Extraordinary Records by Giorgio Moroder, Alessandro Benedetti, and Peter Bastine
Back when CDs initially became central as a music media format, many longtime record collectors had a dilemma: do I keep buying vinyl, or is it time to switch over to these compact discs?
A lot of music heads I knew at the time, who wanted to stay true to vinyl, talked a lot about the tactile experience of records, and how that made them preferable to CDs. Holding the full-sized album cover in your hands, the wonder of gatefold sleeves, watching the platter spin around the turntable, even the cracks and pops older vinyl sometimes emits– it all makes for a more aesthetically pleasing, more authentic record collecting and listening experience than what CDs can offer. This is a book for those people and like-minded others.
Put together by famed producer Moroder and deep crate diggers Benedetti and Bastine, Extraordinary Records celebrates vinyl in a multi-tiered manner. Around 500 records from Benedetti’s and Bastine’s vast personal collections are highlighted, and between all of them they cover many different ways vinyl albums can be created and made to appear. The book, which focuses specifically on the wax itself as opposed to record packaging, runs a length of around 470 pages, with text in English, German, and French. It’s divided into seven general headings, that span everything from multicolored vinyl to picture discs to unusually shaped records, and other forms of vinyl. Photos of the unique albums are generously spread between the covers, and there is brief written content that tells a little about the different artists and the particular vinyl releases of theirs that are highlighted.
What struck me as I turned the pages is how the book includes records by some of the most well-known acts in music history alongside super obscure performers. You might see odd vinyl editions by the likes of David Bowie, Pink Floyd, and Prince celebrated, followed by inclusions of segments on records by artists who would only be known by the most thorough collectors. The genres that fall under what’s included in the tome’s wide umbrella contain just about any style of music and other recorded performances one could name: pop, rock, soul, blues, disco, metal, psychedelia, punk, comedy, spoken word, grindcore, trance, house, punk and new wave, and on and on. And the kinds of releases that are touched on also comprise a vast spectrum: limited edition versions of proper albums, bootlegs, rare promotional copies, singles, test pressings, flexi-discs, etc.
The written parts of the book don’t give much to a knowledgeable music fan. The brief explanatory paragraphs offer only cursory historical information about the artists and records and the words have a robotic tone. But this is a coffee table book and what makes it valuable are the graphics. Flipping through and seeing all the unique vinyl editions by such a vast array of artists from all over the globe, with so many different eras and genres included – that’s what will please vinyl enthusiasts and is what makes the book a keeper.
Who knew the Ramones and New York Dolls issued a split single on saw blade-shaped vinyl? That’s just one of countless surprising discoveries to be made by paging through Extraordinary Records. Extraordinary, indeed.
Brian Greene
Extraordinary Records by Giorgio Moroder, Alessandro Benedetti, and Peter Bastine (Taschen Books 2024)
