Various - Ghost In The Shell - PlayStation Soundtrack

I own this double pack (I actually bought it from a seller off Ebay from Singapore a few years back and paid about $60+ for it). I heard the music off the Playstation video game when I was a teen (1997) and found out the artists and got into techno at a very early age.

I have to agree with -TheSoul_Abend on his review, that "The Vertical" is perhaps Joey Beltram's best track. I dig this tune a lot. It is a shame that people bastardize the word techno as "boom-boom and bang bang". But there's a techno that provides melodies, textures, rhythms, and audio sensory tricks.

This double pack contains tracks exclusively on these vinyl never re-pressed on any other label.

If you would like to know what the definition of "Techno" is, this album is one of the best explanations for it. Highly recommended... Good luck trying to find this!

Ghost in the Shell: Megatech Body Cd

This is a majorly huge techno album. All the tracks are awesome, and the album flows cohesively, building an intense cyber-future soundscape. (It's the perfect counterbalance to the soundtrack to the GiTS movie, which is a really brilliant ambient album.) And the artwork of the poster-style liner-notes is astonishingly detailed manga madness. I first heard about this release from Dan Sicko's book "Techno Rebels", listed as one of the top techno soundtrack albums - an honour it deserves.

There is a bit of confusion as to the identity of the Derrick May track. It is truly indeed "To Be or Not To Be (Off the Cuff Mix)". I own both this album and Derrick May's _Innovator_ album, which has the original mix "To Be or Not To Be". The two are comparable; basically the same track with minor tweaking. (It's more of a remix for audiophiles, rather than a major overhaul type of remix.) I wish I kept a copy of this, but May even spoke in an interview about producing this remix of "To Be or Not To Be" for the video game soundtrack. "Mysterious Traveler" is good tune, but this is not a remix of the System 7/May collaboration at all.

Rating wise, I'd say 5 out of 5 all the way. It's an under-appreciated album. This Sony Jpn compilation holds its own, and is in the same class as classic Tresor compilations.

The 3rd-person shooter video game, by the way, was really good, although unfortunatly released in small numbers. You, as a rookie Section 9 cop, controlled a Fuchikoma police vehicle in environments that kept with the feel of the original movie and manga. The game even featured original animation by Production IG.

Joey Beltram's The vertical might possibly be one of his greatest works. It's a shame to see so many prodominate techno artists on one release, and go unnoticed by the ones who would appreciate them the most. is that May public mix any different than the off the cuff mix?!? 'cause I found out the hard way that the off the cuff mix is an enlongated way of saying "original"