Halloween Playlist Vol. 2 – Nightmares & Death Trips

Legend of Hell House (Delia Derbyshire & Brian Hodgson)
One of the most haunting horror movie soundtracks because of the experimental genius Delia Derbyshire (born May 5, 1937). Cobwebbed organs, rhythmic synthesizers, and an array of erotic, goosebump-inducing, hair-raising electronically altered ghost voices that get under your skin.

“Seven Bowls” (Aphrodite’s Child)
Although only one minute and a half in duration, this reciting of the Book of Revelations from the Greek band’s apocalyptic epic record 666 imprints its mark because of its sinister and stark soundscape.

“The first bowl on the earth
The second bowl on the sea
The third bowl on the rivers
The fourth bowl on the sun
The fifth bowl on the beast
The sixth bowl on the stars
The seventh bowl on the air
And the earth turned gray
The sea turned black
The rivers turned red
The sun turned cold
The beast turned pale
The stars turned fast
The air turned to poison“

“Horse Latitudes” (The Doors)
Although The Doors’ most (in)famous track is their epic “The End,” this compressed poem by Jim Morrison (from their 1967 record Strange Days) is definitely the band at their darkest, sound effects summoning an ocean tempest and Ray Manzarek’s piano scattering shards during the line “her sullen and aborted currents breed tiny monsters.” Jim Morrison’s shouts, surrounded by distant screams of sailors, is a ship plummeting into a whirlpool.

“Voices of the Dead (The Medium)” (Mort Garson)
Electronic experimentalist Mort Garson is better known for his albums about astrology and his records designed for plant consciousness, but he also dabbled in darkness and the occult. This is the spookiest and subtlest track from his 1971 Black Mass Lucifer. It is music that makes you stare over your shoulder, sounds for a seance.

“Acid Annapolis” (Leon Russell)
An unnerving oddity that sounds nothing like Leon Russell (much to the chagrin of his fans, but to the intrigue of a listener like myself), this track, as the title indicates, is an attempt to close your eyes and fall asleep during an acid trip only to be assaulted by your own worst panic attack.

“Drip Drip” (Comus)
It is challenging to choose only one song from Comus’ demented and diabolical debut First Utterance since it sounds less like an album that was made in a studio and more like an anthropologist’s field recordings who stumbled upon a forbidden and secret series of sacrifices hidden within an ancient forest grove in the wilderness of Wales. “Drip Drip” is the most sprawling track (11 minutes) so it seems to stir all of the band’s lunacy into a cauldron underneath the full moon. Roger Wootton’s froggy, gnomish, goblinish vocals alternate with Bobbie Watson’s curdling coos and banshee shrieks while Glenn Goring’s 12-string acoustic guitar, Colin Pearson’s viola and violin, Rob Young’s hand drums, and Andy Hellaby’s bass set the scene for the lyrics of murder and necrophilia.

“Your soft white flesh turns past me slaked with blood
Your lovely body soon caked with mud
As I carry you to your grave, my arms your hearse
Drip drip from your sagging lip
Liquid red down your body spread
Your soft breast glistens, your deep navel fountains
Your body at peace, even the earth will fill the crack where entered my blade
Yea, shall I cut you down
Yes, ‘twould be a last physical communion
I’ll be gentle and not hurt you”

Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Tobe Hooper & Wayne Bell)
I would not only argue that the original 1974 Texas Chainsaw Massacre (read my story here) is the greatest horror movie, I would argue even more that the score (composed by director Tobe Hooper, born January 25, 1943, and sound designer Wayne Bell) is the most bizarre, craziest, and scariest horror movie soundtrack. It was so ahead of its time: clamorous, clanging, grinding, gritty, industrial madness.

“On the Way” (Popol Vuh)
Popol Vuh (led by the incredible mystic Florian Fricke, born February 23, 1944) created some of the most spiritual, transcendent, uplifting music in their timeless In Den Garten Pharaos, Hosianna Mantra, Einsjager & Siebenjager. Florian Fricke ascended in those albums. On his soundtrack for Werner Herzog’s 1979 Nosferatu: Phantom Der Nacht, he descended deep into the abyss during the track “On the Way”, one of the eeriest and most frightening moments in horror cinema history.

“The Fifth Claw” (Broadcast)
Superior to Berberian Sound Studio itself, this score by the band Broadcast is more successful than the film in conveying fear and terror and is one of the darkest horror movie soundtracks of the 21st century, especially this track which sounds like a snuff tape of an actual exorcism with the demonic, extreme, intense female voice and eerie electronics chilling your blood and creeping you out.

“The Irremediable” (Ruth White)
Ruth White recorded an abstract, experimental record in 1969: her solemn, uncanny readings of poems from Charles Baudelaire’s Flowers of Evil darkened even further by electronic distortions and Moog synthesizer. Her recording of this poem, “The Irremediable,” is ominous and so strange.

“The Visitation” (White Noise)
Delia Derbyshire strikes again on An Electric Storm, her collaboration with the experimental electronic collective White Noise. Doom and Gloom. “The Visitation” is not only the most nightmarish track of the 1960s, but one of the most nightmarish tracks of all time. An 11-minute death trip that will send shivers down your spine and cause you to feel as if you are completely losing touch with reality and all sense of sanity as the cries from the disembodied voice of a girl mourning the loss of her lover continue to deeply disturb you and keep you up long through the night.

by Mark Lager

*Today: Listen to this playlist on Mark Lager’s radio show ‘Thursday Trips’- streaming online Thursdays 7-8 P.M. (Mountain Time) at: http://www.primcast.com/radio/610946