Back catalogue: Leftfield

Review: First released more than two decades ago in 2004, Yo-Yo Ma Plays Ennio Morricone features the renowned cellist performing pieces from the legendary composer's very many iconic film scores. It was recorded with the Roma Sinfonietta Orchestra and pianist Gilda Butta and Morricone himself served as orchestrator, conductor and producer. The album remained on the Billboard Top Classical Albums chart for 105 weeks after its initial release and now this resisted and stunning collection again offers up music from Once Upon a Time in America, The Legend of 1900, The Untouchables, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, and more. It is a masterful tribute done with sheer class and beautifully orchestrated collaboration.

Review: Cliff Martinez's soundtrack is a full realised musical world that is defined by eerie synths and pulsating rhythms, all of which perfectly capture The Neon Demon hypnotic and unsettling atmosphere. Martinez is well known for his work on Drive and Only God Forgives and here once more delivers a score that is both haunting and seductive while mirroring the neon-lit world of fashion and obsession. The soundtrack weaves dreamy, ambient textures with dark, throbbing electronic undercurrents that draw you in and highlights include 'Neon Demon' and 'Mine' which pulse with icy beauty and mean this one stands as one of Martinez's most evocative and chilling compositions.

Review: OK. Let's face some facts. The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack to Drive is up there with one of the best scores ever put together. And that goes for the compositions of Cliff Martinez as much as the guest bands and artists drafted for the other songs. Where else are you going to hear Riziro Ortolani and Katy Ranieri's operatic overture, 'Oh My Love', and The Chromatics' low sung, mood-building electro tracker 'Tick of the Clock', side by side? The answer is, of course, nowhere. And that's just skimming the surface. Deeper inspection take us to some stunning pieces of ambient and drone. 'I Drive' is a remarkable example of gong bath on record, 'Skull Crushing' is overwhelmingly heavy thanks to its use of distant sound and up front quiet. It feels like you're in a pressurised chamber. We could go on, but that wouldn't save any room to mention the trophy piece - College and Electric Youth's spectacularly emotive synth stunner, 'A Real Hero'.

Review: This definitive 2025 edition of the Donkey Kong Country soundtrack has been meticulously recreated by Jammin' Sam Miller using original SNES data and studio-grade equipment. Originally released in 1994, the game's music, featuring classics like 'Aquatic Ambiance' and 'Fear Factory', redefined video game soundtracks. This triple-vinyl boxset takes in all of the many highlights with fixed playback speeds and refreshed packaging. It's a nostalgic listen for those old enough to have been gaming back in the mid-nineties but also a rich source of samples for adventurous modern producers.

Review: Hiroshi Miyagawa would have been a fascinating person to sit down and talk with. A prolific and prominent jazz-pop musician in the 1960s, a decade most people would have enjoyed working in the music industry, he picked up a lot of awards during this time playing alongside vocalists such as The Peanuts. This was before he was drafted by producer and promoter Yoshinobu Nishizaki to score a new TV series about a WWII battleship restored, upgraded and sent into space to safeguard humans from extinction. Introducing Space Battleship Yamato, a show that came with a grand symphony which would go on to be one of Miyagawa's crowning legacies, soundtracks to a huge catalogue of episodes, feature length adventures, cash-ins and more. Symphonic Suite Yamato brings much of this together, from the sweeping and romantic to the bombastic, triumphant and tense.

Review: In 1976 Anthony Howarth produced a documentary film about the Badabi tribe in Southern Iran. Each spring, this indigenous group would make the difficult journey across the Zagros mountains and valleys to ensure their sheep had new pastures to graze. Led by Jafar Qoli, the movie chronicles this epic trek and various events along the way. Taking breathers only for weddings and mediation between contacts, and grappling with torrential rain and perilous terrain, among other challenges, it's an inspiring odyssey to say the least. The music fits the bill perfectly, bringing together the legendary Persian songwriter, editor and singer Shush? Guppy and revered English singer, composer and multi-instrumentalist Gerald Thomas Moore, transporting us to a time, place and people long-since committed to memory.

Review: Dietro il Processo is a TV investigation series directed by Franco Biancacci that was broadcast by RAI in Italy from 1978 to 1980 as part of the Storie allo Specchio series. The legendary Ennio Morricone composed the main theme and scored three episodes: L'urlo, L'ultima notte di Pier Paolo Pasolini and Il caso Montesi. Although the tracks were not initially released in any format, the soundtrack became available on CD in 2009. For Record Store Day 2025, this first-ever LP edition has been assembled and comes on white vinyl so allows a chance to revisit to these most dramatic pieces.

