Orange Vinyl. A hidden gem that earns its name. The original Cinevox pressing of this 1968 soundtrack existed in such a limited edition that few collectors ever held a copy - until now. Ruggero Deodato - then still years away from the notoriety of Cannibal Holocaust - directed Gungala La Pantera Nuda, the second entry in the Italian jungle-girl series starring Kirsten Svanholm, better known as Kitty Swan, a Danish model and acrobat briefly claimed by the Italian B-movie circuit of the late Sixties. The film follows the conventions of its genre faithfully. The music does not.

What Sandro Brugnolini, Luigi Malatesta and Franco Bixio assembled here refuses to stay in its lane. The album opens on "Afro Free" - nearly five minutes of spiritual Afro-jazz that lands somewhere between the modal explorations circling the Impulse! catalog and the wilder fringes of Italian session culture. It's a declaration that sets the terms: this is not background music. From there, the trio moves restlessly through soul, rhythm & blues, bossa nova inflections, lounge interiors, and passages of tribal percussion built for wide-screen tension - each register handled with conviction, none treated as mere genre costume.

Brugnolini's position in the history of Italian library and film music cannot be overstated. The former saxophonist of the Modern Jazz Gang - the group responsible for the cult 1960 LP Miles Before and After - became one of the period's defining voices for radical studio composition under a utilitarian guise, his albums Underground and Overground now commanding the kind of reverence reserved for things genuinely irreplaceable. Gungala La Pantera Nuda belongs to the same restless creative period. Malatesta and Bixio - the latter later one-third of the legendary Bixio-Frizzi-Tempera axis - bring their own distinct sensibilities to a score that treats its modest cinematic frame as an excuse rather than a limit.

Issued as part of Cinevox's Hidden Gems series - dedicated to cult and obscure soundtrack collectors - this marks the first ever LP reissue of the album, pressed on clear orange vinyl with audio remastered by Claudio Fuiano and new artwork. Essential for anyone invested in the golden period of Italian film music, and a genuine discovery for the rest.