Extraordinary Records

Description

Take a deep dive into the fascinating history of vinyl records in Extraordinary Records. Within these pages, you’ll discover over five hundred rare and remarkable vinyl records, all sourced from the impressive personal collections of authors and seasoned crate diggers Alessandro Benedetti and Peter Bastine. These are not the average black discs you may be thinking of — instead these specially-released LPs come in all manner of color, shape and finish, bringing a new meaning to the term “album artwork.” Organized thematically into seven chapters, you’ll find vibrant monochromatic vinyl; unusual vinyl, including silver, gold, mirrored and even a few extremely uncommon glow-in-the-dark discs; multicolored vinyl, patterned with stripes, splatters, circles or tie-dye-like swirls; etched vinyl, with music printed on one side and artwork carved on the other; shaped vinyl, which were die-cut into unique and unexpected forms rather than the classic disc; and picture discs, featuring a photo or design stamped directly on the record’s surface. You’ll also get a fascinating look at USSR-era “bone music” — bootleg discs of hit singles from popular Western artists engraved on discarded X-rays in an effort to skirt around the Soviet Union’s severe media restrictions. Along with being stunning to flip through, this book is also filled with brief introductory essays that introduce each daring record design, as well as short captions exploring the significance of each featured disc. A kaleidoscopic journey through unusual vinyl records that are just as iconic as the music itself, Extraordinary Records is a must-have for any music lover or vinyl collector’s coffee table.

•text by Alessandro Benedetti and Peter Bastine
•preface by Giorgio Moroder
•introduction by Alessandro Benedetti
•text in english, french and german
•jacketed hardcover 
•474 pages

Dimensions
•12″W x 1.5″D x 12″H