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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z

"La Ragazza Con La Pistola" (MP3 edit)

La Ragazza con La Pistola
Peppino De Luca
GDM

La Ragazza con La Pistola, is a comedy-drama by Mario Monicelli about a vengeful lover played by Monica Vitti — the titular "girl with a gun." The music is by the little known Peppino De Luca with arrangements by the equally obscure Vito Tommaso, but don't let that scare you off — this is a killer soundtrack.

Fans of the Easy Tempo series will recognize a couple of tracks on Girl with a Gun, including the psycho beat title track that features electric sitar, fuzz-toned guitar and a guy who repeatedly says "girl with a gun" with varying degrees of disdain. It's a wicked cut and there are two alternate takes.

Another familiar number is "Rapimento in Sicilia," which also is a slice of delicious psycho-beat groove. After a minute of plodding percussion, bright ringing keyboards and stoned sitar, a fast drum and bass groove kicks in over which the sitar continues to play at the original tempo — in a word it's trippy. There's an alternate take of the track as well.

The rest of the score is pretty groovy too, though never quite as fantastic as those two tracks. There are several tracks that wouldn't sound out of place in dance club sequences, such as "In Due" which has a soulful organ and some tasty drum licks on the bridge, "In Cerca Di Lui," "Trumpet Shake" and "Shake Balera." On the trippier side, "Dall'Altra Sponda" features demented chorus along side a highly reverbed electric guitar, "Violino e Sitar" is a bizarre duet between those instruments, and "Ossessione Psichedelica" evokes a bad acid trip.

Even if you have the key cuts already, I highly recommend this psycho-beat soundtrack. The only downside is the inclusion of Italian dialogue over some of the music. Good thing there are only a couple of those tracks.

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La Ragazza Dalla Pelle Di Luna
Piero Umiliani
Right Tempo/Easy Tempo

Piero Umiliani's La Ragazza Dalla Pelle Di Luna is a soundtrack for an erotic melodrama set in the tropics (and is part of the trilogy along with Il Corpo (see "New Reviews A-K") and Bora Bora. Like the soundtrack for Il Corpo, the music reveals Umiliani's softer, more sensual side. The title translates to The Girl with the Skin of the Moon.

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La Ragazza Fuori Strada /
Questo Sporco Mondo Meraviglioso
Piero Umiliani
Easy Tempo

Putting fears to rest that Easy Tempo was finished, the soundtrack subsidiary of the Right Tempo released two rare Piero Umiliani scores this year.

The '75 release La Ragazza Fuori Strada (or "The Girl from the Street") starred Zeudi Araya, who also starred in Il Corpo and La Ragazza Dalla Pelle Di Luna for which Umiliani also contributed scores reissued by Easy Tempo. Zeudi is an exotic goddess to be sure, but what of the score? As expected, Umiliani's music is a thing of groovy beauty. He often uses an orchestra augmented by a crack rhythm section, but just as often goes solo on the organ or piano, or sticks with a small combo.

Check out the crisp cymbal work, bubbling bass line and jazzy brass on "Nostalgia" -- all backed by organ and strings. Or how about that bouncing funkadelic of "Senza Tregua" with its stabbing organ lines and jangly rhythm guitar. There are 24 tracks in total, with some repetition of theme.

On the '71 release Questo Sporco Mondo Meraviglioso (possibly "This Dirty Wonderful World") Umiliani adds some folk to his groovy psychedelic sound. On a track like "Western Melody," the use of harmonica and multiple acoustic guitars is naturalistic and refreshing. But Umiliani doesn't forget to bust out the funk, as well -- like on the reverb wah-wah drenched "Dove va il Mondo". Even steel guitar and cowbell have their place on "Pepito". Male and female scat vocals also have their place on "Luna di Miele".

All told, these two scores are quiet different from one another, but both live up to the Easy Tempo standard of excellence.

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"The Graft" (MP3 edit)

La Ragazzina
Nico Fidenco
Digitmovies

La Ragazzina ('74) was the first of two movies directed by Mario Imperoli starring the gorgeous cupcake Gloria Guida. If this girl's looks don't drive you wild then check your pulse.

