Comments on: Must-have Halloween music?

Question: Must-have Halloween music?

everichon — Mon, 12 Sep 2005 10:41:41 -0800

Fall is in the air (in Southern Oregon, anyway), and my mind turns to good Halloween music. The two essentials I already have: In The Hall Of The Mountain King and Danse Macabre. I'm also enjoying the Six Feet Under theme music.
So: what is your essential Halloween soundtrack? (Aside from the soundtrack to Halloween.)

By: box

box — Mon, 12 Sep 2005 10:49:30 -0800

I like the scores that Goblin did for a few Dario Argento movies, and I'm quite fond of DJ P's two Hell on Wheels Halloween-themed mixtapes.

By: dorian

dorian — Mon, 12 Sep 2005 10:51:03 -0800

mussorgsky's night on bald mountain (aka st john's night on the bare mountain) is always good, if over-used.

also: mendelssohn's die erste walpurgisnacht, berlioz' march to the scaffold, paganini's witches' dance...

By: theinsectsarewaiting

theinsectsarewaiting — Mon, 12 Sep 2005 10:51:19 -0800

Bela Lugosi's Dead by Bauhaus.

By: kindall

kindall — Mon, 12 Sep 2005 10:51:49 -0800

Tangerine Dream's Phaedra or or Rubycon or Stratosfear or anything of the Franke/Froese/Baumann era. You really want to creep people out, play the vocal side of Cyclone. That'd be the first two tracks for those of you with the newfangled compact discs.

Any old sci-fi movie soundtrack with lots of weird synth and Theremin, such as Forbidden Planet.

By: umberto

umberto — Mon, 12 Sep 2005 10:56:05 -0800

On my frighten-the-little-kids-who-come-to-collect-candy CD I have (yes, the theme from Halloween) and a lot off of the soundtrack from the Dark Shadows TV series. There are lame non-scary things on there (and extremely lame spoken things) but if you burn it and grab just the scary stuff it's nice and moody. Parts of Tubular Bells (The original Exorcist theme is from this) are also nice, but that requires a little editing, as it is a continuous album and not all properly ambient. O Fortuna from Carmina Burana is also a must-have, albeit a bit short.

By: Skot

Skot — Mon, 12 Sep 2005 11:19:42 -0800

The Who, "Boris the Spider"
Suicide, "Ghost Rider"
And hey, c'mon, go ahead and put "Thriller" on there.

By: LionIndex

LionIndex — Mon, 12 Sep 2005 11:26:38 -0800

Sonic Youth: "Halloween", off Bad Moon Rising (which has a Halloweenesque cover). "Death Valley 69" off the same record also works.

Trail of Dead: "All Saint's Day", off The Secret of Elena's Tomb.

By: wsg

wsg — Mon, 12 Sep 2005 11:42:09 -0800

I defy anyone to sit through a listening of the film Altered States' soundtrack - SERIOUSLY creepy. The soundtrack was Oscar nominated, I just found out.

By: kindall

kindall — Mon, 12 Sep 2005 11:55:17 -0800

Oh yeah. "Bloodletting" by Concrete Blonde.

By: hototogisu

hototogisu — Mon, 12 Sep 2005 12:00:19 -0800

Assorted David Lynch soundtracks (specifically Eraserhead),
Popol Vuh's Nosferatu (the original part of Herzog's film's OST),
Shostakovich's Jazz Suite no. 2 (yeah, I have no idea why this says Halloween to me, but it does!),
György Ligeti's choral music (specifically Lux Aeterna),
Peter Sculthorpe's String Quartet no. 8,
George Crumb's Black Angels,
Erik Friedlander's Maldoror,
Dead Can Dance's Within the Realm of a Dying Sun,
Keiji Haino's Black Blues,
Deathprod's Imaginary Songs from Tristan da Cunha,
Einstürzende Neubauten's Zeichnungen des Patienten O.T.,
and probably my favorite autumn music,
Six Organs of Admittance's Dark Noontide.

Also, if you're going to play anything by Suicide, play "Frankie Teardrop."

