Laced レコード& CD

Review: RECOMMENDED
If 2020, and the coronavirus pandemic, did anything good for music it was forcing a long overdue reevaluation of the role technology plays. Video games had a bumper year, and it didn't take long for the historic relationship between computer entertainment and contemporary musical compositions to start finding favour with content-starved editorial teams.

They say there's no turning back, ever, and as such the smart money is on albums like Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice not just becoming more commonplace, but taken more seriously going forward. Soundtrack to Activision's critically acclaimed video game of the same name, in which players take on the role of a shinobi in feudal Japan, as you'd expect it's a deeply atmospheric collection that invokes misty mountaintops, shadows dancing off bamboo and patient heroics. An OST equal to any major movie.

Review: Akira Yamaoka's sprawling, meticulously reimagined soundtrack for the 2024 remake of Silent Hill 2 finds the Japanese composer returning to his iconic score with renewed intensity and ambition. Across six vinyl LPs, Yamaoka completely reworks and expands his original vision, fusing trip-hop, industrial rock, musique concrete, and dark ambience into a haunting sonic tapestry. Familiar themesisuch as the iconic 'Theme Of Laura (Laura's Emotions)' and the chilling piano rework on 'Laura Plays The Piano (2024)'iemerge transformed, their familiar motifs drifting through layers of distorted textures, spectral synths, and disquieting percussion. Pieces like 'Phantasmagoria', 'Angel's Thanatos & Celestial Peaper', and 'The Cry Of The Nurse' amplify the sense of psychological horror, while quieter cuts ('Promise (Pragma Version)', 'Echoes Of Silence', 'Cinderella Music Box') introduce fragile melodic moments amid the oppressive tension. Rather than merely revisiting past glories, Yamaoka elevates the soundtrack into an ambitious work that holds up as a standalone listening experience, capturing both the psychological depth of Silent Hill and his own evolution as a composer. This definitive vinyl editionicarefully curated by Yamaoka himselfiis an essential immersion for fans, offering a hypnotic, unsettling, and ultimately profound journey into the darkest reaches of the psyche.

Review: Bethesda Game Studios and Laced Records team up to bring the music of Bethesda's latest video game release, Starfield, to a deluxe vinyl edition. The anticipated follow-up record to titans in the open world genre, such as Fallout and The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim - also developed by Bethesda - the 2023 game makes ample use of orchestral scoring and motifs, befitting of the interstellar sci-fi genre it operates in. Suitably, they chose composer and producer Inon Zur for composition duties; Zur's deft electronic palette weaves astrally through orchestral and classical traditions, bringing several centuries' worth of musical convention into a single OST, backed by the Budapest Film Orchestra.