Nico Fidenco scored this softcore erotic drama just before working on his first Black Emanuelle soundtrack, and the music is stylistically similar to his work on the kinky film series starring Laura Gemser.

Trilling flutes and chiming keyboard lines deliver playfully sensuous melodies over crisp light rhythms. Occasionally, a bit of cheesy Moog takes a solo. Mostly, the mood is very sweet, but occasionally takes a melancholic turn on the emotive vocals of diva Edda Dell'Orso. Another Italian soundtrack legend, Alessandro Alessandroni also is featured, whistling on a couple of tracks including the main theme.

Appearing for the first time on CD, La Ragazzina is sure to please fans of Fidenco's breezy, slightly tropical, highly melodic style. And take one look at the cover and you'll have a hard time resisting the charms of this Digitmovies release.

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"The Unwitting Bait (main theme)" (MP3 edit)

Rapporto Fuller Base Stoccolma
Armando Trovaioli
Beat Records

American Ken Clark made several Italian spy flicks over the course of the '60s, and Sergio Greco's Rapporto Fuller Base Stoccolma (aka Fuller Report, Base Stockholm, '69) was the last of them. Armando Trovaioli supplies the swinging beat jazz score for the mission. (Beat Records also released soundtrack for another Clark spy flick known in the states as Tiffany Memorandum from '67 on a triple feature Riz Ortolani compilation.)

Trovaioli's score for Rapporto Fuller is among his most swinging. The main theme, "The Touch of a Kiss," sung passionately by Lara Saint Paul, has the lush lounge sound in spades. Strutting brass, swelling strings and strong back beat push the emotion front and center.

Most notably, Trovaioli supplies action jazz cues that mimic the style of Dave Brubeck's famous cool jazz standard "Take Five," but add hot brass, smoldering woodwinds and stinging organ stabs.

In addition, there are relatively abstract cues ("Just a Bullet, Just a Fist") that build tension on dissonant strings and percussion runs as well as dreamy passages ("Tears and Spies") featuring piano, harp and floating female vocalisms. The night club-type jazz numbers (such as "The Stockholm Baths") sound like something from the early '60s, certainly not '69, but are still groovy in their own laid-back, sophisticated manner.

Twenty-four tracks strong, Rapporto Fuller is a intriguing from beginning to end, and one of the best soundtracks in the Italian spy game.

The CD insert folds out into a mini-reproduction of the eye-catching original movie poster.

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Raumpatrolle
Peter Thomas Orchestra
Bungalow

Warp Back to Earth 66/99
Peter Thomas Orchestra/Various Artists
Bungalow

Raumpatrolle or Space Patrol is the soundtrack for a Bavarian-produced TV sci-fi series of the 60s. Thomas' sound, as heard here as well as other recent reissues (100% Cotton, Kriminal Filmmuzik, Future Muzik), combines elements of Esquivel, Barry and Mancini. He's more than willing to experiment with instrumentation, particularily on this "futuristic" outing. Spacey organ riffs, expressive brass backing, soulful scat vocals, complex rhythmic changes, the occasional violin, bizarre percussion, eccentric jazz guitar fills and an astonishing range of thematic invention are all part of the Thomas' sound. Bungalow followed the release of Raumpatrolle with the double disc Warp Back to Earth 66/99 which features a full disc of highly experimental Space Patrol outtakes and a disc of remixes by an impressive selection of contemporary electronica artists, including Stereolab, Saint Etienne, Tipsy, High Llamas, Stock, Hausen & Walkman, Coldcut, etc. All in all, these discs are a great place to start in Thomas' soundtrack universe.

