Godzilla by Akira Ifukube Death Waltz Recording Company Grey Vinyl Record 2014

$

75

Godzilla The Japanese Original by Akira Ifukube Reissue Unavailable in this Death Waltz Grey variant in the United States. 

In terms of contents, the 1954 Godzilla grey vinyl disc uses the same material that La-La Land created and used for their 2004 CD release. I say created because this release features the altered “Tragic Sight of the Imperial Capital”. La-La Land meticulously changed this by using material from the “Godzilla at the Ocean Floor” to remove the crying sound effects that were recorded during the original orchestration. The result is better for it, even if its not authentic. This altered version is the one that appears on this set.

Naturally, due to space, this vinyl only contains the actual score and the extra “Film Version” tracks do not appear here. On the cool side, this vinyl does feature a bonus track that is unique to it. On the downside, the bonus track is the Godzilla Approaches stomping sound effect looped in quick recession. Pretty lame and an obvious bait and switch. They list this as a “Secret Hidden Track” on their site, giving the idea it might be something special but no luck.

For the quality, I’m not qualified to dissect the audio on this as I’m no vinyl expert. I know that vinyl will give a better audio output, although usually that’s from using an analog source. Since I imagine La-La Land created a digital source for their version, the quality should be pretty comparable to its CD counterparts. The only track that stood out to me, although for the wrong reasons, was “Prayer to Peace”, but this track has always sounded rough.

Tracklist

A1 Godzilla Approaches
A2 Godzilla Main Theme
A3 Ship Music / Sinking of Eikou-Maru
A4 Sinking of Bingou-Maru
A5 Anxieties on Ootojima Island
A6 Ootojima Temple Festival
A7 Stormy Ootojima Island
A8 Theme For Ootojima Island
A9 Japanese Army March I
A10 Horror of the Water Tank
A11 Godzilla Comes Ashore

B1 Godzilla’s Rampage
B2 Desperate Broadcast
B3 Godzilla Comes to Tokyo Bay
B4 Intercept Godzilla
B5 Tragic Sight of the Imperial Capital
B6 Oxygen Destroyer
B7 Prayer For Peace
B8 Japanese Army March II
B9 Godzilla at the Ocean Floor
B10 Ending
B11 Secret Hidden Track