The US release of 3 soundtracks to films produced by Dino De Laurentis – the best of which is Roy Budd's Stone Killer. The soundtrack is one of the darkest Budd scores ever, designed to accompany a brutal police film starring Charles Bronson. The main theme has a nice electronic sound that's kind of like the "Mystery Movie" theme from the 70s, then the score moves into some nicely turgid regions that feature spare Fender Rhodes riffs underpinned by dark orchestral scoring. Occasional beats and jazzy rhythms move into the picture from time to time, and the overall sound is excellent! The other two soundtracks aren't as great, but they're both combined on one side of the record, and don't take up as much space as Stone Killers, which gest all of side two! LP, Vinyl record album

Featuring Placido Domingo. LP, Vinyl record album

Titles include "Young Lovers", "Finale", "Love & Understanding", "The Battle", "Warpaint & Feathers", and "Solitary Waltz". LP, Vinyl record album

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

... LP, Vinyl record album

Two later soundtracks from Riz Ortolani – both showing the maestro at the top of his game! Il Sole Buio has this wonderful way of gently unfolding the melody – almost Morricone-like, but with warmer tones at times – and mixed with a few electric jazz moments to offset the larger orchestrations – although the latter dominate, and really have this wonderfully rich vibe – almost a slight touch of the sort of sentiment you'd get in a French film score too! L'Angelo Con La Pistola is from the same director, Damiano Damiani, two years later – and again has some great orchestral numbers that billow and glisten with a gentle charm, mixed with a few more electric, keyboard-heavy tracks to showcase the action in the story! 21 tracks in all – and first time on CD for both titles. CD

A great mix of 70s action and exotica from Riz Ortolani – a set that mixes funky touches in with tribal elements, and comes across with a very groovy sound overall! The record's definitely one of the coolest that Ortolani ever recorded, and he's clearly having fun with the mid 70s elements at his disposal – including wah wah guitar, sweet keyboards, and a tight rhythm section who are more than able to follow the maestro on all his many twists and turns on the tunes! A few of the more upbeat numbers almost have a tribal club sort of vibe – and titles include "The World Is Mine", "Festival Dance Of The Llama Sacrifice", "Making Out", "Eden Disturbed", and "Dance Of The Virgins". CD

Riz Ortolani did the soundtrack for this groovy film about 3 Americans (Peter Lawford, Telly Savalas, and Phil Silvers) returning to Italy after the war in a reunion with the woman who is the mother of a child that belongs to one of them. Sounds odd – and it is (believe us, we've seen the film!) Most of the score kind of has a romantic "vet returning to Italy after the war" feel – but there are some nice groovy moments – including the title theme "Buona Sera Mrs Campbell", a great vocal number by Jimmy Roselli! Other tracks include "Carla Is In Love", "Gia's Theme", "A Blessed Event", "Contessa Theme", "Fiesta In The Pizza", and "Braddock's Theme". LP, Vinyl record album

A brilliantly overstuffed package of work from Italian composer Riz Ortolani! Una Sull'Atra is groovy little gem from Riz Ortolani! The soundtrack's got an excellent late 60s feel – with tracks that mix electric bass with sitar, flute, organ, and some fuller jazzy arrangements. There's a strong jazz component running through the mix – taking the score past some of the easier campier moments, and giving it a solid overall sound that will keep you coming back to it again and again. Titles include "Sitar In Blues", "Lombard Street", "St Francisco Railways", "St Quentin", "Un Sull Altra", and "Susan & Jane". Teresa La Ladra is an unusual Monica Vitti vehicle – and Ortolani's score features the funky theme "Teresa L'Illusa", alongside some mellower numbers that include "Teresa For Sax", "Teresa", and "Teresa & Blues". The best of the bunch, though, are the CD's 8 tracks from the Tiffany Memorandum – a groovy action score that's as wonderful as the name might imply! The work has a mod, swinging feel that's really nice – one that mixes together Italian "shake" modes of the 60s with some jazzier American touches on the best cuts. Titles include "Beat Fuga Shake", "Tiffany Sequence M8", "Tiffany Sequence M22", "Tiffany 23", and "Notte Al Grand Hotel". CD

One of the grooviest 60s soundtracks from Riz Ortolani – done for an Italian spy film, and very different than some of his bigger-name scores for global cinematic hits! The music here is very much in the best jazzy style you'd expect from a spy thriller, but also has some groovy mod numbers too – romping tunes that are an Italian take on UK beat modes, with really cool rhythms that are upbeat and very soulful – cuts that are then interspersed with slinkier numbers that fit the mode of the spy in the company of a lovely lady! This expanded CD is the first time this much music has ever been released from the film – a whopping 22 titles in all, in comparison to the previous release of only 9 tracks! CD

One of the coolest, grooviest soundtracks we've ever heard from Riz Ortolani – an artist who did bigger, more mainstream film scores in the 60s – but who really developed a more electric vibe in the 70s! This soundtrack has Riz working at the top of his powers – bringing in keyboards and guitars to really spice things up, and make for a few key funky moments – but also still handling some larger charts with the professional flair he always brought to his music – showing that the best horror work of this time still came from composers who had deeper skills than just a few slick keyboard lines. Titles include "Love With Fun", "Massacre Of The Troupe", "Cameraman's Recreation", "Adulteress' Punishment", "Savage Rite", and "Drinking Coco". CD version has a huge amount of bonus tracks – 10 more tunes added to the original soundtrack! CD

