Acclaimed director and actor Eli Roth has curated a collection of some of his favorite songs from the heyday of “commedia sexy all italiana” (or sexy Italian comedies) of the ‘70s and ‘80s on a new collection entitled Eli Roth’s Red Light Disco: Dancefloor Seductions From Italian Sexploitation Cinema.
With the collection, Roth invites listeners into his very own red light discothéque. A forbidden journey across the vaults of legendary Italian soundtrack label CAM Sugar, Eli Roth’s Red Light Disco: Dancefloor Seductions From Italian Sexploitation Cinema will be released on March 21 via CAM Sugar/UMe.
The compilation features 20 infectious dancefloor fillers, spanning from kinky disco and psychedelic funk to swagger-heavy rock and roll and seductive bossa nova, all handpicked by Roth who was granted access into CAM Sugar’s extensive archive of more than 2,000 Italian and French soundtracks.
The music from these beloved cult movies is both highly sought after by fanatics of the genre as well as lovers of Italian dance music; much of it has never been released outside of the films in which they’re featured.
“When I first heard the music of the Italian genre films of the 1970s, these tracks were impossible to find outside of the films themselves. I would rip the music from the DVDs or VHS tapes, often with the dialogue, because I couldn’t find them anywhere else,” writes Roth in his accompanying essay.
“When CAM Sugar asked me to curate this collection, it was not only a thrill for me as a film fan, it was a dream as a director too, because they opened the archive to thousands and thousands of previously unreleased tracks. Songs that have not been heard since the original film releases, all pristine as if they were recorded today. I wanted to curate a party, a very cool, very groovy 1970s Italian disco party, as if we were all in a scene from one of these movies. There were so many songs to choose from that we wound up with a double album, and these are just the final selections. Horror and Italian genre fans will recognize some of them and now have perfect recordings. It’s a party from start to finish.”
Eli Roth’s Red Light Disco will be available in several formats, including a standard version on either 2LP black vinyl or CD, or a limited deluxe edition, presenting the album on red vinyl and boasting a special mirrored cover, a 45 RPM 7” single with two rare cuts—one unreleased and one previously unissued on vinyl—plus a poster and a set of postcards with unseen photographs from Italian sexy comedy film sets. All versions of the album include a beautifully designed 28-page booklet with extensive liner notes by Roth.
Order Eli Roth’s Red Light Disco now.
