Rick Rubin Announces New Album Star Wars Headspace For February 2016 Release

Def Jams co-founder and musical Yoda Rick Rubin is gearing up for yet another unusual release – Star Wars Headspace. As the title implies, Rubin’s latest creation is a concept album sonically energized by the Star Wars franchise.

According to Pitchfork, The film-inspired album samples your favorite characters and effects to produce a futuristic collection of electronic dance music. The final result is an inspired EDM album with deep house sounds, guaranteed to be the life of your next party. Rubin recruited an imperial army of names for this one, including J.J. Abrams, Flying Lotus, Rustie, A-Trak, Baauer, Röyksopp, Kaskade, Shlohmo, GTA, among others. Clearly, the force was with him. While the team’s final product utilizes a depth of Star Wars sounds, Rubin enforced one rule – “don’t mess with John Williams’s music.”

Considering the colossal success of the franchise and how easy it is to monetize Star Wars fans, it’s a surprise that it took this long for a Star Wars concept album to materialize. Merchandise includes anything and everything from character figurines to Darth Vader-burning toasters to high-end fashion. The film has sold more memorabilia than other other franchise in the world, and shows no sign of slowing down.

Rubin has worked with an eclectic list of artists over the years that includes rapper Kanye West, metal band Slayer, and pop-R&B singer Justin Timberlake.

Star Wars Headspace will be available digitally February 19 and physically in March via Hollywood Records/American Recordings.

Star Wars Headspace
01. Kaskade: “C-3P0’s Plight”
02. GTA: “Help Me!”
03. TroyBoi: “Force”
04. Baauer: “Cantina Boys”
05. Shag Kava: “Jabba Flow: Rick Rubin Re-Work” [ft. A-Trak]
06. Claude VonStroke: “R2 Knows” [ft. Barry Drift]
07. Rick Rubin: “NR-G7”
08. Bonobo: “Ghomrassen”
09. Röyksopp: “Bounty Hunters”
10. ATTLAS: “Sunset Over Manaan”
11. Flying Lotus: “R2 Where R U?”
12. Shlohmo: “Druid Caravan of Smoke”
13. Rustie: “EWOK PUMPP”
14. Galantis: “Scruffy-Looking Nerfherder”
15. Breakbot: “Star Tripper”