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Rebirth of the Budd
Roy Budd
Sequel

One of Britain's best, the late Roy Budd created a wide variety of movie music. Budd was also an excellent jazz pianist, which is very much in evidence on this compilation, which mixes soundtrack material with studio sessions. One of the latter entries, "Birth of the Budd", is a great showcase for Budd's ragtime rock and roll. But the disc begins earnestly enough with the theme from "Fear is the Key", followed by "Get Carter", a true classic of crime jazz. This theme will run through your mind when you're walking midnight streets on the wrong side of town. (Yeah, it's that good.) Unfortunately, it's followed up by the theme from Soldier Blue, which is maudlin by comparison. So, the disc has its ups and downs (don't they all?). When Budd is good, he delivers terrific arrangements. When Budd is great, it's because he's latched onto a memorable melody. "Aranjuez Mon Amour", the world's most famous Spanish love theme, is a good example. Hell, he even offers up "Jesus Christ Superstar", but it's too easy. Budd's own compositions are "semi-memorable' most of the time. The only one that reverberates in my mind is "Get Carter". What's more, Budd's arrangements tend toward cheesy on tracks like "Whiz Ball". The liner notes regretably inform that Budd's famous "Car Chase" track had been bypassed due to its 10-minute duration. That's too bad. It wouldv'e beat the lighter studio fare found here by a mile.

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Rebus
Luis Bacalov
GDM

Rebus (1969) is a spy flick set in Beirut, starring Lawrence Harvey and Ann Margaret (who provides two sultry vocal performances on the soundtrack). Bacalov's score delivers the expected Near Eastern flavor, but does so with a beat-surf flair. Organ, electric guitars, brass and strings, backed by a crackling rhythm section, are often accompanied by native instruments such as the oud, setar, daf and tanbur. This is sometimes juxtapozed by hill billy banjo and double bass. You won't know whether to smoke your hookah or reach for the moonshine. Taken out of context the stylistic stretch is pretty odd and pretty funny. Plus, there are moments you just want to sample and drop into loungecore dance number. Pretty mod stuff.

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Recordings of Music for Film
Vincent Gallo
Warp

Vincent Gallo, the moody actor/filmmaker best known for the memorable Buffalo '66, is also a composing musician. This collection of his scores for The Way It Is, Buffalo '66, Downtown '81 and If You Feel Froggy, Jump is intriguing though hardly typical of the material generally reviewed at Score Baby.

Instead of funk, jazz, rock and pop, Gallo favors more abstract, serious instrumental moods. The instrumentation is generally very spare -- piano, percussion, synthesizer, acoustic guitar -- all performed by Gallo himself in a loosely knit manner.

The track titles offer some insight into the mood of these pieces: "A Brown Lung Hollering," "Glad to be Unhappy," "Goodbye Sadness, Hello Death." It would be unfair to merely write this stuff off as pretentious shoe-gazer noodlings -- there are some engaging "ambient" ideas floating around in here (in the vein of Eno's On Land or Discreet Music) -- but Gallo's soundtracks aren't likely to get your groove on either.

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Requiem per un Agente Segreto
Piero Umiliani
GDM

He's always ready to "kiss" and to "bang". That's what the liner notes tell us of the seasoned secret agent played by Hollywood legend Stewart Granger in Requiem per un Agente Segreto -- one of the actor's many European spy flicks of the late 60s.

Umiliani's score is jazzy, and features multiple guitars, keyboards, voice, bass, drums, brass, woodwinds, strings. The music is by turns spare and atmospheric, other times propulsive and full bodied, but never bloated.

Requiem... may sometimes seem like Umiliani's Bond soundtrack, but it's stylistically closer to a Jerry Cotton score. It's more Peter Thomas, than it is John Barry. Barry's spy music is more orchestal, almost mythic in tone. Thomas's spy jazz doesn't take itself so seriously.

Although Umiliani's arrangements are fairly straight forward in comparison to Thomas' often wildly adventurous instrumentation, his light touch and beat music sensibilities make for refreshing arrangements and effective variations on the catchy Barry-esque main theme "Don't Ever Let Me Go."There are certainly stunning atmospheric passages. But there are plenty of upbeat Latinesque dance numbers to liven things up.

This GDM release features the remaster original soundtrack, plus an alternate version of the title track heard above.

