UPDATE (2/6/2019): CD buyers rejoice! Waxwork is now taking orders on their site for this soundtrack, featuring CD-sized versions of the art and packaging and the same track list. An Amazon link for the standard vinyl is below, as well.

ORIGINAL POST (10/4/2018): They're lean, they're green, and they're on...your turntable? Vinyl soundtrack label Waxwork Records has a real treat coming this month, with the premiere release of John Du Prez's score for 1990's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Based on an independent comic by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was the ultimate in high-concept superheroes, creating a wacky world around the titular quartet, who dwelled in the sewers of Manhattan and fought petty crimes committed by the Foot Clan and their master, the mysterious warlord Shredder. Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo and Raphael were sensations on the page, and in 1987 became a full-fledged phenomenon in the form of a syndicated cartoon series.

A film was inevitable, and 1990's adaptation - halfway between the grit of the original comics and the goofs of television, with impressive life-size characters built by Jim Henson's Creature Shop - sliced and diced the box-office, becoming one of the year's top 10 blockbusters and, for a time, the highest-grossing independent film. Turtles spun off two sequels, and the franchise - now owned by Nickelodeon - is still going strong, with additional films landing in theaters in 2007, 2014 and 2016 and several new cartoons bringing the heroes in a half-shell to a new generation. (Rise Of The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the fourth such series, debuted last month.)

Du Prez, a trumpeter in the salsa-pop outfit Modern Romance (which scored several U.K. Top 10s during the '80s), was no stranger to scoring. A longtime friend of Eric Idle, he contributed cues to Monty Python's The Meaning Of Life (1983) and later scored the Python-adjacent hit A Fish Called Wanda. For Turtles, Du Prez created a catchy theme for the heroes, as well as memorable motifs for characters (Splinter, the Turtles' aged sensei, and the villainous Shredder) and various scenarios (the opening "Crimewave" uses a pulsating rhythm and a quickly familiar four-note motif to showcase the Foot's grip on the city). Though three score suites shared disc space on a soundtrack album with Partners In Kryme and MC Hammer, getting the complete score has been a dream for TMNT fans - one that finally comes true.

Waxwork will release a standard 2LP vinyl later this month, featuring brand-new original artwork by series co-creator Eastman and featuring the complete score (with three alternate mixes as bonus tracks). For those who can't wait and might be attending this weekend's New York Comic-Con, the label will sell advance copies in a special "Shredder" color variant (one disc silver, the other maroon) at Booth 1871 at the Jacob Javits Center. Though the label did confirm to us that no CD or digital plans are in motion, we'll be sure to let you know if and when one's announced!

The full track list is below - and now, can we get a "Cowabunga"? Check it out, dudes!

John Du Prez, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Original Motion Picture Score (Waxwork Records, 2018 - original film released 1990) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

LP 1

Side A

1. Crimewave
2. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
3. Crime Fighters
4. Possess The Right Thinking
5. Subway Attack
6. Splinter's Tale I

Side B

1. Hidden Treasures
2. Shredder's Big Entrance
3. Raphael In Trouble
4. Huge Fight
5. Tatsu Attack
6. Trouble
7. Their Greatest Fear

LP 2

Side C

1. Message From Splinter
2. Time To Go Back
3. Splinter's Tale II
4. Battle With The Foot
5. Sewer Surfin'
6. Street Fight

Side D

1. Shredder's Last Stand
2. The Fall Of Shredder
3. TMNT (Alt Mix)
4. Splinter's Tale I (Alt Mix)
5. Splinter's Tale II (Alt Mix)

Portions previously released as suites on SBK Records CDP 91056, 1990