Throw a hex on the whole family. Gil Melle’s soundtrack for The Andromeda Strain, a 1971 science fiction film directed by Robert Wise and based on a novel by Michael Crichton, was the first fully-electronic soundtrack released in the United States and has never been reissued here. Melle’s haunting patchwork of synthesizer experiments and atmospheric white noise returns for RSD 2017, thanks in part to Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein’s Stranger Things score reigniting interest in the early analog synthesizer scores of John Carpenter, Wendy Carlos and others. Far more ominous and discordant than even Carpenter, the Andromeda Strain score establishes Melle as a progenitor of harsh industrial synth soundscapes alongside Morton Subotnik and Cluster, foreshadowing Throbbing Gristle, Coil, and even Johnny Jewel. Sourced from the original master tapes and presented in its bizarrely-configured original fold-out pod sleeve and hexagon-shaped vinyl.

• 1500 copies pressed
• hexagon shaped vinyl
• silver foil hexagon fold-open cover
• music label: Jackpot Records

reviewed by dj winyl destination 4/2017