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Respect Overdue 1 & 2
Various Artists
Creative Vibes

Billed as Australian (and New Zealand) '70s Jazz, Funk, Soul & Soundtrack Music, it's tempting to imagine a digiridoo bellow over a funky beat with vocal interjections of "g'day, mate," but thankfully that isn't the case. Respect Overdue Vol. 1 & 2 from Creative Vibe are simply solid collections of music that wouldn't sound out of place on a blaxploitation soundtrack or a European sound library compilation.

As expected the featured artists are uniformally unfamiliar: Eric Jupp, Daly-Wilson Big Band, Quincy Conserve, Kerrie Biddell, etc. Only Johnny Rocco sounds familiar, but only because it's probably a character name from some gangster movie. Don't let that be a deterrant, however, since the music is uniformally funky and infectious.

The pickings are a little slim in terms of soundtrack material, being limited to a cover of Quincy Jones' "Ironside" theme, a cover of a Galt McDermot track from Hair. But the performances are generally so great as to make the origins irrelevant.

That's not to say the compositions are entirely original sounding -- they can sound pretty derivative at times. Ayers Rock's "Crazy Boys," for instance, sounds like an outtake from Frank Zappa's Overnite Sensation period -- complete with idiotic vocal refrain and blazing guitar solos. But if you aren't looking for complete originality (or digiridoos for that matter) Respect Overdue is an absolute must for funky music fans.

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"Richard Diamond " (MP3 edit)
"The Fugitive " (MP3 edit)

Thriller/Richard Diamond
The Fugitive
Pete Rugolo
Fresh Sound Records/Silva Screen

Pete Rugolo, legendary arranger and composer (for Stan Kenton among others) was one of many jazz artists to score for TV crime shows of the late '50s and early '60s.

Fresh Sounds, a Spanish label, has compiled Rugolo's music for Thriller (’60-’62) and Richard Diamond (’57-’60). It displays Rugolo’s ability to not only swing but compose dramatic music as well. Like Mancini, Rugolo used the cream of West Coast jazz soloists. The liner notes includes helpful scene descriptions for each of the tracks, which already have such evocative titles as “The Hungry Glass,” “Girl with a Secret” and “Twisted Image.”

Rugolo’s work on the later TV show, The Fugitive (’63-’67), is more ambitious. Performed by the London Studio Symphony Orchestra, The Fugitive features jazz elements, but is understandably influenced by Bernard Herrmann’s Hitchcock work of the previous decade.

On the whole, Rugolo's music for both shows (and The Fugitive) isn't as aggressive as Elmer Bernstein's crime sound and his compositions aren't always as catchy as Henry Mancini's, but fans of the genre are sure to appreciate his ability to create dramatic nuance and mood.

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"Seq. 1" (MP3 edit)

Ritornano Quelli Della Calibro 38 / Il Commissario di Ferro
Lallo Gori
Beat

This poliziotteschi double bill features Lallo Gori's noirish lounge scores for Giuseppe Vari's Gangsters (aka Return of the 38 Gang, '77) and Stelvio Massi's The Iron Police Inspector ('78) (the translations are approximate).

Unlike so many Italian cop thriller soundtracks, these have a decidedly light touch, more influenced by disco than blaxploitation funk. Synths and other keyboards dominate with occasional action accompaniment by a business-like rhythm section featuring the requisite wah-wah guitar. While some of this is funky and fun, the synth tones are dangerously dated and often sound just plain cheesy.

Proceed with caution.

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"Main Title" (MP3 edit)

Rivelazioni Di Un Maniaco Sessuale Al Capo Della Squadra Mobile
Giorgio Gaslini
Fin De Siecle

Giallo film titles are often long-winded and Rivelazioni Di Un Maniaco Sessuale Al Capo Della Squadra Mobile — whew! — is no exception. While the literal translation is Revelations of a Sex Maniac to the Head of the Criminal Investigations Division, the film by Roberto Montero also released under several other colorful titles ranging from the relatively concise "Confessions of a Sex Maniac" to the more visceral "The Slasher is a Sex Maniac" to the just plain pulpy "So Naked, So Dead." More confusing still were the versions that hit the U.S.'s grindhouse circuit, first as "Bad Girls" and then with inserted hardcore footage as "Penetration."

