[ghostfires]

Morricone is one film composer that I've never really dug into, simply because of the overwhelming amount of soundtracks, the large array of styles he crossed, and the extremely dull ones I've heard that turned me off at a younger age.

Now that all these reissues keep flooding outward...I was wondering if some of you that are real Morricone fans might be willing to provide some suggestions on where to begin, what to avoid, what is a must-have, etc for Morricone.

I just started listening to all of Extrasensorial because I saw it's coming soon on LITA, and I have to say that I LOVE it. Anything else actually truly similar to this soundtrack? I hate to ask that simply because everyone may list their favorite Morricone as something similar, but I think if you really think about it - his soundtracks are all very different, so there has to be sets of them that are more alike than others.

Any really weird, or uncharacteristic soundtracks from him?

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4aIbnP-jkg[/video]

[philball1974]

Im no expert but have a few digital albums. In the order I like I would say

1. Good the Bad and the Ugly
2. The Mission
3. JC's The Thing

Im in the same position as you @Ghostfires, I see these reissues and don't know whether to snatch one come September or let them go due to the prices being asked as have never heard them before.

[freshoj]

for my ears, I don't think you can go wrong with any of his Giallo soundtracks.

[Dollarhyde]

Hi, I have just recently become a bit obsessed with morricone. The more I research into his music the more I have gotten into his sound. I would happily recommend some of the cerberus and rca reissues from the early 80's, some of which can be found relatively cheap e.g. when man is the prey.

cera una volta il west is great and first presses can be found cheaper than the new reissue. metti una cera a cenna is also a favourite of mine. Then theres the awesome il sorriso del grande tentatore on beat records, featuring cantori moderni alessandroni. Who also feature on the great escalation ost.

Im holding out for an older issue of the bird with the crystal plumage rather than the reissue, and am also wishing for a copy of the big silence, og or reish.

Some comps are a good place to start to explore his many sounds I would recommend:

Barry 7's connectors 2 (featuring several morricone tracks)

Psychedelico jazzistico

Morricone 2000

Morricone 2001

The full movie to Varuschka is also online to stream.

Im on the train so apologies if the writings a bit hap hazard.


And thanks for the extrasensoreal tip off, not heard of it before.

[freshoj]

Quando l'amore è sensualità is an affordable one that I was pleasantly surprised by how much I dig:

http://www.discogs.com/Ennio-Morricone- ... se/3422133

[skate]

Its a little difficult to recommend which albums you should start with as there are so many, and taste is subjective. However, a few of my personal favourites are:

- Le Professional (the main theme reminds me of elements of Extrasensorial)
- Il Grande Silenzio
- Maddalena (the track Chi Mai aside - as well known as it is, I'm not a fan)
- Le Clan Des Siciliens
- Giù La Testa

In order to find out which ones you might like, and which might have a similar sound to Extrasensorial, I'd probably recommend you listen to one of the many Morricone compilations. The most well know of these is called the 'Gold Edition' - available on CD or digitally. Also, Music On Vinyl released a compilation this year of some of his more well known tracks, called 'Collected'

Any really weird, or uncharacteristic soundtracks from him? Well, I've bought up all of this year's reissues with one exception; Gli Occhi Freddi Della Paura - too experimental for me.

[synthxanderharris]

Ipecac put out a killer compilation a few years back of Morricone's work that is available at Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/ ... recordi-20

[stumpybunker]

that is indeed a killer compilation above- lovely glossy booklet too.

[BasementHorror]

I've built up a pretty decent Morricone collection in the past few years of about 50 or so records. Of those, my favorites are (with discogs links)...

Il Gatto A Nove Code

Una Lucertola Con La Pelle Di Donna

Citta Violenta

Revolver

Metti, Una Sera A Cena

Un Esercito Di 5 Uomini

Una Pistola Per Ringo / Il Ritorno Di Ringo

And as for Morricone compilations, the best one I have come across so far...

Ennio Morricone - I Film Della Violenza

[BasementHorror]

Also Bluebeard and The Blue-Eyed Bandit kick serious ass as well.

[freshoj]

see, we've narrowed the 500 down to only 150! how helpful are we?

[prettybleak]

Spasmo

Cose'Come Sei

Il gato

Danger: Diabolik

Disco '78

[ghostfires]

@jmctodo - haha, yes that was exactly what I was hoping to avoid! But that's okay...I really appreciate all the responses, honestly. That is a decent size, but not overwhelming, selection of Morricone everyone has suggested that I can begin to slowly dive into. There are some duplicated titles, so perhaps I'll start there. I really appreciate it! (but my wallet does not)

[skate]

..."and am also wishing for a copy of the big silence, og or reish."

