Ciao everyone! Hope you had wonderful weekend.
This week we're celebrating the music of Italian cinema, counting down to the premiere of the Netflix Original Series MASTER OF NONE - Season Two. Fans of the show know that Season One had incredible music, and we have it on good authority that the music of Season Two, which spends a portion of its time in Italy, has some killer music as well. Check it out when it drops this Friday, May 12th on Netflix.
We are also thrilled to be helping our friends at Beat Records in Italy celebrate 50 years in the soundtrack business! Over the years they have worked with every Italian composer you could mention and are seriously responsible for our love of Italian Soundtracks. We are honored that they have chosen us to be the exclusive distributor of their anniversary titles which are all limited to just 300 copies worldwide!
Check out the first release below by Roberto Pregadio - IL MEDICO...LA STUDENTESSA - available this Wednesday at 12PM CST, plus a selection of our favorite Italian releases the last 12 months that are currently available on our site.
DISTRIBUTED TITLES
Il Medico...La Studentessa Original Soundtrack LP. Released on Beat Records. Pressed on Black vinyl complete with an obi strip. Limited to 300 copies worldwide. $25
Il Medico...La Studentessa is composed by Maestro Roberto Pregadio, an absolutely sublime slice of Italian easy listening goodness. Mixing lounge Bossa Nova rhythms, Hammond organs, and odd vocals (courtesy of Alessandroni’s Cantori Moderni), he manages to make incredible earworms that will stay with you for days (Bi-Di-Bi-Da is a prime example). Pregadio is vastly underrated and practically unknown outside of Italy, which is why this record is the perfect first release to celebrate Beat Records rich and diverse history in film music.
AVAILABLE NOW
DEATH WALTZ
The Poliziotteschi Files 2XLP (Rome Armed To The Teeth / The Cynic, The Rat and The Fist) 2XLP. Pressed on 180 Gram Black Vinyl. Art by Jay Shaw. One-off limited pressing of 500 copies. $35
ROMA A MANO ARMATA (aka ROME ARMED TO THE TEETH) & IL CINICO, L’INFAME, IL VIOLENTO (aka THE CYNIC, THE RAT AND THE FIST) are presented for the first time ever on vinyl. Micalizzi soundtracks these violent cop thrillers with an incredible one-two punch that filters David Shire's THE TAKING OF PELHAM ONE TWO THREE score through the crazed Italian house style that is rightly obsessed over by soundtrack fans worldwide.
Micalizzi's scores both feature a gripping main theme, which is the magnificent musical backbone that binds the pieces together, sounding both like a classic seventies slice of crime drama and the beginning of a thousand hip-hop samples. Effortlessly cool, Micalizzi dominates with a fat trumpet line that branches off into fragments with some incredibly funky breaks, Herrmannesque tense strings, and the most infectious basslines since DAZED AND CONFUSED. It's just absolutely badass – up there with the best of Cipriani, Umiliani, and yes, Morricone. Essential.
DEATH WALTZ
Contraband - Original Motion Picture Score LP. Original Score by Fabio Frizzi. Artwork by Graham Humphreys Layout by Jay Shaw. Pressed on 180 Gram Brown vinyl with three different red splatters (Limited to 500 Copies). $25
Fabio Frizzi’s score to the 1980 Lucio Fulci thriller CONTRABAND is surely one on the Maestro’s funkiest excursions record for Lucio Fulco. The main theme is a wonderful melody that is reprised throughout the score with a suitable touch of melodrama. Frizzi’s talent for catchy tunes is always apparent, whether it includes the stereotypical wah-wah pedal effects or some grooving slap bass.
Kept modern by mixing traditional orchestral elements with electric guitar and a wailing sax, there’s always a degree of underlying tension, mainly coming from the brass section, and there’s some amazing moments featuring a big organ and a sleazy keyboard riff. This is even before the uber-catchy ‘You Are Not The Same’, one of Frizzi’s many contributions to the songs of moviedom. Another excellent Frizzi/Fulci-fest!
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The Case of the Scorpion's Tail (aka La Coda Dello Scorpione). Music by Bruno Nicolai. Sleeve Design and Layout by Eric Adrian Lee. Mondo Exclusive pressed on 1x Black / Yellow Split Vinyl & 1x Red / Black Split Vinyl, housed inside a 435gsm gatefold sleeve. $30
Death Waltz Recording Co. is ecstatic to shock and thrill you with another classic slice of senseless violence and beautiful melodies from the Giallo playbook with Bruno Nicolai's score to the 1971 Sergio Martino mystery, THE CASE OF THE SCORPION'S TAIL (aka La Coda Dello Scorpione).
SCORPION'S TAIL opens with the main theme, a haunting melody on guitar that repeats while a thick bass lurks in the background to underline the hard edge that comes with the genre tropes. A beautiful jazzy waltzing piece on strings and piano brings some real class, while electronics and brass provide nail-biting tension, which Nicolai capitalizes on with avant-garde jazz techniques, the omnipresent bass grounding the more surreal and dissonant elements. A soundtrack enthusiast's wet dream, The Case of the Scorpion's Tail is one of the greatest Giallo scores ever recorded.
