning out a blend of western themes and more conventional orchestrations for the hit TV show Bonanza! The set begins with the famous "Bonanza" theme – one number not actually penned by Rose – then moves into a number of more "place setting" tunes that often have a gentler, more whimsical feel. Rose makes good use of woodwinds to carve out some of the more playful moments in the set – and the album's a good reminder of what passed for western scoring in the years before Italian composers started making some changes. Titles include "Bonanza", "Hoss", "Ponderosa", "Fury In Old Mexico", "Silent Thunder", "Legend Of Sam Hill", "The Balloon Riders", and "Hoedown At Virginia City". CD

A well-done batch of music for the initial season of Japanese TV show Long Vacation – served up with a sense of variety and depth that's a great change from American television music for a program of this nature! Cagnet put the whole thing together, but they've got a good sense of variety throughout – shifting singers and styles of music, and moving between vocal numbers and instrumentals that have a nice mix of beats and soundtrack elements. Titles include "Long Vacation" by Anna McMurphy, "Silent Emotion" by Calin, "Little By Little" by Section S, "To Live & Die" by David, "What Will I Do" by Natalie Burks, and the tunes "Tiny Tale", "Back Ground", and "Short Wave Radio". (Japanese, Soundtracks) LP, Vinyl record album

A really unusual soundtrack from the mighty Lalo Schifrin – and one that seems to show off all of his best modes in its shifting range of styles! The film is a somewhat understated story set on the streets of New York – and the music often takes on the same sort of vibe – with some beautiful melodic passages that are quite different than Lalo's big hits of the 60s. But then there's also some beautiful orchestra moments too – with these arrangements that are complicated, yet sparkling – that sophisticated charm that always put Schifrin ahead of the pack! And then Lalo even opens up with a few funkier tracks that recall his electric jazz albums of the late 70s for the CTI label – fuller groovers that are showcased on the two longest tracks – "Hey Nunzio" and "Candy Store Frenzy". Other titles include "Sad Nunzio", "Superspeed", "To The Rescue", "Only A Memory", "Nunzio In Love", "Goodnights My Little One", and "Flying Love". LP, Vinyl record album

Director Sofia Coppola's always got a great way with music in her films – and that's definitely the case here, in a collection of tracks put together for the wonderful Lost In Translation! The music is a bit different than some of Coppola's other selections – in that it's often a bit in contrast to what's happening on the screen, sometimes reflecting the disorientation of the jet-lagged characters in the movie – but there's also a few tracks that fit in perfectly with a scene-setting style too. In addition to a few original songs by Kevin Shields – "Are You Awake", "City Girl", "Goodbye", and "Ikebana" – the set includes the tracks "Sometimes" by My Bloody Valentine, "Just Like Honey" by Jesus & Mary Chain, "Girls" by Death In Vegas, "Tommib" by Squarepusher, "Fantino" by Sebastien Teller, "Alone In Kyoto" by Air, and "Kaze Wo Atsumete" by Happy End". (Note: This item is not for sale online until 7:00am on Sunday, April 21. It is in limited supply – and by nature of the Record Store Day rules it will be offered for sale first to customers who visit the Dusty Groove retail outlet in Chicago the morning of Saturday, April 20. It will not be pre-sold or reserved in any way. However, after 7:00am on April 21 we will offer up whatever we have left for sale online.) LP, Vinyl record album

A cool album – featuring one side of the score to A Fistful Of Dollars and one side of the soundtrack of For A Few Dollars More! The songs are short, but tense – and mix plodding solo instrumentation with some sparer dramatic moments, creating a sublime tension that's unsurpassed in the realm of western scoring! Titles include "A Fistful Of Dollars", "Almost Dead", "The Chase", "The Result", "Without Pity", "Sixty Seconds To What?", "The Watcher Watched", "Vice Of Killing", "The Showdown", "Goodbye Colonel" and "For A Few Dollars More". LP, Vinyl record album

Campy 20s-sounding tunes – penned by Ralston for this all-star World War 1 extravaganza. Most of the material is comedic, and vocals are by Richard Howard, Joanne Brown, Pia Colombo, Corin Redgrave, and others. Titles include "Belgium Put The Kaibosh On The Kaiser", "When This Lousy War Is Over", "I Want To Go Home", "Hush! Here Comes A Whizzbang", "Oh! It's A Lovely War", "Over There", and "Goodbyeee". LP, Vinyl record album