Category: Music
Scary Tunes
(This was originally a Halloween post but if you write horror it should be relevant at any time of the year.)
Halloween approaches like a horde of zombies outside a makeshift survivors’ camp and the usual lists of Scariest Films/ Books/ Stories/ Urban Legends rear their disembodied heads.
However, here is a list of scary music that may help when you are writing horror by setting an apt mood for your session. Scary tunes will keep you awake so think of the money you’ll save on coffee and Red Bull.
Feel free to add your suggestions for scary tunes in the comments below. I look forward (arghh!) to hearing them
1. Atmospheres Gyorgy Legiti (1963)
Part of movements “Kyrie” and “Dies irae” from ”Requiem” by Gyorgy Ligeti. Atmospheres is famously used in Stanley Kubrick’s “2001 – A Space Odyssey whenever the black alien monolith appears.
Sounds like?
The beautiful disembodied wails of dead souls swirling in the void outside a derelict spaceship as a swarm of nanobots eat away at the lining of your spacesuit (and that is just the introduction!)
2. Imperial March John Williams (1982)
Don’t laugh at the familiarity of this piece. Yes, now you can hum it but remember the first time you heard it during The Empire Strikes Back ? You thought the Empire was going to destroy your home planet, right?
Sounds like?
Darth Vader and legions of Stormtroopers marching into your home. What? Uh-huh these aren’t the droids you’re looking for muh lord….
3. Dead Souls Joy Division (1979)
The title is based on Nikolai Gogol’s incomplete 1842 novel although you can’t really tell from the lyrics and Ian Curtis’ doom-laden vocals.
Sounds like?
Icy desolation punctuated by dissonant guitars and a regimented drumbeat. The atmosphere from Manchester circa 1979 seeps through the ages to genuinely chill your bones.
4. Doctor Who Theme Composed by Ron Grainer at the BBC Radiophonic workshop (1963)
The original was cut and spliced together on segments of analogue tape – no digital jiggery-pokery here.
Sounds like?
Sinister swoops, electronic ‘stings’ and pulsating bassline. Imagine your radio suddenly tuning into an alien signal from from another dimension.
5. Tubular Bells (Introduction) Mike Oldfield 1973)
Famously used on The Exorcist soundtrack although I did not watch the film until I was much older. All I knew was that this was a rather sinister piece of prog-rock and was impressed by how well it sustained its mood.
Sounds like?
Leaves stirred up by an ill wind as you hurry past that ‘bad’ house in your neighbourhood.
Super 8 Debut Albums Blog Hop
You’re allowed to go all “High Fidelity” on your blog once in a while because music is still the most immediate and visceral of the creative arts… Thank you to Disconnected for hosting this Blog Hop. What were your top 8 debut albums by any artiste? Which ones hold a special place in your collection? List them in the comments below.
1. The Kick Inside, Kate Bush (1979)
Stunning, eerie and unique. Bought off the popularity of the single ‘Wuthering Heights’ and me believing that the song would help me cram for an English Literature exam. Never bettered but Kate Bush later equalled this album with Hounds of Love in 1985.
2. High Land Hard Rain (1983)
Imagine writing and recording a debut album with the full force and quality of a greatest hits collection at the age of eighteen, when the other kids are still smoking behind the bicycle shed and coping with adolescent crushes. Roddy Frame still awes me every time I listen to this.
3. 
When I first heard The Clash’s self-titled debut album as a student, I couldn’t make out the lyrics and I thought the running time was ridiculous (28 minutes!). But political songs like ‘White Riot’ are incendiary enough to make you trash a hotel room – or the entire hotel.
4.My Aim is True (1978)
I remember buying this and listening to it one song per day. Since I bought the special reissued edition with an extra CD of outtakes and demos, that meant I took a month to finish this album. Why? The human brain can only absorb so much genius at one go.
5. Read My Lips, Sophie EllisBextor (2001)
F**k Lady Gaga, this album is the real deal in dance music: smart, witty and classy.Suitable for club or lounge and everyone loves shouting out the chorus of ‘Murder On the Dancefloor’. She ain’t no disco-dolly either. Ten years is an eternity in the music industry these days. Ms. Ellis Bextor will release her latest album, Bittersweet in June 2011.
6.The Lexicon of Love, ABC (1982)
The 2000 reissue states that playing this record will make your stereo system sound like it was secretly serviced while you were out. This is absolutely true. I still use this album to test speakers and other audio equipment. Oh, and the music is superb. If ”The Look of Love” doesn’t get your fingers snapping and “All of My Heart” doesn’t break your heart, it means you don’t have fingers or a heart.
7. Killing In the Name Rage Against the Machine (1992)
While everyone was caught up in the grunge maelstrom, this album emerged and made that maelstrom look like a spring breeze. The lyrics are perfectly clear too.
8. It’s You, It’s Me, Kaskade (2003)
Question: How can an album that’s so laidback also sound so danceable? Kaskade (real name Ryan Raddon) continues to work his strange alchemy on the dance and house scene to this day.
