Perfect Blue was one of the more defensible titles in that weirdly curated Anime section in Blockbuster Video that always seemed a little too close to the kid's stuff. A milestone in animated storytelling, Perfect Blue is a bleak psychological horror film that critiques the rampant media-driven consumerism and vanity that came hand-in-hand with the Japanese economic bubble of the early 90’s. The film features a mix of candy-coated (but average) J-Pop and a moody, chilling instrumental score, the latter of which is collected on this LP. “Nightmare” blurs the lines between purposeful instrumentation and Sacred Bones-ish industrial musique concrete, “Mima’s Theme” is theremin and eerie strings. “Virtual Mima” could be a dubbed-out remix of a contemporary Bjork track, with relentlessly layered eclectic percussion and deft mixing board effects. There’s a “vocal” version as well, which sounds like a lost track from 1996's Ghost In The Shell OST. Recommended!

• deluxe audiophile edition pressed at 45RPM on 2LP for the first time
• purple & gold splatter colored double vinyl pressing
• housed in full color gatefold sleeve
• limited edition
• original release year: 1997
• music label: Tiger Lab 2024

reviewed by SOMETIMES CRYSTAL 05/2019