Waxwork records, the New Orleans based record label specializing in soundtrack releases, announced a batch of five  2018 releases that will constitute their subscription special package together with other goodies that interest soundtrack collectors.

First and foremost, i would mention the 2LP special deluxe edition of the Michael Abels surprisingly brilliant score for GET OUT, one of the cinematic sensations of 2017 directed by Jordan Peel. Abels took brave decisions for the composition of the score, following tribal, blues and African ethnic musical elements to create a stunning musical accompaniment for Peele's surrealistic allegory on racial discrimination. Haunting harps, violas and bells introduce the white people's mysterious and creepily sterilized environment, while the ethnic color - especially the astonishing use of voices - is used for the black hero's descent into nightmare. It is really peculiar that this score only released in digital format in April, and no cd release is scheduled. Waxwork announced the 2LP presentation, that will reveal the score's power and unique inspiration to vinyl aficionados, and i sincerely hope that there will be a cd release sometime in the near future for the thousands of film music fans who do not own a turntable and would like to admire Abels' excellent score.

The other four releases from Waxwork include double LP presentations in deluxe treatments and unique new artwork. First of all the Goblin full score for "DAWN OF THE DEAD", a presentation of every note ever used for the legendary "NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD", Jerry Goldsmith's full score for "THE BURBS" and Christopher Young's symphonic masterpiece for Sam Raimi's "DRAG ME TO HELL".

Goblin's score for "DAWN OF THE DEAD" was only released on LP in a 32 minutes duration program while on cd the Italian expanded editions by Cinevox include around 52 minutes. The Dagored label LP issue that was released in 2001 offered a bonus track, "Zombi Sexy", a 2:20 minute cue that was used in the movie in a scene when Stephen and Francine have a romantic dinner. Now Waxwork announces an expanded program that hopefully will include the 20 more minutes that exist in the cd programs. The real challenge for Waxwork, actually, is to reach the astounding sonic quality of the Japanese Seven Seas label pressing...will they make it?

 

The soundtrack for the movie that changed everything in the cinematic horror, George Romero's "NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD" will be released for the first time in its entirety and in a deluxe completely new packaging. Of course everyone who loves cinematic horror remember the chilling score of the movie, an anthology of library tracks the director used in order to create the unique atmosphere of his landmark film. It was producer Karl Hardman who did the bulk of the job finding the right music to enter the film digging in the Capitol Records music library. Varese Sarabande released an LP in 1982 that contained 15 tracks of an approximate duration of 39 minutes, that quickly sold out and now has become an object of desire for thousands of soundtrack (and not only) collectors. The original Varese pressing fetches prices of around 70 to 100$ in near mint condition. It was about time a reissue should appear and thus Waxwork entered the game. It should be noted here that a small independent label named "Zero Day Releasing" released a 49 minute cd with every track that appeared in the movie, actually a labor of love of Jim Cirronela who produced the album. Waxwork has not revealed the contents of the 2LP set, but considering the many counterparts involved (Museum of Modern Art, Romero himself, Criterion Collection etc) i guess that we will have the opportunity to access every single note heard in the movie.

The two modern installments in the Waxwork discography, Jerry Goldsmith's score for Joe Dante's 1988 "THE BURBS" and Chris Young's 2009 "DRAG ME TO HELL" never had an LP release in the past, but considering the huge popularity of any of Goldsmith's work and the particular Chris Young score, i believe that these two double LP sets will find a large audience that will be willing to spend their precious bucks...Both scores are favorites of mine. The ironically grotesque synth-heavy score of maestro Goldsmith for Joe Dante's black comedy was released two times on cd by the Varese Sarabande cd club, the one in 1990 in a limited edition of 2500 copies that vanished from the market very quickly and the second one in 2007 in 3000 copies and the double duration (61 minutes instead of the 31 of the first release). Both pressings are long out of print and really sought after. As for Chris Young's superb full symphonic and choral work it was released in a now out of print Lakeshore Records cd. I am very curious to listen to this amazing symphonic work on vinyl mostly because the usage of solo violin as the voice of the devil plus the very unique and terrifying choral work and instrumentation (toy percussion, mellotron etc) are immensely intriguing orchestration choices for a sonic quality demanding soundtrack collector.