A later score from Italian maestro Riz Ortolani – best known for some of his blockbusters of the 60s, but equally well at home here on a set from the early 80s – one that has a fair bit of electric instrumentation served up in a range of playful grooves! As with many Italian comedies from the time, there's a very catchy upbeat theme – one that has some of the tightness of the disco years, but mixed with a nice sense of whimsy – and, importantly, balanced by some even nicer mellow cuts that have great electric piano lines, and some very nice wordless female vocals! The CD features 27 tracks in all – with a good sense of pacing and variety throughout. CD

A fantastic funky soundtrack from Riz Ortolani – quite different than some of his bigger hits of the 60s, and full of heavy basslines and lots of great drums! The style here is in the best cop/crime mode of the time – but has even more blacksploitation grit at the bottom than the usual Italian work of the period – with a rawness that really rivals some of the best funky scores by Americans like Johnny Pate or Don Julian – although overall, there's maybe an even higher funk quotient to this record than some of their classics! Take it from us – we're not ones to casually use terms like this – and we really mean it when we say that this rare Italian gem from 1973 might well have you putting aside your copies of Shaft, Superfly, and Black Caesar! CD features the bonus track "Romance Anonimo" – plus 19 more tracks from the film. CD

Life! Liberty! Vengeance! A wild and very cool soundtrack for Tarantino's dual Blacksploitation/Spaghetti Western homage Django Unchained – featuring bits from some of our favorite Italian western composers mixed up with classic and contemporary funky soul and hip hop! It's the kind of soundtrack that could only happen for Quentin Tarantino – with rare and hard-to-find compositions by Luis Bacalov, Ennio Morricone, Riz Ortolani and Jerry Goldsmith on one hand – along with a few seemingly antithetical new compositions on the other – including a track penned by star Jamie Foxx for Rick Ross, a James Brown "Payback" remix with a vocal from the 2Pac archive, plus ones by Anthony Hamilton, John Legend and others! Last but not least, it's got some great bits of film dialogue by Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Samuel L. Jackson and Leonardo DiCaprio. Titles include "Django" by Luis Bacalov, "The Braying Mule" by Ennio Morricone, "Nicaragua" by Jerry Goldsmith with Pat Metheny, "Day Of Anger" by Riz Ortolani, "Unchained (The Payback/Untouchable)" by James Brown with 2Pac, "Who Did That To You?" by John Legend, "100 Black Coffins" by Rick Ross, "Trinity (Titoli)" by Annibale E I Cantori Moderni and many more. CD

American film may have invented the genres of crime jazz and blacksploitation funk – but by the mid 70s, the Italian scene was really giving us a run for our money – as they turned out some amazing grooves for their legendary run of cop and crime films at the time! The movies were awash in music that really kept the action moving – heavy drums, badass basslines, wah wah guitar, and anything else that fit the spirit of a great chase or action scene. This collection brings together some of the best of that stretch – and, as with other of these recent Sugar productions, adds in some unreleased material that makes the package essential, even if you've already got work from this scene in your collection. Titles include "Il Cappotto Dilegno (edit)" by Riz Ortolani, "Poliziotto Spring M2" by Stelvio Cipriani, "Silkin Street" by Guido & Maurizio De Angelis, "Ordine Firmato Inbianco" by Carlo Savina, "Onore E Guapparia M7" by Filippo Trecca, "L'Intoccabile Mr Cliff" by Riz Ortolani, "I Gabbianivolano Basso M13" by Roberto Pregadio, "Body Guard" by Stelvio Cipriano, "Il Braccioviolento Della Mala M10" by Vassili Kojucharov, and "L'Assassino Hale Ore Contate" by Luis Bacalov. CD

Music composed and conducted by Ennio Morricone, Calo Savina, Luis Bacalov, Riz Ortolani, Francesco De Masi and others. CD

The first-ever volume of the now-legendary Easy Tempo series – a collection of soundtrack grooves that hipped us back to the wonders of the Italian scene of the 60s and 70s – and did so at a time when few folks had ever thought to reissue this music! Right from the start, this series set a whole new level for soundtrack appreciation – and the collection features an incredible range of tunes that run from jazzy, to groovy, to funky, with lots of mod spaces in between – all served up with great sound, and even more of a sense of focus than the original soundtracks! Titles include "La Gabbia" by Gianni Ferrio, "Blue Rhythm Festival" by Piero Piccioni, "Notte Al Grand Hotel" by Riz Ortolani, "One Fine Morning" by Augusto Martelli, "Mark Il Poliziotto" by Stelvio Ciprani, "Grigioperla" by Gianfranco Plenizio, "Serena E Lamuno" by Riz Ortolani, and "Ira Rhythm & Blues" by Gianni Ferrio. CD

The bikini beat is a great one here – no simple beach music classics, but a range of mod groovers from the classic years of the Italian soundtrack scene! This volume is heavy on electric elements – fuzzy guitars, keyboards, and more – all filtered nicely through a range of rhythms from the 60s and the 70s – bossa, jazzy, and funky – filled with amazing twists and turns throughout! The double-length collection is a treasure through and through – easily one of the greatest soundtrack sets we could have hoped for. Tracks include "Teresa L'Illusa" by Riz Ortolani, "Malizie Di Venere" by Gianpiero Reverberi, "Spy Chase" by Bruno Nicolai, "Airport Rock" by Barigozzi Group, "Shake 2000" by Piero Piccioni, "Amanda Blues" by Gianni Ferrio, "Un Detective" by Fred Bongusto, "Katmandu" by Piero Piccioni, "Theme" by Armando Trovajoli, and "La Bambolona" by Luis Bacalov. CD

Fantastic rare Italian grooves from sound library and soundtrack sources – work by I Comonenti, Orchestra MC Karl, Riz Ortolani, I Bisaquei, Carlo Cordara, Albatros, and others! CD