Ennio Morricone - Ad Ogni Costo (1967)

What's funny about these lost soundtracks is that when you listen to the audio, they sound amazing and full of imagery, kind of like reading a book. Then when you see the movie, most of the time you're let down, but never the less, this is a great album.

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Alessandro Alessandroni & Nora Orlandi - Music For Strange Situations

Here's a great reissue compilation album featuring Italy's greater but lesser known film composer's of the time. Alessandroni is the famous whistler of Morricone fame, but he also composed, played fuzzy guitar and led one of the premiere vocal ensembles in Italy, which introduced Morricone to Edda Dell' Orso. Orlandi is one of the rare female composers of the era. She's bad too.

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VA - Play That Beat Mr. Raja - Selected Oddities from The Tamil Film Industry 1984 - 1991 (2011)

Yep. That's right. This is as weird and awesome as that album cover up there. If you're familiar with the whole Bollywood thing, then you already know what's in store here but this one got some cool eighties "new wave" synth and drum machine action happening.

Cartilage Records

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Stelvio Cipriani - Mark Il Poliziotto (1975)

Swanky Ass Shit

Bruno Nicolai - La Dama Rossa Uccide Sette Volte (1972)

Not much is known about Bruno Nicolai except that he went to school with Ennio Morricone and then worked for him, Nino Rota and other bigwig Italian composers scoring spaghetti westerns, dramas, and horror flicks. Here's a great giallo soundtrack back when the genre was at its peak in the early seventies.

RIGHT HERE

Marvin Gaye - Trouble Man (OST) (1972)

Here's Marvin dipping his feet in the soundtrack pool.

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Umberto - Prophecy Of The Black Widow (2010)

New band alert! From Kansas City, Mo., we present to you Umberto. Yes, that album cover looks like a lot of those Dario Argento/Goblin productions from the early Seventies and yes, they sound just like that. These guys have no shame  and go for the gusto with evil washes of synth with a electronic lean. Highly recommended for fans of Goblin, Italo-horror cinephiles, and electro/synth rock.

MORTE

Ennio Morricone - Danger: Diabolik - OST (1968)

A classic film with a classic soundtrack. Swinging, soothing, sketchy. The maestro covers all bases once again and giving the time period, it's very contemporary. Surf, Go-Go, Jazz, Funk, String Motifs. Highly recommened for those who like Morricone but want to hear something else than his brilliant spaghetti western pieces. This zip comes interspersed with actual dialogue clips from the movie as well and supposedly the original tapes of the recording sessions were lost in a fire. We'll take what we can get.

MANGIA!

Ennio Morricone - Il Clan dei Siciliani - OST (1969)

Right from the first "BOING!" you automatically know this is going to be a classic Morricone soundtrack. A gorgeous theme through and through sets the mood only to vanish and reappear over and over again till its finale. This is the maestro in his prime doing what the stuff thats made of legend. The film is pretty rad in itself. What gets me with these old euro movies and soundtracks is that there is always slight variations with certain song versions in the movie verses the actual LP. Does anybody know why this is? Did Morricone record a version for the film and a separate version for the LP?







Mangia

Nino Rota - "Amarcord" (1973)

One of my favorite movies ever. Federico Fellini recalls and morphs his childhood growing up in Rimini in  the 1930's in Fascist Italy. Amist all of the political chaos, this little town is still full of character and warmth. Sexual. Masculine. Comical. Provocative. All of these elements are wrapped together in a beautiful package by Nino Rota. Rota scored the majority of Fellini's films but he is probably most famous in America for his work with Francis Ford Coppola's "The Godfather Trilogy".

The main theme of Amarcord appears in various forms. Sometimes playful, sometimes swingin', sometimes heavenly but always brilliantly executed. The finale is a go-to uplifter for myself. Its like seeing all of my loved ones waiting for me at the pearly gates. Who what have thought a descending progression could be so optimistic. And of course, what would a Nino Rota soundtrack be without his circus marching band romps.


Mangia!

Dario Argento's "Tenebre - Claudio Simonetti, Fabio Pignatelli, Massimo Morante"

Dario Argento had used the Italian rock band Goblin to provide the musical scores to two of his previous films, Deep Red (1975) and Suspiria (1977). Goblin helped define the sound of 70's horror fims and giallos. The group had disbanded in 1980, but three of the band's members—Claudio Simonetti (Roland Jupiter-8, Roland Vocoder Plus, Minimoog, Piano, Electric Piano, Oberheim DMX Digital Drum, Roland TR-808, Roland MC4 Computer), Fabio Pignatelli (Fender bass normal and fretless), and Massimo Morante (Electric and Acoustic guitar)—reunited at Argento's request to work on Tenebrae. The result is a synth-driven rock out that is an essential Italo Disco time capsule as well. Some may recognize the main theme sampled in Justice's "Phantom", which to me is essentially a remix. Nice try guys.


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