Bass Modulations
First 200 on Green Vinyl. Released by Octopus in 1973 and now available for the first time on vinyl on Spettro, “Bass Modulations” is a record included in many “hip hop breakbeats” charts and it pays specific attention on bass – as title – and percussions. Composers are Antonino Scuderi, who worked on 2 tracks, ‘Overtime’, with low frequencies and a primitive drum machine, and ‘Range in’, one of the most strange track of this compilation, Roberto Conrado, Roman composer, already member of Gli Ap…
Idee 1
First 200 on Pink Vinyl. Masterpiece!!! If we talk about ideas, we surely talk about “Idee 1”, one of the best collaborations between Massimo Catalano and Remigio Ducros – together with “La fatica”, that will be reprinted in a while – with contributions from the amazing Daniela Casa. Daniela is one of the few women in the “Italian libraries” scene, but she’s more talented than some of her better known male colleagues. If Daniela, and so her husband Ducros, are names linked to a tiny niche of sou…
Il Tempo Dello Spirito
First 200 on Purple Vinyl. Amongst the first bunch of this new label releases, we couldn’t miss a tribute to one of the greatest masters of libraries recordings, Alessandro Alessandroni, born in 1925. In his long career Alessandroni has published lots of soundtracks – and we mean lots of - and for this he’s considered a real star of Italian music. As a friend, and close collaborator of Ennio Morricone, he’s remembered as “the whistle man” for his fundamental contribution to the immortal scores …
Toby Dammit (Original Film Soundtrack)
Fellini 60’s experimental flick Toby Dammit is a great film by a legendary director. 'Liberally adapted' from Poe's 'Don't Wager Your Head to the Devil', Federico Fellini's Toby Dammit was shot in twenty-six days over the winter of 1967-68, at the experimental film centre near Cinecetta in Rome. It is an extraordinary piece of genuine film psychedelia, and rightly regarded to be amongst the director's finest work.
Dammit reveals that he haunted this personal apparition of the devil; a littl…
Codice d’amore orientale
**CD version** “Codice d’amore orientale” had been often labelled as one of the lowest points reached by the b-movies from the ’70s. Essentially, it is just a genuine attempt to exploit the success of the erotic genre, very popular at the time: the movie tells the story of two young lovers, running away from their families that were against their union. The two are given shelter by a minister of love, who introduces them to the secrets of Kamasutra.Definitely not an art-house film, and surely di…
Sway
**CD version** Sante Palumbo was born in 1932 in Cerignola, a small village near the city of Foggia, in southern Italy. After studying at Foggia’s conservatory, he moved to Milan in 1954. Unlike other musicians who were rapidly recognised by the local jazz scene, Palumbo started to be noticed only at the end of the 60s. At the beginning of his career he was one of the most in-demand pianist for studio sessions. When in 1969 he became part of Giorgio Buratti’s trio, the critics praised him as one…
Percussioni ed Effetti Speciali
**CD version** The long and prolific career of Piero Umiliani, also consisting of dozens of collaborations for television and cinema, has given (and is still delivering, given the amount of material that is finally coming back to light) a long series of experimental albums and music libraries that showcase his songwriting skills, as well as a natural curiosity towards avant-garde and more ‘difficult’ sounds. We can attribute to the second category this “Percussioni ed effetti speciali”, a title …
La Conquista di Luna
**CD version** A journey into space with a wonderful sound – served up here as a set of cosmic instrumentals from Luciano Michelini, most of which have a pretty groovy vibe! The mix of 60s instrumentation, spacey touches, and light electric moments peppered with cool keyboards or woodwinds, and occasional wordless vocals – all in this way that provides a wonderful 60s fantasy of the moon, and one that's actually a lot more exciting than any of the real moon landing records out there. There is on…
Suspense
**CD version** Among all the aliases used by the great Piero Umiliani, M. Zalla is perhaps his richest and surprising: mainly used to produce experimental records that had little commercial appeal, this ‘nom de plume’ (along with Moggi) is tied to memorable episodes of his career, releases such as “Problemi d’oggi” (literally “Today’s Problems”), “Mondo inquieto” (i.e. “An Unsettling World”), and also “Suspense”, now reissued by Schema Records.
