Although never intended for public consumption as an album, the collection of tracks that make up To-Day’s Sound has provided a treasure trove of funky grooves and retro sounds for cratediggers, musicians and DJs for decades.

Better known for his film scores, Italian composer Piero Umiliani conceived the project as a selection of library tracks to be picked up by TV producers. Armed with a new-fangled mini-Moog synthesiser and aided by crack team of jazz sessioners, Umiliani wanted to flex on as wide a variety of contemporary styles as possible, or as he billed on the sleeve: Rock, rhythm and blues, beat, underground, country, pop.

Cue a dazzling breadth of sounds and textures, as everything from lounge, jazz, Tropicália, prog, funk, kosmische and more whizz past in a succession of swift, nimble compositions. Kitsch at times but never anything less than masterful, the record went on to become a huge influence on the Beastie Boys among others. Indeed, free of the band’s rhymes, the Beasties’ 1996 instrumentals comp The In Sound From Way Out! plays almost like an Umiliani tribute LP.