All said, Sex Maniac is standard giallo stuff, drawing on genre staples such as the black-clad assassin of beautiful women, police investigations hampered by the rich and powerful and perverse details like the fetishistic mortician.

Giorgio Gaslini, who is well known to giallo fans for his work on Dario Argento's Produndo Rosso (aka Deep Red), supplies the score. Genre regular Edda Dell'Orso vocalizes the main theme, a melancholy lullaby in the giallo tradition. It's a lovely, lilting theme that aches with the knowledge that life is fleeting.

Right on cue, the second track introduces the probability of grisly violence through the use of serpentine woodwinds and bump-in-the-night percussive thuds. The threat is reinforced on the third track, which consists entirely of percussive fragments and disconcerting quiet.

In order to relieve tension, Gaslini also provides a bit a soothing piano jazz, bossa lounge and groovy nightclub pop, but the reprieve from danger proves short lived. The composer continues to mine moods of desperation and despair from Dell'Orso's voice, dissonant strings, sinister keyboard stings and woeful woodwinds.

Amazingly, more than half of the 32 tracks on Sex Maniac are "bonus". In other words, there is a fair amount of repetition. Nonetheless, there's no doubting Gaslini's mastery of the genre. It's bloody good.

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Robbi, Tobbi und das Fliewatuut
Ingfried Hoffmann
Diggler

Robbi, Tobbi und das Fliewatuut is a classic puppet-style children's show produced in Germany during the '70s. It was about a small boy, his robot and an adventure vehicle capable of traversing air, water and land. The last thing one would expect for its soundtrack is Ingfried Hoffman's uber-groovy beat, funk, jazz and bossa nova ditties. Anyone familar with MPS-style jazz will immediately latch on to Hoffman's brand of Deutscher fusion.

Hoffman's group uses woodwinds, brass and strings accompaniment, but electric keyboards and a crack rhythm section take center stage. The group strikes a tone that is friendly enough to accompany kiddie material, without resorting to the cheekiness expected of most pre-pubescent programming. In fact, much of the music wouldn't sound out of place in a more adult setting -- even something like a Radley Metzger softcore flick like Camille 2000. The level of musical sophistication and cinematic mood is impressive.

In addition to the 22 original tracks, the disc features a Frank Popp Ensemble big beat remix of the main theme.

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Roller
Goblin
Cinevox

Originally released on Japan's King Records (see Found Wax for another rare King Records release), this classic Goblin album isn't really a soundtrack, but it doesn't matter since Goblin's trademark prog fusion sound is in ample evidence as it is on many of their scores. Besides, two of Roller's tracks appeared in Dario Argento's horror masterpiece Suspiria.

Recorded in '76, Roller is as atmospheric as it is rocking. Unlike many Cinevox reissues, this one does not feature bonus tracks, but the album remains essential for Goblin fans and a revelation for fans of prog rock.

While tracks like "Aquaman" offers cinematic textures. "Snip-Snap" is just plain funky, almost like an Italian library music track. The "Goblin" theme, on the other hand, is as spooky as it should be, given the title. Top notch.

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Rollercoaster
Lalo Schifrin
Aleph

With a title like Rollercoaster, it should come as no surprise to find Lalo Schifrin's score for this '70s thriller to be quite a ride. The first track itself is something of a rollercoaster ride since it hops from style to style, motif to motif. First, it sounds like the carnival motif is introduced, then the orchestra underscores the danger that awaits. But then, like a wave of reassurance, the tempo picks up and the melody assumes a "feel good" vibe of amusement park fun -- foreshadowing the happy ending.

And that's just the first track.

From there, the score moves from languid mood music ("Portrait of Harry") to perculating jazz funk ("Rollercoaster") to tension-building orchestral ("Reflections in the Window"). Then a jaunty carnival theme, complete with carnival barker delivers the listener into a "Penny Arcade."