And if titles such as those mentioned above may som…
Di Tresette ce n'è uno, tutti gli altri son nessuno
Available for the first time ever on vinyl is the 1974 soundtrack by Alessandro Alessandroni for the Giuliano Carmineo (as Anthony Ascott) directed Di Tresette ce n'è uno, tutti gli altri son nessuno, known in English as The Crazy Bunch. The sequel to Lo chiamavano Tresette... giocava sempre col morto (Man Called Invincible), the film is a goofy, slapstick comedy spaghetti-western, but the Maestro’s soundtrack is anything but goofy. Haunting, sparse, and riveting, the soundtrack is easily t…
Music For Film And Theatre
The long awaited second volume of soundtrack works by German pop and avant-garde futurist, Felix Kubin, following 2008's Music For Theatre And Radio Play. Some of Kubin's most adventurous and far-reaching music stems from his commissioned works for films, theatre and radio plays. Freed from conventional song formats and genre stereotypes he effortlessly combines musique concrète noises, splashes of haunted virtual orchestras, Gameboy music minuets and voice collage, interspersed with tons of sus…
Magnetic Systems
From the same vibrant cinematic landscape of '70s studio supergroups as Goblin, The Pawnshop, The Feedback, and The Braen's Machine comes the Magnetic System, the Italian incognito dream-team composed of Milano prog keyboardist Vince Tempera, Cinevox sibling Franco Bixio, and video nasty maestro Fabio Frizzi (whose career it launched). Bridging giallo jazz-bass-driven prog and the arrival of home studios and synthesizers, the film music of the Magnetic System marked a sea change in Italian gen…
Sexophonie
Highly inventive library kraut / psych album related to Eulenspygel. Originally released in 1975, “Sexphonie” offers a mix of acid-rock, hard-psych, polit-rock and progressive / folky sounds with some eastern influences. Great studio production and outstanding guitar playing courtesy of Teflon Fonfara (who once blew up Camel’s PA system with his tape and delay guitar effects!). Tyll was formed when Teflon was approached by Kerston Records with the intention of releasing a krautrock album. …
The Forest of My Mind
Arranged by Mike Theodore and prolific guitarist Dennis Coffey—who later worked together on Rodriguez's Cold Fact—1968's The Forest of My Mind is a dose of soul-soothing mellow filled with captivating pastoral odes which try on a variety of period styles in craftsman-like perfection.
The album is a unique synthesis of pop, folk and psychedelic sounds flecked with a touch of Donovan Leitch-like whimsy which is steered into righteous and refined waters by future Motown staff producer Clay McMurra…
Crossroads of Time
UK psychedelia moved into prog rock with spices of hard rock in the late sixties, some even coined a new label to describe the strong textures resulting of the mixture of rockier blues sounds, jazz, revolutionized freakbeat and the hardest side of popsike - ‘heavy psych’. Amongst the best works of the era were the two splendid LPs recorded by Welsh band Eyes Of Blue.The Eyes Of Blue where formed in 1966 and soon won the Melody Maker Beat Contest, a fact that secured them a recording deal with De…
Haackula
Telephone Explosion reissues for the first time on vinyl ever Bruce Haack's cult masterpiece Haackula. This legendary dark electronic work from 1978 partner to 'The Electric Lucifer' (1970) finally sees light of day on vinyl thanks to Canada's Telephone Explosion.Deemed to be too dark and offensive for release when it was recorded in 1978 and bootlegged ever since, this is the first official release of Haackula. Haack's anger with society is palpable as he hisses and cusses his way over elas…
Big Deal! (Weinberger Funk Library UK 1975-79)
Killer Library compilation full of highlights from the music archives of Josef Weinberger Ltd. in London, pulled from the most famous library albums on labels like JW (Josef Weinberger/ Theme Music), IA (Impress) or PM (Programme Music). First selection of 16 lost tracks by Toni Campo, Midas Touch, Trevor Bastow, Sidney Dale or Vick Flick, oscillating between jazz-funk, soul music, proto techno and eastern-tinged disco, with open drum breaks, fat bass lines and plenty of horns/ wah wah/ or…
Musica per Commenti Sonori
Amleto Armando Roelens, also known under the moniker of Puccio, had a musical career almost entirely devoted to jazz; he was one of the first in Italy to play jazz music with his orchestra at the end of World War II, a genre that at the time was regarded as a vulgar import from the states. After some collaborations with RAI, the Italian national public broadcasting company, the fortunate encounter with the composer Armando Sciascia led him to write arrangements for many albums released by Vedett…
Musica per Commenti Sonori
*2022 stock* “Musica per commenti sonori” is a cult series within the diverse world of Italian library music. In the late sixties and seventies, the small record label Costanza Records has published several releases precisely focusing on ‘background music’, including works of great composers such as Peppino De Luca, Roberto Pregadio, Franco Micalizzi, Vito Thomas, Giancarlo Thomas, Puccio Roelens, Riccardo Luciani, and by the protagonists of this long-time due reissue: Sandro Brugnolini and Stef…
Inchiesta Sul Mondo
Inchiesta Sul Mondo is a double experimental concept album, mainly electronic, on topical problems of the period in which it was released, the middle 1970’s. The two records have two different arguments: Stati d'animo and Diagnosei Ecologica. Maestro Luciani is a well-known artist in the library music scene. His very personal style is the result of musical studies from childhood that allowed him to achieve a diploma in composition, choral music, choral conducting, and more. The avant-garde and c…