Searing work as a leader from drummer Elvin Jones – a set recorded very early on in his years at Blue Note, just a few weeks after the death of John Coltrane – yet one that was never issued by the label at the time! The location is a regular gig that Jones was holding down in New York – and already, he's starting to find that special place that makes his work as a leader so different than the work he did with John Coltrane – really embracing the talents of a young Joe Farrell on tenor sax, who gets plenty of space to soar out with long, bracing solos – as he will soon do on other Elvin Jones albums for the label! The rest of the group features Billy Greene on piano and Wilbur Little on bass – and titles include very long takes of "Keiko's Birthday March", "ME", "On The Trail", "13 Avenue B", "My Funny Valentine", "Oleo", and "Softly In A Morning Sunrise" – plus a version of "Gingerbread Boy" with Larry Young on piano! LP, Vinyl record album

An early pairing of composer Andrzej Korzynski and director Andrzej Zulawski – a Polish duo who show that groovy vampire films aren't just the stuff of the southern European scene in the 70s! Korzynski's music for the movie is really wonderful – starting with a wicked fuzzy funky theme that feels like it's lifted right out of Vampyros Lesbos – and followed by other groovy tracks that are often heavy on electric bass at the bottom – used to set a scary mood on the spookier numbers, and create an upbeat groove on the swinging ones! This limited 10" release only sports 9 tracks, but they're all pretty great – and the whole thing is almost like a condensation of the best elements you'd find in much longer soundtracks with a lot of filler in between. Titles include the main title theme and reprise, "Tango", "Dworek", "Lapanka", "Szpital" (parts 1 and 2), "Na Strychu", and "W Instyucie". LP, Vinyl record album

A fantastically dark Morricone score! Morricone originally wrote this material for the film Quattro Mosche Di Velluto Grigio, the third part of Dario Argento's cult terror trilogy – and until the release of this reissue, only 2 of the tracks ever made it to the public, on a rare single issued by Cinevox in 1971. The leadoff track – "4 Mosche Di Vellutto Grigio (titoli)" – is actually a bit funky, with some very heavy drums and cascading fuzzy guitar riffs that sound very nice. Then, the record moves into spookier material – like the cut "Come Un Madrigale", and a number of self-titled themes – all of which feature strange harpsichord work, dark orchestral passages, and some very spooky production work! Fortunately, the score ends on an upbeat note – a hard driving, beat group sounding version of the main theme that's a nice cap to the whole package! LP, Vinyl record album

Dark, moody work from Second Layer – a UK post-punk group with ties to The Sound, working here with a fair bit of drum machine rhythms and the sorts of low-noise elements you might find in a record of the time on Factory Records! Like some of the best Factory folk, Second Layer have a slight undercurrent of punk at times – but take their music to much spookier territory with a sound that's pretty brooding, and almost a garagey take on spacier modes of the previous decade – definitely in territory that you might hear on a Martin Hannett production. Titles include "Zero", "Japanese Headset", "Black Flowers", "Underneath The Gloss", "Definition Of Honour", "In Bits", and "Fixation". LP, Vinyl record album

One of the most striking records we've ever heard from Swiss music legend Bruno Spoerri – a set that's very different from both his straight jazz recordings and his more experimental work – and instead a soundtrack for an obscure 60s film about a strangler in London! There's definitely a lot of mod elements in the music on the groovy cuts, which are then turned towards more sinister purposes on the spookier ones – so that an organ line can move from swinging to spare and moody, and a bassline can follow in just the same way! There's great use of Spoerri's famous sonic palette here – built up in ways that are almost a precursor to the more striking sonic modes of the Italian scene in the early 70s – and the set fatures 20 tracks in all, including "Plane To Peru", "Brogues In Robes", "Reading The Killer", "Spiral Staircase", "Check Out The Gravel Pit", "To The Brothers Of Compensatory Righteousness", "Don't Blame Jane", and "Kiddie's Beat". LP, Vinyl record album

A record that will definitely freak your friends – and might also freak any fan of Rod McKuen too, as it's a real surprise that the mainstream pop poet was involved in such an unusual session! The real maestro here, though, is Heins Hoffman-Richter – who works with plenty of weird electronics and tape delay to create one of the darkest, headiest albums of electronic music from the period – sounds that take on some of the avant tones of more academic electronics, yet which have a much more focused, organic quality – maybe a bit like the really weird sounds in the Kenneth Anger film Invocation Of My Demon Brother, mixed with tape effects from the world of Jon Appleton! Whatever the reference, though, the whole thing is pretty darn unique – the spookiest of spooky electronic records – with titles that include "Gidget Gets In Trouble", "Send Out The Clowns", "Milkshake", and "This Is My Beloved's Chamber". LP, Vinyl record album