Schifrin pours the groove on again on tracks such as "Magic Carousel" and to great effect on "Tension Rock."

Another solid outing for the composer of Mission: Impossible fame.

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"Roma Drogata Seq. 2" (MP3 edit)

Roma Drogata: La Polizia Non Puo' Intervenire
Albert Verrecchia
Escalation/Cinedelic

Lucio Marcaccini's Roma Drogata (aka Hallucination Strip, '75) answers the cult movie fan question "What did Bud Cort do after Harold & Maude?" Well, officially he played a birthday party guest in something called Beware! The Blob ('73), but his next leading role came in this rare Italian cult flick about a college student involved in protests, drugs and petty crime that leads to trouble with the mafia and the cops.

Albert Verrecchia, organist for the band Pyranas, scored the psychedelic soundtrack for Roma Drogata — one of only a few Italian cult flicks that bear his work. He's joined by percussionist Tony Esposito and members of the little known bands Cyan and Baba Yaga as well as blues singer Sammy Barbot and most notably Italian soundtrack diva Edda Dell'Orso.

The opening track is a country blues rock ballad "We've Got a Lord" featuring Barbot on lead vocal and an "Up with People"-type chorus on the refrain. It's a bit cheesy and some listeners may choose to skip it.

The second cut — a crude copy of Led Zeppelin's "Custard Pie" — is more characteristic of the soundtrack as it features rock drumming, distorted guitars and Barbot at the mic.

For the most part, Roma Drogata favors a blend of druggy blues rock and trippy experimental abstractions with a splash of quasi-Eastern exotica. The blues numbers are fairly conventional in attack, but suitably sleazy in tone with searing electric guitar and organ blasts. The more experimental bits are loosely constructed and improvisational in manner and most likely were used for scenes of intrigue or suspense. If the experimental abstractions are disturbingly druggy, the more exotic bits are pleasingly psychedelic and percussive.

Dell'Orso gives yet another convincing performance as a frightened and/or highly stimulated woman by crying and moaning in either pain or pleasure on two stand-out tracks.

Nearly every cut sounds like it was steeped in lysergic acid. In other words, Roma Drogata is a fascinating discovery for fans of psychedelic soundtracks.

See a promo video about the Roma Drogata soundtrack.

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"The Other Face" (MP3 edit)

Roma Violenta (OST)
Guido & Maurizio De Angelis
Beat

In the annals of crime cinema, soundtracks for polizziotteschi (Italian police action thrillers) are a special caliber of crime jazz and felonious funk. Guido and Maurizio De Angelis are specialists of the genre and their soundtrack for Marino Girolami's Roma Violenta ('75) is one of the best.

At least two of the 23 featured tracks are already well known among collectors of polizziotteschi compilations (such as Crippled Dick's Beretta 70, Plastic's Piombo Rovente and Cinevox's Roma Violenta among others). "Gangster Story" is ripping action funk built around an arresting hook. "Sliding Crime" (aka "New Special Squad") is throbbing spacy funk with helicopter guitars that sound like they were played by The Edge.

Compared to those killer tracks, most of the score is less striking, but still compelling thanks to lean and mean arrangements. Funky beats, echoing flutes, flanged guitar riffs, angry harmonica wailing, distorted keyboard textures and rubbery bass lines make this stuff as street-hardened as anything you'll find in a blaxploitation movie, but it's moodier and more atmospheric too.

It's interesting to note that the De Angelis brothers were cranking out up to 15 scores a year when they recorded Roma Violenta. Not only was it a fertile period, the work is generally of exceptionally high quality. That's clearly apparent here. Even if you think you have the best tracks already, get this for the gripping variations on the main theme. You won't regret it.

