Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack Soundtrack 2xLP - Red, Purple & Orange Vinyl (/2000)

Death Waltz / Mondo (2023)

Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack is an excellent Godzilla movie.  There is a lot to like about the storyline, the overall presentation of the main monsters, tha kaiju battling and general satisfaction I have watching this film.  There are, however, two big things I do not like about this movie.

The first is that I hate that Godzilla's eyes do not have pupils.  I get it that it's part of the overall storyline with Godzilla having the spirits of fallen Japanese soldiers lashing out against Japan.  It's meant to be a more ghostly, menacing vibe.  For me, it looks like forgot to finish that part of the suit and it really irks me.  Shin Godzilla is probably the only Godzilla design I dislike more.

The other part of this movie that I don't like is this soundtrack.  Gone are the lush orchestral passages and intense marching motifs.  Nope, this soundtrack is a synth-heavy, ambient snooze fest.  You can barely hear it most of the time and the times that you do hear it I tend to wish I wasn't hearing it.  Luckily it's not ultra intrusive and you can kind of tune it out while watching the actual movie, but listening to it as a standalone soundtrack really drives home how insufferable I think it is.  It just doesn't feel like Godzilla to me.

The vinyl presentation is nice as always.  I did the art, the colored vinyl and the side D screen print.  But this is very much just a shelf filler for me.  I need it for completist purposes, but I assure you I will never listen to it unless in 20 years I just forgot how much I don't like it and need a refresher.

Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack:
https://youtu.be/_2-oMGeVXO4?si=XeaEbkAdqc10lQ8q

Juggaknots - Re:Release 2xLP (/500)

90s Tapes (2022, Reissue)

Every Wednesday, in honor of Ed Lover Dance Day from Yo! MTV Raps, I take a break from rock and roll to write a little bit about hip hop. In the late 80s and early 90s hip hop ruled my musical life. During this often called 'Golden Era' I discovered so much incredible music. As I am slowly replacing the CDs I've had for thirty plus years with vinyl copies, I'm going to talk about some albums that had a really important impact on me during some very formative years.

This is another one of those albums that I've had in my to-write-about pile for a few years now.  Why have I not written about it yet?  I couldn't really tell you.  I've listened to it and I like it, but it's one of those albums that I have a hard time articulating my thoughts about.  It's not exactly in the pocket of my favorite sounds of hip hop, yet I still find it very engaging.

The first, first version of this album was an eight song version that came out on Fondle 'Em records back in 1996.  Over the years, it's be reissued several times, with more tracks being added over the years until we get to this 23 track behemoth on 90s Tapes.  The Juggaknots are heralded as being one of those early indie rap acts that separated themselves from the direction that hip hop was moving in the mid 90s.  While I find that admirable, I wish that had happened a few years prior so that the production sound that I like had an offshoot I could have followed.

While I do like the beats on this record, they are a lot slower than what I typically enjoy.  There's interesting sounds here and the deliberate, borderline sludgy vibe of songs like "Jivetalk" really work with the lyrical delivery, but I tend to still find myself wishing things were just a little faster.  That aforementioned lyrical delivery is the highlight of this entire album.  

The MCs involved spin convoluted tales with no shortage of adjectives and rhyme structures.  There's an early Kool Keith vibe as far as how the lyrics are constructed, before he went off into outer space.  Though the delivery isn't that nasal, choppy flow that Keith was known for.  This is a slower, smoother and more deliberate flow, but sacrificing none of the complexity and wittiness.  Again, it's an album that sits a little outside of my usual wheelhouse, but the quality is so staggeringly high that it overcomes the style choices that would typically make me look elsewhere for my hip hop.

Juggaknots - Re:Release:
https://juggaknots.bandcamp.com/album/re-release