10 of the weirdest things that have been pressed into vinyl

Record collectors will know that vinyl has been introduced in every color, design and shape imaginable. The variety and creativity of the format ranges from paint splattered to glow-in-the-dark. Now, with millions of records released over the years, a brave few have gone above and beyond, aiming to get extra creative and calling upon the strange, bizarre and sometimes downright shocking for their vinyl releases.

Here are the 10 weirdest things we found pressed into vinyl records.

The 2014 release by Emperor Yes could easily be dubbed ‘out of this world’ in quite the literal sense.

The UK psychedelic pop band pressed ground-up dust from a meteorite that landed on Earth in the 16th century into 100 copies of the appropriately-titled ‘An Island Called Earth’. The album, put out on Alcopop! Records, became known as ‘the cosmic vinyl’.

Two years ago, Colorado band Eohippus released 100 limited edition copies of their ‘Getting Your Hair Wet With Piss’ 7" record which was (disturbingly) pressed with hair and soaked in human urine. That's one title we wish they didn't take so literally.

The band members described the track as "an anthem so majestic, it makes the 'Star-Spangled Banner' sound like a dog vomiting in comparison". A bold statement to match the equally bold decision to include possibly the least pleasant combination of bodily fluid and hair together. Thankfully, the band didn't provide details on where the hair and urine in question was acquired.

Holographic images can be etched into vinyl by carving micro-reflectors into the surface, creating the illusion of depth glistening with color spectrums of greens, blues and purples. The first hologram record appearance was Jack White’s 2014 ‘Lazaretto’. Dubbed the ‘Ultra EP’, the album featured two spinning angels, which were hand-carved into each copy by artist Tristan Duke.

More recently, John William’s ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens Soundtrack’ came out this year with images of TIE Fighters and The Millennium Falcon as floating illusions.

Yet another unnerving combination of bodily fluids and names taken too literally was Perfect Pussy’s ‘Say Yes To Love’, which was specially issued in March 2014 as a clear vinyl pressed with lead singer Meredith Graves’s menstrual blood. The limited release saw only 180 copies, as the artist proclaimed she could only give so much.

Preceding Graves’s piece was a bloody concoction that came from The Flaming Lips. The band filled 10 copies of ‘The Flaming Lips And Heavy Fwends’ with blood from Chris Martin, Erykah Badu, Ke$ha, Nick Cave and more. Each retailed for $2,500 a pop, and helped donate over $25,000 to The Academy of Contemporary Music at UCO and The Central Oklahoma Humane Society.

Here's the most-extreme gross factor.

In 2004, artist RA-X released a very special edition of ‘The Opium Den (Parts I-IV)’ as vinyl pressed with haemorrhoid-infected diarrhoea, believe it or not. Issued by Mighty Robot Recordings, the record is described to have a ‘brownish, purplish shade’ and boasts a ‘subtle, but detectable odour of human faeces when played’.

Again, no further details on where exactly the ‘infected diarrhoea’ came from.

In 2010 the Detroit hardcore punk band Hellmouth did what some might consider sacrilege and pressed the ashes of a German bible from the 1800s into their record ‘Gravestone Skylines’.

The band members found the leather bound bible with handwritten notes inside, sealed shut with a metal clasp. The burning ceremony placed four candles around the bible to represent the band’s four members. After dousing it with gasoline and setting it aflame, Hellmouth sent the bible’s ashes to Vinnie Fiorello of Paper + Plastik Records to press and release 33 limited edition copies.

Reminiscent of scratch-and-sniff stickers, these records are created by using a scented varnish that remains dormant until first spun under the needle.

Karen Elson experimented with the method in 2010 with ‘The Ghost Who Walks’, a peach-scented LP produced by her then-husband, vinyl connoisseur Jack White. Elson only pushed out 300 copies, which could only be bought by Vault members of the Third Man Records store.

A novelty play on the scented vinyl arrived when the Ghostbusters theme song was reissued by Legacy Records with a marshmallow scent, paying homage to the film’s iconic character, the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.

To commemorate the return of Honey Disco after a three-year hiatus, Osmose released ‘Do Anything’ on a special 7-inch vinyl pressed with natural beeswax.

The translucent record glistens and smells of honey when spun.

In the mid-1900s, the underground Soviet group known as the ‘stilyagi’ famously made vinyl out of old human X-Rays.

Leaders of the movement, Ruslan Bogoslowski and Boris Taigin would collect disposed X-Rays from hospital bins to use as templates for pressing pirated music. The two would then hand-cut each out and use a cigarette to burn a hole in the middle.

The ‘stilyagi’ distributed the records on the black market, often featuring foreign artists prohibited by the Soviet government. As they gained popularity, authorities took note and sentenced both Bogoslowski and Taigin to five years of hard labor in Siberia.

While still married to the great Jack White, Karen Elson (who was previously mentioned for experimenting with peach-scented records) put out a second series of uniquely pressed vinyl. This time, 1000 copies of the artist’s cover of Lou Reed’s ‘Vicious’ were made with rose petals and celebrated 2011’s Record Store Day.

Elson’s ‘Vicious’ was also released exclusively by Third Man Records.

Sydney is Mixmag's US Digital Content Editor. Follow her on Twitter here