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Roma Violenta (Compilation)
Various Artists
Cinevox

Here's a collection of tracks from Italian 70s crime movies -- you know the sort, starring proto Italian stallions Fabio Testi (sounds like the ultimate macho stage name), Franco Nero and others. Fans of the genre will already be familiar with other similar compilations, most notably Crippled Dick's Beretta 70 and Plastic's Piombo Rovente. While Roma Violenta shares a track or two with one or both of the other collections, it remains a distinctively different collection. The same composers crop up on all or most of the three comps, including Stelvio Cipriani, Franco Micalizzi, Francesco De Masi, the De Angelis brothers, lending some commonality to them. But since this is a Cinevox set, expect plenty of Goblin and Goblin-related projects including some that overlap into the 80s -- which dates Roma Violenta slightly later than its predecessors. The mood ranges from intense and hard-driving to melodramatic and wistful. Depending on one's taste for Goblin, their ample presense on this compilation may add or detract to its overall appeal. The selection includes "Trumpet's Flight" from Squadra Antigangsters, the complete Cinevox soundtrack for which is reviewed below.

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Rosemary's Baby / Vampire Killers
Krzysztof Komeda
Polonia

Score, Baby's token "Halloween" soundtrack review? There's nothing token about Komeda's music, particularly the score for the Polanski horror classic Rosemary's Baby. This Polonia release pairs it with Komeda's score for another lesser Polanski effort, The Fearless Vampire Killers (simply called Vampire Killers here). The score for Baby is suitably creepy, featuring wordless vocal chants. The Vampire Killers score also features an ominous choir, but the mood is less demonic. The arrangements are pure Komeda, as he always finds creative ways to use individual instruments in an orchestral setting. Jazzy flute, ponderous oboe, baroque harpsichord, tuned-down guitar, intriguing vibes. Although the movies are quite different from one another, their scores are complementary.

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The Rough Guide to Bollywood
Various Artists
Rough Guide

Ah, Bollywood. What was once an exotic oddity to western ears is becoming almost commonplace (at least among the indie and art film crowd). There are at least two Hindi films drawing crowds at the local cineplex ("Monsoon Wedding" and "Lagaan") and that theatrical set piece at the end of Moulin Rouge was clearly influenced by the big musical numbers found in so many Bollywood epics. It seems the distance between Bolly and Holly is shrinking. Hopefully, there will be a Bollywood section turning up in the local video stores, too.

In the meantime, we'll have to get our fix with compilations like this one, The Rough Guide to Bollywood. Although there is some overlap between this one and other compilations (Bollywood Funk, Doob Doob o' Rama, etc.), there are plenty of fresh tracks as well. Although the compiler, DJ Ritu, was limited to "love songs" due to contractual obligation, the selection still displays the characteristics we love about Bollywood soundtracks: the outlandish arrangements, empassioned singing and exotic instrumentation.

Unlike some of the other Bollywood compilations, this one has helpful liner notes, with filmic and/or cultural info about every track. For example, "Aap Jaise Koi" is the Indian equivalent of Abba's "Dancing Queen." And "Yeh Dosti Hum Nahin" is the ultimate "buddy" song. Who knew?

For more info about Rough Guide CDs, visit www.WorldMusic.net.

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Roy Colt & Winchester Jack
Piero Umiliani
Cinevox

This world premiere of Piero Umiliani's unusual spaghetti western score will surprise fans of Umiliani and of the genre itself. Billed by Cinevox as "lounge music for two cowboys", this 1970 score has a contemporary beat-driven psychadelic country cocktail mariachi rock sensibility (if that's even possible).

The movie itself -- about rival outlaws on a treasure hunt -- was unconventional in that it was directed by horror maestro Mario Bava. Just as Bava isn't well known for westerns, Umiliani isn't well known for western scores. He's best known for sexy soundtracks like Sweden Heaven & Hell, Angeli Bianchi...Angeli Lineri, and Il Corpo.

The track listing can be misleading, since each track bears the title of the movie, plus a sequence number. These tracks either incorporate the main theme, which is sort of humorous yet melancholy, or diverge into a number of melodic motifs, featuring guitar, organ, drums, brass and bass.

The score has an almost cut-and-paste dynamic, making for a somewhat disorienting aural experience. Luckily the themes are catchy and worth hearing in this bizarre format. Highly recommended.

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