"The chilling road thriller, The Hitcher, was released in 1986 and starred Rutger Hauer as a murderous hitchhiker in a relentless pursuit of a young motorist, C. Thomas Howell. Critically maligned at the time, over the years the film has built up a cult following and has spawned a sequel and a remake. Asked by the producers to compose a copycat score of John Williams' Jaws, composer Mark Isham bravely produced the opposite. He steered clear from genre defining sharp orchestral motifs and stabbing dissonances, and instead immersed himself in 80s cutting edge electronics and samples. The result was an emotionally cold and beautiful score, an audio landscape depicting evil and impending doom, the dust and fog of a lonely desert road. With its industrial beats, ambient synth washes and spaced Jazzy motifs, the score was on the forefront of a new genre in horror music scoring and has since achieved cult status. “Technically the music business was in a crossroads and new instruments and new instrument technologies were appearing every day. I availed myself of this “new” technology of “sampling” and brought in two drummers who played only originally sampled drums. I was still using my early system of a Prophet 5, an Oberheim 4 voice and my ARP 2600. To this I added this new keyboard, a Prophet 2000 (sampler). This was the “band”! – Mark Isham This genre defining electronic score has been unavailable for close to 30 years and now the first ever official vinyl release will be made available as a Record Store Day 2022 Limited Edition. Asked by the producers to compose a copycat score of John Williams' Jaws, composer Mark Isham bravely produced the opposite. He steered clear from genre defining sharp orchestral motifs and stabbing dissonances, and instead immersed himself in 80s cutting edge electronics and samples. The result was an emotionally cold and beautiful score, an audio landscape depicting evil and impending doom, the dust and fog of a lonely desert road. With its industrial beats, ambient synth washes and spaced Jazzy motifs, the score was on the forefront of a new genre in horror music scoring and has since achieved cult status. “Technically the music business was in a crossroads and new instruments and new instrument technologies were appearing every day. I availed myself of this “new” technology of “sampling” and brought in two drummers who played only originally sampled drums. I was still using my early system of a Prophet 5, an Oberheim 4 voice and my ARP 2600. To this I added this new keyboard, a Prophet 2000 (sampler). This was the “band”! – Mark Isham This genre defining electronic score has been unavailable for close to 30 years and now the first ever official vinyl release will be made available as a Record Store Day 2022 Limited Edition. "