Michael Abels: Us Soundtrack (180g, Colored Vinyl) Vinyl 2LP Michael Abels

Set in present-day Santa Cruz and the Northern California coastline Us is Jordan Peele’s horror film starring Lupita Nyong and Winston Duke. Michael Abels, who worked on Peele’s Oscar winning film Get Out, is at the helm again, and what the director requested was… the sound of “gospel horror.” The film composer, who Peele found on YouTube and tracked down for Get Out in 2017, delivers just that with the help of a 30-person choir, Eastern European instruments, violins, percussion, and a virtual instrument called a Propanium drum,” which produces sounds “you can’t quite put your finger on, which is why it works well in this film.” There’s a balance abel finds emotionally as sheer terror, despair, and empathy of what the characters are experiencing are expressed through the score, and the soundtrack also includes a newly arranged Luniz “I Got 5 On It” (original version also on here) as well as a stand-out track by Janelle Monae, “I Like That.” Album artwork by illustrator Edward Kinsella, the interactive packaging include die-cut inner gatefold jackets that require customers to use scissors to cut through family-member portraits to reveal their tethered doppelgangers lurking in the shadows on the printed inner sleeves housed within.

• 180g pressing
• “Tethered Red Jumpsuit” colored vinyl
• illustration by Edward Kinsella
• gatefold jacket, printed sleeve, cut-through to reveal images
• music label: Waxwork 2019

reviewed by singing in japanese 10/2019