The creepier the better!

August 12, 2009 12:50 PM

LovecraftFilter: Let's you and me talk about spooky music.

A bunch of us nerds get together fairly regularly to play a board game called Arkham Horror, but our get-togethers are usually scored by adult alternative - not very conducive to creating a creepy atmosphere.

What would be some great background music for such an evening of Lovecraftian gaming? Even if you don't know anything about Arkham Horror you probably know the internet's favorite author, H.P. Lovecraft, whose hokey works the board game is based on. I know you know all about him because you really can't type very many urls without running into an adoring Cthulhu reference.

Anyone still in the dark? For you guys, I will rephrase the question - what music should be playing when a bunch of hooting thirty-somethings pretend to chase a gaggle ghosts and aliens around a town in the 1920s?

posted by Willie0248 to sports, hobbies, & recreation (46 comments total)

Les Baxter's soundtrack for The Dunwich Horror.
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 12:54 PM on August 12

My suggestion A Very Scary Solstice
posted by Julnyes at 12:55 PM on August 12

The opening title music from "The Shining".
posted by mrbarrett.com at 12:57 PM on August 12 [1 favorite]

The answer to this is the soundtrack to Carnivale. The first season is available for purchase; the second season is available as relatively-firmly embedded MP3s on Jeff Beal's webpage.
posted by Weighted Companion Cube at 12:57 PM on August 12

Keep going (Boozoo Bajou w/Tony Joe White)
posted by subajestad at 12:57 PM on August 12

Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells.
posted by nitsuj at 12:59 PM on August 12

Barry Adamson's Moss Side Story.
posted by nasreddin at 1:02 PM on August 12

I might be revealing my own weirdness, here, but I've always found Tchaikovsky's Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy (yeah, from the Nutcracker) really, really disturbing, especially when it's done with a little extra creepiness.

Maybe it's a Tim Burton thing.
posted by rokusan at 1:07 PM on August 12 [2 favorites]

I know nothing about Lovecraft, but I think David Bowie's Sense of Doubt (from Heroes) is pretty spooky. Actually, most of his Berlin-period instrumental work from Low and Heroes occupies the intersection between chilly and chilling (which is why I love it!), but "Sense of Doubt" is definitely the one closest to the mood of chasing ghosts around.
posted by scody at 1:07 PM on August 12

(Also, where's MaryDellamorte when we need her?)
posted by rokusan at 1:09 PM on August 12

Coil's Unreleased Themes for Hellraiser

The soundtrack to Experiment in Terror.
posted by crush-onastick at 1:10 PM on August 12 [1 favorite]

Previously
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 1:13 PM on August 12

The Caretaker would be perfect as he takes old ballroom music from approximately that time period and makes them CREEPY...there are a bunch of videos on YouTube to listen.

There's a band called Trauma Absurdicum...they mixed Anneliese Michel's exorcism into one of their songs and that is about as scary and alien sounding as you can get. No sample of the song, From Inside, but you can hear the exorcism here, and Trauma's sound here. Maybe you could mix em together on your own if you can't find the song.

Pyha is also awesome for giving me the creeps.
posted by extrabox at 1:14 PM on August 12

Let the Eagle Soar is very creepy, but might not be what you're looking for.
posted by nitsuj at 1:15 PM on August 12

I prefer film music for things like this. Music that has lyrics or is otherwise meant to stand on its own tends to distract me from the game. I don't know if you have that problem or not, but here are some things that might work for me:

Several Danny Elfman scores might be appropriate (Beetlejuice and Men In Black are the first two to come to mind). He also did Nightmare Before Christmas and Corpse Bride, but those are musicals (not to mention goofier). Some of the early Batman music is good. Glancing at my iTunes library, "Narissa Arrives" by Alan Menken from Enchanted seems to fit. These choices may be too cartoony for you, I don't know.

In the classical world, there is a bunch of music that could work. Night on Bald Mountain by Modest Mussorgsky is pretty famous. Also the Wolf theme from Peter and the Wolf by Sergei Prokofiev is haunting. Bach's Toccata & Fugue in D minor is also pretty famous and dark. Symphonic Metamorphosis by Paul Hindemith might fit.