Review: The legendary film composer is back with a reissue of one of his most haunting and suspenseful i a perfect canvas for Morricone's groundbreaking score. Morricone's contribution to the thriller genre remains unparalleled, blending haunting lyricism with avant-garde experimentation. This score is no exception. From the eerie waltz of the main title, performed by the ethereal Edda Dell'Orso, to the unsettling dissonance that creeps beneath the surface, every note is designed to disturb and captivate. The music mirrors the film's dark narrative of a journalist trapped inside his own lifeless body, racing against time to solve a chilling conspiracy. Originally intended for a vinyl release in 1971, the full score was shelved until a limited CD surfaced in 1998, followed by an expanded 2009 edition that quickly sold out. This newly remastered release by Chris Malone is a great way to experience Morricone's work, offering a pristine listening experience for both avid collectors and newcomers. Accompanied by insightful liner notes from Miguel Angel OrdoNez, it stands as a great addition to any film score collection.

Review: Legendary composer Ennio Morricone's soundtrack for The Good, the Bad and the Ugly remains a towering achievement in film music. Effortlessly blending operatic grandeur with raw Western grit, it fuses whistles, guitars, choral howls and sharp percussion into one of cinema's most iconic themes. Each character receives a unique motif, Wagnerian in concept but rooted in 1960s pop flair. Tracks like 'The Ecstasy of Gold' are emotional epics on their own but really elevate the cinematic scenes into legend. Morricone didn't just score the film-he shaped its soul and this new limited-edition reissue is a great way to relive it.

Review: Alzati Spia is one of countless soundtracks from Ennio Morricone that expose his masterful ability to elevate film through music. This one from 1982 blends suspenseful orchestrations, dramatic tension and avant-garde experimentation that mirror the titular espionage thriller's atmosphere with real precision. Morricone's signature use of unconventional instrumentation and haunting melodies keeps you gripped while the eerie intrigue comes from string arrangements and bold bass. These are emotionally charged compositions that evoke rich mental imagery to the point that even without the film playing they unfold like an immersive mind movie.

Review: Morricone aficonadi will be champing at their costume jewellery for this one. Scored for the Sergio Martino film Ruba Al Prossimo Tuo (1976), Morricone provided a hauntingly atmospheric soundtrack, marking the flick out from the rest in the Italian Giallo wave, and its usually otherwise funk-backed, upbeat exploitation emotes. The film follows a chilling, traitorous femme-noir formula, as a young woman, Giulia, is put through a seedy ringer after witnessing a brutal murder. As Edda Dell'Orso sings above Morricone's samba arrangements, the record is notable for its renderings of classic Latin style in much broodier, more dubious tones.

Review: It's been a long time since Halo: Combat Evolved revolutionised the word of first-person shooter video games. Graphically superior to anything that had come before it, the franchise also benefits from a spectacularly gripping storyline in which humans are outgunned and out-teched by a ruthless and uncompromising alliance of superiorly equipped alien races united as The Covenant. The titular Halo adds a kind of Prometheus air of uncertainty, as nobody really knows what it does until attempts to activate the galaxy-destroying weapon reveal something worse than death - a parasitic breed called the Flood. If all that was enough to blow everyone away in 2001, 2004 brought us to a whole new level of immersion in this future scape. Just like its predecessor, a big part of the impact was the visionary score by gaming soundtrack masters Martin O'Donnell and Michael Savatori. Now here it is in all its Gregorian chanting glory.

Review: In the right circles,, Martin O'Donnell and Michael Savatori are living legends. Working with the iconic US video game company Bungie Inc, the pair put their names on the map - or maybe maps? - by creating soundtracks to a number of high profile titles, either as a duo or individually. O'Donnell is arguably the better known, or at least has the bigger online persona, but both composers deserve plenty of credit. Halo: Combat Evolved was the first title in what is now a huge and genre-defining first person shooter franchise, and the score reflects the emergence of video game music as an integral part of the on-screen action. O'Donnell and Savatori's efforts to ensure instrumentation dramatically changed with events in the game, which is by nature relatively non-linear, was a revelation. While their efforts to separate these into individual suites foresaw the rise of playable stories as films in their own right.

Review: Laced Records and Halo Studios partner up to bring the epic soundtracks of the original Halo trilogy to vinyl for the first time, remastering and revamping 83 original scores from Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, and Halo 3. the music that defined a franchise is thus ethered in perpetuity. Weaving orchestral elements, prog rock, drum corps marches, and heavy metal, Halo presents a perfect bottling of angst and militancy; owing to its popularity with a certain teen gamer cohort, Halo 2's score especially made history as the first video game OST to chart on the Billboard 200. Now, each soundtrack is presented in its own sleeve with custom artwork, and comes in a collector's box adorned with a debossed Halo logo and silver laminate finish.