Back catalogue: Library/Archive

Review: Measured Mile is a new 7" label run by regular Ace consultant and confidante Bob Stanley. The plan is to release DJ-friendly 45s that are either very rare or previously unavailable on seven-inch. On this new one come two pieces from esteemed library musicians - the well known pairing of Alan Hawkshaw and Brian Bennett, and Dave Richmond. 'Name Of The Game' is a slow instrumental blues piece with beats ready to be plundered for hip-hop beats that once soundtracked a 1970s aftershave ad, while Richmond's 'Confunktion' is a motivational builder-upper with drums and organs aplenty.

Review: KPM Music might just be one of the most expansive music libraries out there, boasting a whopping 30,000 exclusive music tracks for licensing. Some of their earliest pieces are being reissued by Measured Mile, the latest of which appears here in the form of a split 7" by four of the label's most treasured contributors. 'Viva La Tamla Motown' helms up the A-side with wonky, laboured drumming and an excitable rock n' rolly guitar and harmonica. 'Main Chance' brings up the B with a more loungeified flutey strutter.

Review: From the 1979 LP Accadde A... by Arawak, this superb 7" showcases standout Italian Library recordings that you need in your life. Arawak, one of Luciano Simoncini's many pseudonyms, crafted compositions for film scores, radio, and television in Italy and this album remained obscure until the legendary Madlib heavily sampled it in 2000 and drove up the price of originals. The LP received its first reissue by Golden Pavilion in 2017 so fans could cop it once more and now two of the best bits from it are on their own record. Both tracks oscillate between mellow dreamy atmospheres and irresistible drum breaks with 'Bali' being sampled in 'Real Eyes' by Quasimoto in 2000, and b-side jam coming on strong with bagpipes intertwined with punchy bass and steady drums.

Review: The Galaxy Sound Co US is now up to number 41 in their buy-on-sight 'Series: 1$ Bin Breaks'. It's another vital 45 rpm that packs a lot in with plenty of epic sound sources that you will recognise and love from some of your favourite hip-hop joints. Artists like Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth, Puff Daddy, De La Soul, Ghostface Killah, J Dilla, Redman and Alicia Keys have called upon the sounds you will hear here from original artists like Odessa, Milt Jackson With The Ray Brown Big Band, Issac Hayes and many more. File this one under essential breaks, library sounds and jazz nuggets.

Review: As part of the RELOVED series from Four Flies - co-curated with fellow indie label Little Beat More - comes one of a handful new reinterpreted versions of Alessandro Alessandroni's 'Tema di Susie', the star soundtrack cut from the 1976 Italian noir film Sangue Di Sbirro. With the film regaling a gangland drama centring on revenge, passion, and the madness of love, Alessandroni's original minute-and-a-half-long cut is an eerily serene counterpoint to its themes and here appears alongside a new remix from French producer Mounika, who fleshes out the original cinematic-soul number's circa-140bpm headnod and serene flauting with beefier drums and wilder piano flourishes; this is a juxtaposition you can hear as clearly as day here, on this A-and-B'd delight.

Review: Zone Black almost never was. The KPM music library originally commissioned Emil Amos to make a collection of new material which could be used in television and film. A little way into this process, the executive who did that hiring departed, and the artist opted to take what was there to the Drag City label in a bid to turn it into a proper album. The end result is something between the two. For all intents and purposes, plenty here fits into the library definition, but this is a far more personal, deeper and coherent take on the format. The foundations of library music - commercial use - soon thrown out with the dishwater, and instead the focus was on creating movements and arrangements that would hold up on their own, and create entire narratives independently, for themselves. Removed from what's happening on screen, you can live in these tracks and nowhere else.

Review: After an impressive first volume last year, ATA Records are back with more of their Library Archive sounds. Inspired by greats such as KPM and DeWolfe but with a raw Leeds twist, this collection was produced on an array of old analogue gear across a series of sessions. Opener 'The Glass Eye' sets a psyched-out 60s funk feeling from the off then there are more upbeat and prickly pieces with lush flute leads likes like 'Windie Man' and raw, break-driven joints like the deep cut 'Fight Or Fuzz.' Word is that more volumes of this are planned in future, which we're glad to hear.

Review: Alan Parker & Alan Hawkshaw's Black Pearl is a classic from 1973 that deserves the regular reissue treatment it enjoys. It is a cult classic bit of library music on De Wolfe that takes the form of a collection of orchestral funk pieces that are perfect examples of the dramatic music styles synonymous with the 70s. Some pieces are widescreen, string laced opuses with lavish 60s exotica influences while others are more moody and dramatic with thunderous drums and edgier strings.

Review: After the success of the first Alessandroni Proibito box set, which sold out in pre-sale before it even hit the stores, Four Flies is proudly back with Volume 2 of the compilation. This new release too features five exclusive 7" singles, housing a total of ten seriously rare tunes. All previously unreleased in physical format, the tracks have been carefully selected from the soundtracks of five obscure Italian films from the late 70s - sexy flicks that flirted with the line between erotic and explicit, and which are now largely forgotten, having been out of circulation for decades. As was the case with the previous volume of the compilation, Alessandroni's music rises above the films' flimsy plots, improvised actors, and amateurish production, exuding his distinctive touch thanks to the (typically Italian) artisanal approach he took to his musical craft. The composer let his creativity run free, playing with his instruments at home as if he were in his own little amusement park; trying to have fun and produce something entertaining and captivating with just the few means at his disposal.