There's a wind ensemble piece by Julie Giroux called What Goes in the Night that's rather creepy.

This is off the top of my head, and I really feel like I'm drawing a blank. I hope I've given you some avenues to explore.
posted by sleepinglion at 1:20 PM on August 12

If you don't object to modernity, I prefer instrumental creepy post-metal in the Isis/Red Sparrowes vein for stuff like this.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 1:25 PM on August 12

I have few songs in MeFi music that are pretty creepy
Fathom2
Dreaming on a Train
rockycoast
Unfolding
posted by doctor_negative at 1:26 PM on August 12

You might check out the venerable Three Lobed Recordings. Cory puts out some great music, and while I've never thought of it as particularly creepy, some of it can be deeply disturbing.
posted by OmieWise at 1:26 PM on August 12

the Suspiria soundtrack!
posted by sarahj at 1:27 PM on August 12

Seconding Coil's unreleased Hellraiser themes.
posted by Jairus at 1:30 PM on August 12

I strongly recommend the soundtracks to the Silent Hill video game series. Heavy on the creepiness, mostly free of vocals. Some of it is a little more industrial and not quite as ambient, but still plenty spooky all the same.
posted by DiamondGFX at 1:31 PM on August 12

There's a band called Midnight Syndicate that does what they call "soundtracks for the imagination." They branched out explicitly into music for games by recording "The Official Role Playing Soundtrack for Dungeons and Dragons," but most of their stuff is horror-oriented and might be right up your dark alley.
posted by infinitywaltz at 1:35 PM on August 12

Amber Asylum
posted by The Straightener at 1:41 PM on August 12

Here's Amber Asylum doing an ingenious, super creepy cover of Black Sabbath.
posted by The Straightener at 1:44 PM on August 12

I'm surprised no one's mentioned György Ligeti yet. Try Atmospheres or Lux Aeterna for starters.

Also pretty much anything by Giacinto Scelsi is pretty creepy (example).
posted by dfan at 1:50 PM on August 12 [1 favorite]

The soundtrack to Romeo Is Bleeding by Mark Isham is pretty spooky.
posted by sully75 at 1:50 PM on August 12

I agree with Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy.

Also, I'm totally creeped out by Tori Amos' version of 97 Bonnie & Clyde.
posted by speeb at 1:50 PM on August 12

Also you could try pretty much anything Béla Bartók wrote in his Night Music style (here's one example that was also used in The Shining).
posted by dfan at 1:55 PM on August 12

Its origin is rooted in science fiction, but the soundtrack for Portal easily does double-duty evoking eldritch horrors and ambient dread. Their understated tone won't distract, and makes it easy to string them together to cover arbitrarily long stretches of time.

Sample tracks:

Self Esteem Fund
Stop What You Are Doing
Android Hell
Procedural Jiggle Bone
Taste of Blood
Party Escort

Seconding good Ligeti's "Lux Aeterna" as a good all-around spooky tune.

(You can convert these YouTube tracks to mp3's here.)
posted by Rhaomi at 1:56 PM on August 12 [1 favorite]

Speaking of Danny Elfman, there are some seriously creepy tracks on the Fable soundtrack. Try Darkwood or Lychfield Cemetery.
posted by Jelly at 1:57 PM on August 12

Angel Theme by Darling Violetta
posted by blaneyphoto at 1:59 PM on August 12

Seconding Portal. There's a lot of good creepy music out there but it bothers me when a track reaches a climax while we're still trying to determine if it's worth rolling an evade check.

Portal is ambient enough that it doesn't cause this problem, but of course I'm only speaking from experience with my own group's attempt to meld Arkham and background music - with all the ideas in this thread it may be time for us to try again...
posted by doubleozaphod at 2:20 PM on August 12

Seconding dfan's mention of Ligeti, and also suggesting some Messiaen, especially Apparition de l'Eglise éternelle ("Apparition of the eternal church.")
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 2:27 PM on August 12

For lighthearted Lovecraft, it's hard to beat A Shoggoth on the Roof. Alternately, the Lovecraft-themed Darkest of the Hillside Thickets.
posted by Parasite Unseen at 2:30 PM on August 12

Current 93 in general.
Dogs Blood Rising in particular.
Imperium is relevant too.
posted by philip-random at 2:38 PM on August 12

I'd recommend c17h19no3, one of the many John Bergin projects that can be downloaded from his site entire, high quality, here (the Music Archive section). Specifically 1692/2092, as well as Terra Null. Also the Tertium Non Data album (on the same page) 'Hers is Blood' is pretty creepshow lowkey, with unsettling female vocals all throughout.

