Hi friends and welcome to episode 26 of The Music Cabinet! Not much pre-planning goes into my shows, if any at all, so what turned out to be a theme-less episode, actually turned out to have one (sort of) after all! It’s also a bit on the shorter side (just over 42 minutes), but it’s chock-full of sonic goodness, I promise.

Up first is a new 45 from the good folks over at delights45rpm.com, and this one is called Unresolved by SimfOnyx. It’s another beautiful release and well worth picking up. Shout out to my man Markey Funk for this one.


It’s been a while since I’ve featured some Gainsbourg on the ol’ Cabinet here, but rest assured, his records are never far from the home hi-fi. Up next is the title track to Gainsbourg’s 1976 album, L’homme a tete de chou. This record features a veritable who’s who of British library scene musicians including Alan Hawkshaw on keys, Alan Parker on guitar, Dougie Wright on drums, et al. A killer record from start to finish.


Continuing on with the French selections, this next one is a real classic. La Planete Sauvage, or Fantastic Planet, is a 1973 animated sci-fi film about humans living on a strange planet with these giant humanoid aliens. It’s a real trip and highly recommended, if you’ve yet to see it. The film is a French-Czechoslovakian production, but the score is by French composer Alain Goraguer. An absolute gem of a record, right here. Featured on this episode are Deshominisation (I) and Les hommes – La grande co-existence.


In 1969, Italian composer Luciano Michelini released La conquista di luna – a sort of soundtrack to an imaginary film about humankind’s conquering of the moon (obviously influenced by NASA’s mission to the moon, during the same year). Here are La conquista di luna, and Tycho.


In 2014, while digging through the bins at my local record shop, I stumbled across this cool looking record called Misiunea Spatiala Delta, or Delta Space Mission. The sticker on the shrink wrap said that it was a “lost” score commissioned but never used for this Romanian sci-fi animation film. My interest was piqued of course, so I picked it up. After doing a little more research, I came to find out that the producers put out a call for Romanian composers to submit their ideas for the score. The composer of this record, Rodion Rosca, submitted this work, but the producers passed on it! Thankfully, the good people at Strut Records UK took it upon themselves to release it. Here are Generic (Credits) and Bau-bau.


And now for some made for Italian TV musica, up next is Sandro Brugnolini’s L’uomo dagli occhiali a specchio, or The Man With the Mirrored Glasses. This TV drama follows the investigation of a mysterious shipwreck and all the strange events that surround said investigation. Originally released in 1975 on the Vroommm library label out of Italy, this score was lovingly reissued in 2015 by the always awesome Cinedelic label. Here are two tracks from Brugnolini’s outstanding score, Tallonato, and La notte muore.


In 1965, famed Italian director Mario Bava, directed a film called Terrore nello spazio (renamed Planet of the Vampires by American International Pictures). In this Italian-Spanish production, crew members of two spaceships crash land into a mysterious and unexplored planet. The crew soon finds out that they are not alone and soon, mayhem ensues. The film caused quite a stir (amongst grindhouse audiences that is) and many consider it to be one of Bava’s best works. Highly influential, to say the least. The score was written by Gino Marinuzzi, Jr. and it is quite stellar. Since the cues are quite short, I included four of them in this episode: Terrore nello spazio (main titles), Evil Spirits, The Living Dead, and Crazy Crew. Check out the use of electronics in these cues…wow!


Last, but definitely not least, I leave you a cue by the great Piero Umiliani. This next track is taken off a 1980 Italian sci-fi record (so I guess this episode had a theme after all!) called Tra scienza e fantascienza by Moggi – one of Umiliani’s many pseudonyms. Here’s another fine example of Umiliani’s experimental electronic work. Originally released on the maestro’s own Omicron label, this record has been reissued several times, including three tracks from the record that were pressed on a killer 45 on the Easy Tempo label back in 2010. Top stuff all the way through.


Thanks for reading/listening! Stay safe and see you next month. x

DJ Alfonso

P.S. - Hit me up on Twitter if you have any comments, complaints, corrections, etc. Find me @djalfonso