Given the continued growth of vinyl sales around the world and seemingly endless opportunities to celebrate benchmark moments in popular culture, Christmas sometimes feels like a year-round holiday for audiophiles and record collectors. But what that deluge of material sometimes does is overshadow or obscure titles, special editions and other releases that family and friends would absolutely love but sadly somehow missed as higher-profile or better-promoted titles filled their shopping carts and emptied their wallets. As the holidays fast approach, Nerdist decided to dig through some of the year’s most exciting (and in some cases, least well known) music releases that the nerds in your life don’t yet know will be among their favorite gifts when they unwrap them in the weeks to come.
BATMAN – ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SCORE — $25/$35
For those too young to have been stricken right in the S on their chests by John Williams’ theme for the 1978 Superman, it was instead Danny Elfman’s score for Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman that set the sonic template for superhero movies. Mondo is releasing his music on vinyl for the first time in both regular and deluxe editions featuring 180-gram colored LPs in elaborate packaging.
Copies go on sale on the Mondo website the week of Thanksgiving and ship immediately.
BERNARD FEVRE – ORBIT CEREMONY 77 — $13
Black Devil Disco Club was little more than a footnote in disco’s illustrious history, but the man behind the moniker, French electronic music pioneer Bernard Fevre, has been mining his older work for reissues that bring new meaning to “obscure,†including this unreleased sci-fi themed library album full of quirky, cosmic grooves that sound both contemporary and timeless, are sure to blow minds as the soundtrack to the greatest space odyssey never told.
BLACK PANTHER: THE ALBUM — $29.98
Even if Avengers: Infinity War caused the most carnage, Black Panther changed the superhero landscape more dramatically than any of Marvel’s other 2018 movies. This is thanks to Ryan Coogler and a collection of themed songs curated by critical and commercial darling Kendrick Lamar. Pick up a copy of the soundtrack on deluxe double 180-gram etched vinyl.
Hollywood Records has a dedicated site where you can order the album on vinyl or digital.
HASBRO STUDIOS PRESENTS ’80s TV CLASSICS: MUSIC FROM THE TRANSFORMERS — $24.98
By now, every Optimus-Prime’s-death-fearing Transformers fan has acquired at least one copy of the soundtrack to the 1986 animated movie, but Enjoy the Ride Records has quietly released an even more obscure and exciting piece of the franchise’s musical legacy: a collection of cues from the original animated series, remastered from the original tapes by composer Robert J. Walsh and pressed on to character-themed colored vinyl.
JOHNNY JEWEL – THEMES FOR TELEVISION — $20
If, like for me, last year’s Twin Peaks: The Return left you on a high you’re still coming down from, check out this collection of previously unreleased music Chromatics producer Johnny Jewel composed for David Lynch to use on the series, which bridges the gap between the industry’s synth-electronic renaissance and original Peaks composer Angelo Badalamenti’s menacing soundscapes.
Order your copy from Jewel’s Italians Do It Better website.
THE SEARCH FOR ANIMAL CHIN SOUNDTRACK — $26.98
A few years before the events of mid90s, Powell Peralta’s iconic Bones Brigade skate team starred in this cult classic movie about the search for a mystic with a gift for grinding. The soundtrack LP, first released for Record Store Day 2018, features mp3s of every track, a fold-out poster, and a download of the film itself.
Visit Kanine Records to purchase your own copy of this vintage skate curio.
SPIDER-JAZZ: KPM CUES USED IN THE AMAZING ANIMATED SERIES — $32.69
The 1967 Spider-Man animated series remains a great time capsule both of the way the character was conceived and a bygone style for kids’ cartoons. Tireless crate digger Jonny Trunk searched high and low through KPM’s music libraries for the tracks for this compilation of music from the show, even if legal restrictions kept him from being able to include the title (or even the Marvel superhero’s name) on its cover.
SUSPIRIA (MUSIC FOR THE LUCA GUADAGNINO FILM) — $26.24
There were many who considered Luca Guadagnino’s remake of Dario Argento’s nightmarish classic a fool’s errand, even with his longtime collaborator Tilda Swinton in tow. But even after Guadagnino proved naysayers wrong with a film that both honors the original and stands beside it as its own masterpiece, Thom Yorke’s first feature-length score continues to ring in the ears of everyone who saw it, from solemn piano dirges to operatic choruses guaranteed to conjure something, even in real life.
Order a copy of Yorke’s score on the XL Recordings website.
TENEBRAE (ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK) — $36
Claudio Simonetti’s main theme for Tenebre ranks among the best pieces of horror disco (yeah, it’s a thing) ever recorded. In May, Waxwork Records released the definitive vinyl edition of his work with Fabio Pignatelli and Massimo Morante for Dario Argento’s giallo classic, featuring remastered sound, an expanded track listing and a die-cut gatefold jacket inspired by one of the film’s most memorable—and terrifying—sequences.
Waxwork Records’ website has copies available now for sale.
Which of these do you already have, and what do you think of our suggestions? Have better ones? Let us know in the comments below!
Images: Mondo, Medical Records, Hollywood Records, Enjoy the Ride, Johnny Jewel, Kanine Records, Trunk Records, XL Recordings, Waxwork Records
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