I'd also recommend checking out Climax Golden Twins for a schizoid creepshow kind of sound - some of it bordering on pleasant before pulling back and becoming this fractured soundscape of intruding anxiety. Specifically the 'Session 9' soundtrack, and 'Highly Bred and Sweetly Tempered'.

For a more ambient dread, you absolutely cannot go wrong with Tribes of Neurot, a side project of the psych-metal juggernauts Neurosis. Many of their albums are dark soundscapes designed to be played simultaneously with Neurosis albums - I'd recommend both 'Grace' (companion to 'Times of Grace') and 'Silver Blood Transmission' (companion to 'Through Silver and Blood').

Of course, I'd be remiss if I failed to mention Endura, an industrial-ambient project that directly and specifically works with Lovecraftian themes of madness and corruption - see 'Black Eden', 'The Dark is Light Enough', 'Liber Leviathan', 'Dreams of Dark Water', etc etc. It can border on cheesy at times, but mostly dwells right on that uncomfortable anxious cavern-chanting sound that the Old Ones so enjoy.

And there's Throbbing Gristle, progenitors of the entire Industrial music genre (coiners of the term, actually). Their various releases always push on the edge of what can be defined as music vs. a sonic discomforting agent. I'd recommend "Second Annual Report" as a good intro to the various tones their sound can take.

There's a lot more I'll report with later, hopefully - about to leave work now. That should give you a solid base to work with for now, though.
posted by FatherDagon at 3:13 PM on August 12

I could see the Super Metroid soundtrack working here. Or even a remix.

As a kid, I played the Call of Cthulhu RPG with just a record of spooky Halloween sound effects in the background. It seems like it'd be cheesy, but it worked.
posted by ignignokt at 3:14 PM on August 12

At a game I play in, one of the rooms has the opening track from the Gladiator soundtrack on infinite loop. It's subtle, but creepy as hell and an excellent backdrop when you are focusing on other stuff, like the game.

Other good soundtracks would be the Warcraft III soundtrack, and some of the stuff from World of Warcraft, which has zones that are supposed to be spooky. (Just avoid the more aggressive war-based tracks.)

13th Warrior is a personal favorite, but might be a bit too... adventurous / bold.
posted by GJSchaller at 3:29 PM on August 12

Seconding The Caretaker. Link has samples and free music download links from the artist's website.
posted by Shecky at 3:43 PM on August 12

A lot of people just find it funny, but funeral doom metal or drone doom can be pretty spooky. The Catacombs album In the Depths of R'lyeh is a Lovecraftian concept album, not that you can understand the lyrics.
posted by Bookhouse at 4:05 PM on August 12

Some of Zoë Keating's work would be good.
posted by chairface at 4:06 PM on August 12

Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works, vol. II. Minimalist, bizarre, and somehow timeless. It underlines the themes of isolation and cosmic terror in Lovecraft's work. I don't usually find Lovecraft scary on his own, but combined with the likes of (e.g.) disc 1 track 5, a story like The Colour out of Space or The Rats in the Walls takes on a life of its own.
posted by aparrish at 4:40 PM on August 12

I always used to get creeped out by listening to Phallus Dei alone on the midnight shift at work
Pornocrates is the album I listened to the most, but I'm sure the rest are good too.
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 5:27 PM on August 12

Nox Arcana's concept album Necronomicon - "a spellbinding tribute to the Cthuhlu mythos" - would be perfect for this!
posted by velvet winter at 5:27 PM on August 12

Prokofiev's Dance of the Knights is wonderfully menacing, especially when blaring through a darkened house while you're handing out candy to the neighbor kids on Halloween.
posted by tula at 11:36 PM on August 12

The soundtrack to Interview with a Vampire, all harpischords and hellish fiddles, is v. spooky (and v. underrated).
posted by low_horrible_immoral at 5:37 AM on August 13