In 1998, Japanese digital artist and composer Osamu Sato conceived LSD: Dream Emulator as an alternative to the mindless adventure games available for the Sony Playstation at the time. It was an open-world concept in which the player "explores surreal environments without any objective"... pretty much exactly what the title describes. It was a cult hit but never made any major waves in the gaming world, which was itself still a (relatively) niche subculture by today's standards. 20 years later, Sato has revisited the game's iconic soundtrack for its first vinyl release, touching up the tracks and adding on a slew of remixes from the original CD release with a few new ones as well, with heavy hitters like Morgan Geist, Mike Paradinas aka µ-Ziq, Jimi Tenor, Japanese techno hero Ken Ishii, Hyperdub chiptune-techno alchemist Quarta330 and more rounding out the list of personnel. All of Sato's originals are dripping with heavy 90s Warp vibes; "Funky Solution," "Fax Factory" and "Oriental Grill" all sound like some of RDJ or Squarepusher's more playful bass-driven braindance, while "Fried Banana," "Professional Problem" and "Long Tall Eyelash" recall some of the deeper, more introspective fare from the Artificial Intelligence series. I'm actually more taken with Sato's immaculate and meticulously-programmed original score than most of the remixes, although Morgan Geist's chillout room-primed mix of "TV River" and the Pantunes mix of "Professional Problem" are pretty hot. 20 tracks in total, spread across three red colored LPs housed in a deluxe three-panel gatefold. Def one of the craziest records to come across my desk in a long time.

• red colored vinyl
• triple vinyl pressing
• housed in deluxe three-panel gatefold jacket
• includes remixes by Morgan Geist, Jimi Tenor, Ken Ishii + more
• music label: Ship To Shore Phonograph Co. 2019

reviewed by dwigt rortugal 05/2019