To many music fans, the music of Ennio Morricone will always be associated with the spaghetti westerns he scored, such as ‘The Good, The Bad And The Ugly,’ which catapulted him to international stardom, but westerns are just the tip of the iceberg where the maestro was concerned; after all, this genius scored hundreds of films in his lifetime, crafting an awesome body of work that spanned a multitude of different genres and styles. The enthralling compilation that is ‘Crime’ trawls the lesser-known sides of Morricone to explore the scores he crafted for Italian crime dramas during the 1960s and ’70s and the set is revealing in its strangely dark and tension-laden palette. There is a surprising range of the avant-garde here, taking in everything from abstract musique concrète pieces, free jazz and over-the-top organ elegies, as well as excursions into psychedelia and funky detours. ‘Astratto 3’ has little more than xylophone, drums and a woman’s breathless moaning, and ‘Placcaggio’ places muted trumpet growls atop discordant strums and strangely funky drumming; there is much to savor here so dig in! Comes on evergreen vinyl.

Brand new, never played, sealed