I emailed Beat Records a few days ago to ask if they had any plans to reissue this on vinyl. No reply from them yet, and given that they don't appear to press vinyl anymore it seems pretty unlikely they would anyway. Maybe one of the various labels reissuing Morricone vinyl will licence it and reissue.

[Se.Vero]

i saw him live in vienna earlier this year and that was an experience that cannot be described with words.
this one nearly brought me to tears with it's sheer beauty and grace.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuyYc0gINbU

i'm still sighing with pleasure when i listen to this.

[Dollarhyde]

let's hope so I've not heard the whole score yet, just the title theme on repeat, and some other bits on youtube.

[Dollarhyde]

I've also got a copy of this, it's a great lp.

I've just ordered a copy of l'assoluta naturale on cerberus too.

I've heard a couple of great tracks from it already looking forward to it's arrival.

[Dollarhyde]

a couple more, that I don't yet own.

Le Casse (the burglers)

Il serpente

and here is one of the better tracks from when man is the prey
[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Lnq5Fcpo-I[/video]

[antimax]

Great thread to have. But yeah, his scope of work is SO vast… This is actually one of my favorite tracks of his! [video]http://youtu.be/8iIZb0gOmFQ[/video]

[monsterworship]

All of the The Cerberus records stuff I have is great and are spinning often:

Blue eyes bandit
The chosen
Black belly of the Tarantula

I am only about 25-30 deep in ennio though.

[philball1974]

worth mentioning if you want a cheap way to listen to morricone then Deezer has 87 albums and you can get a free months trial. Probably similar for spottily too!

[orbtastic]

If you don't mind listening to CDs, then that is possibly the easiest/cheapest way to get a good slice of Morricone.

I've a lot on CD, I don't even want to count how many (I think a have a dozen alone on Bella Cassa) but there are 3-4 boxsets that are reasonably cheap that you should check out:


Platinum Morricone 3 CDs of his best/well known tunes, magic.
Complete Morricone (cost me about £60 a few years ago, it's now only £30 and has an amazing 15 (yes, fifteen!) disks...
Morricone in Colour 4 CDs of mostly Giallo albums/soundtracks, essential.
Made in France, as it says on the tin

Avoid those compilations like Complete Western or Mafia Movies, they are cheap for a reason. That said, Fistful of Sounds is a cheap way of getting the Spaghetti albums and they are not re-recordings. At least, they don't sound that way to me comparing to the original vinyl.

That aside, my personal favourites on vinyl are:

Espion Lève-Toi
The Thing
Giù La Testa
Once Upon a Time in the West
GBU
Fistful/Dollars more
Some weird Italian or Turkish 70s double LP which has a great track selection not on many other comps (Un Film Una Musica - Le Colonne Sonore Originali)

I also love Vergogna Schifosi, but haven't managed to find a copy whose price doesn't make my eyes water.

I saw him a few years ago at the Royal Albert Hall, it was fantastic. I've tickets to see him again this year at the 02.

Morricone in Venice is also well worth a watch.

I also liked his soundtrack to that plodding Italian thriller with Geoffrey Rush in it, can't remember the title. Does anyone know if it was released on vinyl? Can't seem to find a copy and the CD seems a bit elusive too.

[skate]

"I also liked his soundtrack to that plodding Italian thriller with Geoffrey Rush in it, can’t remember the title. Does anyone know if it was released on vinyl? Can’t seem to find a copy and the CD seems a bit elusive too."

La Migliore Offerta (The Best Offer)? There's no vinyl release that I'm aware of. The CD can be picked up for a reasonable price on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.it/Migliore-Offerta-V ... B00B5DOY7G
http://www.amazon.com/Migliore-Offerta- ... B00B5DOY7G
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Migliore-Offert ... B00B5DOY7G

[orbtastic]

Yeah that's the one, thanks. I tried a few times searching Amazon after buying the blu but it kept taking me to the mp3 page, possibly as I was using the English title.

[DISCOSUCKS...]

Since nobody has mentioned them (I think?), I have to shout out for these - absolute cornerstones to any serious EM collection in my opinion, with an incredible selection of his 60s/70s work:

MONDO MORRICONE
http://www.discogs.com/Ennio-Morricone- ... se/1356253
MORE MONDO MORRICONE
http://www.discogs.com/Ennio-Morricone- ... ase/950474
MOLTO MONDO MORRICONE
http://www.discogs.com/Ennio-Morricone- ... ase/434296

Not so easy to come across now on vinyl, but the 3xCD box set is a pretty great stop-gap:

http://www.discogs.com/Ennio-Morricone- ... se/2326605