Troy’s Halloween playlist (2009)
Some of this should only be played after dark at your discretion. Management is not responsible for any lost, stolen or damaged nerves.
Day of the Dead
His usual ridiculousness, but I didn’t say we had to take it all seriously. When hell is full, the dead will walk the earth, and apparently they come up here for the beer.
Felt Mountain
Circus music! Made with electronics and therefore totally impersonal; can you see the man behind the curtain? No? That’s because he’s not there. So who’s pulling all those strings?
Metamorphoses of Ann’
Intricate and beautiful harp instrumental; what Ann is changing from, and into, is yours to decide, but based on this it could easily involve delicate, near-invisible wings. And a music box.
Tam Lin – Mediaeval Baebes
Perfect. Sure, the melody is simple, but in the background, strange things watch and slip between the trees.
How Death Comes – Mediaeval Baebes
I have an overactive imagination, so I feely admit to being impressionable where this sort of thing is concerned, but this (mostly a swarming mess of spoken chanting – I looked up the lyrics and wished I hadn’t, medieval English is full of unnecessary physical detail) genuinely terrifies me a bit.
Everything At Once – Skin
Not Halloween-themed at all, but one of the nastiest pieces of music I own – brilliant, but horrible, building, vicious, bitter, ancient and implacable.
They Can See In The Dark – Jim Gray
Comedy lost new wave track about vampires. I particularly like the bit where he declaims “Vampires!” like they’ve just been sighted on the horizon. This song is especially hilarious if you envision him recording it, I find.
Martin
Wouldn’t be Halloween without it. Martin is a boy with problems; Martin has a family history…
Waltzinblack
Anyone who can explain to me what The Stranglers were thinking when they recorded this damn thing…actually never mind, I don’t want to know. Circus music is never harmless as far as I’m concerned, but toss in the unhinged laughter of possessed ventriloquist’s dummies and it’s practically assault with a deadly weapon. WHY DOES THIS EVEN EXIST.
And She Sang
Entirely human horror, this, of the beautiful innocent girl abused and cast aside by the dashing stranger, but there is something so wonderfully unsettling about the setting and instrumentation, like the distant melody you think you hear when you look at that dusty old picture you found in the attic.
Rose In The Mor – QNTAL
My favourite setting of the text, between the strange will-o-the-wisp electronics in the background and the careful calm of the vocals; how you can’t tell whether this is a tragedy or just an observation, or perhaps just an observation of a tragedy. Maiden in the mor lay, sevenight fulle and a day…
First And Last Waltz – Nickel Creek
Absolutely beautiful little instrumental done in sepia, in the flickering film of times past. They look happy, don’t they, in their wonderful dresses? Such a shame, you know, about what happened…
Still Hurtin’ – Phil RetroSpector
Bear with me. Yes, it is technically a remix of ‘Hurt’ by Johnny Cash, and no, that song shouldn’t be tampered with, but I swear, this is – if you choose your time for listening to it, wait for grey skies and a wind that blows through your skin like it wasn’t even there – one of the most horrible things I’ve ever heard. Your mileage may vary on that, but it is worth listening to at least once anyway, as lovely as it is frightening.
Mr. Punch – Future Bible Heroes
For all those joining me in the corner of OH GOD NO WHY every time the hook-nosed homicidal little bastard is mentioned.
Lady Waters & The Hooded One – Robyn Hitchcock
I never get tired of this ridiculous ersatz folk song about the plague, Lady Waters, and her tongue-in-cheek battle with Death. I might use Saint-Saens’s Danse Macabre when I want to take the merry death with his violin seriously, but the rest of the time, this will more than do.
I Am Stretched On Your Grave
Devastating.
Bloodstone
Brilliant but truly nasty faded spindly clockwork instrumental.
Gingerbread Coffin
Musically, the stuff of crunchy electronics, samples of music box music, and strings. Lyrically, the stuff of nightmares.
Walk Like A Zombie – HorrorPops
Fabulous kitschy deathpop about dating the undead. And you want a mountaintop with a little castle, and you wanna name our kids Morticia and Fester… Marvellous.
