by RAF KATIGBAK

With the shrinking price of DVD players these days, it’s no secret that they’re going to be one of the hot ticket items this season. With higher image quality and digital surround-sound, it seems that electronic music has also embraced this medium with several CD/DVD releases that would make great gifts for the electronic music connoisseur in your life.

Mancunian techno pioneers 808 State have recently released their long awaited Opti Buk CD/DVD on ZTT. Featuring 17 rare 808 State videos produced between ’87 and ’99, Opti Buk also includes performances by Björk, UB40, MC Tunes and James Dean Bradfield, making it a dope gift for fans and newbies alike.

Always tuned into the nex-nex, New York’s forward-thinking Carpark label have also released an excellent audio/video DVD. With Opus Pia, young Japanese sound artist Takagi Masakatsu explores what he likes to call “tiny miracles in daily life.” Masakatsu has taken video snippets from his travels and created intimate sound and image “meditations” ranging from the harmonically sublime to the day-to-day, resulting in a beautiful and engaging experience that would go well with a warm fire and some eggnog. If your significant other has a) been to every Elektra, Mutek and FCMM event this year, and b) has an unusually large collection of black turtlenecks in his or her closet, you may consider picking this one up.

If you continually hear your loved one pining for the good ol’ days when “raves were really underground” and when “PLUR really meant something,” you might consider getting them the X-Mix DVD Collection Part 1. It features digitally remastered sound and video from the original early ’90s CD/VHS mix series by Laurent Garnier, Richie Hawtin & John Aquaviva, and Paul Van Dyk, complete with the original accompanying “cutting-edge digital animation.” So if you think your loved one would get a kick out of rocking out to the old-school sounds of Kenny Larkin, Derrick May, and Dave Angel and the old-school sights of digital dolphins morphing into robotic liquid fractal horses, then maybe you should pick this up. :