Data Discs - Videogames Vinyls

We are proud to present the first ever vinyl edition of Yoshitaka Azuma’s score to SEGA’s classic rail-shooter, Panzer Dragoon. First released in 1995 to coincide with the North American launch of the Saturn console, Panzer Dragoon has since become a cult favourite, not only for its stark art direction, inspired by renowned French artist Jean “Mobieus” Giraud, but also for its sweeping soundtrack. Composed by the late Yoshitaka Azuma, whose previous solo albums for Nippon Columbia had drawn on everything from ambient, prog, krautrock and electronic minimalism, the music of Panzer Dragoon moves between swelling orchestral pieces, blasts of rhythmic synthesis and ambient passages that wouldn’t seem out of place in the Tangerine Dream discography. When viewed as a standalone concept album, Panzer Dragoon succeeds in somehow conveying, by the sum of its seemingly dissonant parts, that most basic of human fantasies; the sensation of being in flight. In the 90s.

Panzer Dragoon is presented as a double 180g LP, cut at 45rpm and housed in a single pocket, 425gsm mirror board sleeve with accompanying lithographic insert and silver laminated OBI strip. This edition features the entirety of Azuma’s score, along with three bonus tracks of alternate synthesizer versions. It is available in the following editions (all priced at £22.99):

180g 2xLP on frosted clear, sky blue and grey vinyl (limited edition, available exclusively from the Data Discs site)
180g 2xLP on sky blue vinyl
180g 2xLP on classic black vinyl

Sample tracks: soundcloud.com/datadiscs/sets/data008-panzer-dragoon

Please note: this product is in stock, but please allow around 2 weeks for your order to ship (also see our Christmas schedule below).

Collaborating once again with legendary composer Yuzo Koshiro, we are thrilled to present one of the most revered and timeless soundtracks of the 16bit era: The Revenge of Shinobi. Composed in 1989, the music for the Mega Drive game (known as The Super Shinobi in Japan) blended Western dance music with Japanese overtones, to create something truly unlike anything else before. The soundtrack was Koshiro’s first commissioned work for SEGA and served as a forerunner to his seminal Streets of Rage trilogy, where the concepts and styles he founded with Shinobi would be expanded upon to astonishing effect. Koshiro’s work on The Revenge of Shinobi remains a testament to the ingenuity of early game composers who, when given enough creative freedom, found the means of drawing new and unexpected sounds from extremely limited hardware.

The Revenge of Shinobi is presented as a 180g LP, cut at 45rpm and packaged in a 425gsm outer sleeve, with heavyweight inner sleeve and double-sided lithographic print, featuring original artwork sourced from the SEGA archives in Japan. The release also includes exclusive liner notes written by Koshiro himself. It is available in the following editions (all priced at £19.99):

180g bone and black vinyl (limited edition, available exclusively from the Data Discs site)
180g bone coloured vinyl
180g classic black vinyl

In addition, there will be an extremely limited edition (50 copies) signed and numbered by Yuzo Koshiro. These will be sent out at random to customers who order within the first 12 hours of sale. Please see our website for full details.

Sample tracks: soundcloud.com/datadiscs/sets/data009-the-revenge-of-shinobi

Please note: this is a pre-order item, expected to ship in January.