By: rabbitsnake

rabbitsnake — Mon, 12 Sep 2005 12:03:13 -0800

First Utterance by Comus, creepy goblinesque folk music that could be the soundtrack to a deep woods witch coven.

By: oddman

oddman — Mon, 12 Sep 2005 12:06:06 -0800

The soundtrack for "The Nightmare Before Christmas."

By: goalyeehah

goalyeehah — Mon, 12 Sep 2005 12:20:39 -0800

A friend of mine has sound-designed a great cd.

Go to www.hauntedworld.com. I think he has some sound bites you can listen to

By: barjo

barjo — Mon, 12 Sep 2005 12:43:48 -0800

The Fantasy Film World of Bernard Herrmann.

By: robocop is bleeding

robocop is bleeding — Mon, 12 Sep 2005 12:47:59 -0800

Duh-nuh-dduuuhhhh!
Duhnuhduh duh-dduuhhhh!

(At this point the Heroine rips off the Phantom's mask and he turns to face the audience from his pipe organ)

By: I Foody

I Foody — Mon, 12 Sep 2005 12:54:21 -0800

Arthur Brown's the crazy world of Arthur Brown.

By: saladin

saladin — Mon, 12 Sep 2005 12:59:00 -0800

"Jadulistan Requiem" by Three Mile Pilot.

By: Johnny Assay

Johnny Assay — Mon, 12 Sep 2005 12:59:21 -0800

On the classical side:

Liszt, Totentanz (Dance of the Dead)
Rachmaninoff, The Isle of the Dead
Berlioz, Songe d'un Nuit du Sabbath (Dream of a Witches' Sabbath) from Symphonie Fantastique. (For my money, this is at least twice as Halloween-y as the March to the Gallows.)
Prokofiev, Le dieu ennemi et la danse des esprits noirs from the "Ala & Lolly" Scythian Suite.

If I think of any more, I'll post 'em.

By: LionIndex

LionIndex — Mon, 12 Sep 2005 13:56:11 -0800

Oh, duh. Toccata and Fugue in D minor (the saddest of all keys!), Johann Sebastian Bach.

By: nebulawindphone

nebulawindphone — Mon, 12 Sep 2005 14:16:13 -0800

Oingo Boingo, "Dead Man's Party."

By: m@

m@ — Mon, 12 Sep 2005 14:33:48 -0800

Tocatta und...what LionIndex said.

By: Staggering Jack

Staggering Jack — Mon, 12 Sep 2005 14:40:22 -0800

"Country Death Song" by the Violent Femmes

By: QIbHom

QIbHom — Mon, 12 Sep 2005 15:39:16 -0800

"Halloween" by Ministry. Even if they hate to admit they recorded it.

By: yclipse

yclipse — Mon, 12 Sep 2005 16:15:22 -0800

Somewhat surprisingly, Depeche Mode's Music for the Masses fits right in with the atmosphere.

By: geeky

geeky — Mon, 12 Sep 2005 16:26:17 -0800

The Cure - Lullaby

Also, you might find some good suggestions here, here, and here

By: SPrintF

SPrintF — Mon, 12 Sep 2005 20:04:43 -0800

What, no love for the Monster Mash?

Then I'll suggest Rob Zombie's Dragula and the soundtrack of The Devil Lady.

By: angry modem

angry modem — Mon, 12 Sep 2005 20:16:38 -0800

Personally, I like SunnO))) and the Whitehouse/Nurse with Wound collaboration 'the 150 Murderous Passions'. But, they're more suited to if you're running a haunted house than anything else.

By: inthe80s

inthe80s — Tue, 13 Sep 2005 08:57:26 -0800

Rhino has a New Wave Halloween collection, which has 6 songs all named Halloween on them, and fun stuff like "Everyday is Halloween" by Ministry on it. Not really stuff that sounds like the typical Halloween stuff though.

By: alby

alby — Tue, 13 Sep 2005 09:45:46 -0800

BoingBoing calls it The Halloween mix-disc of all time and they're right on the mark. It's absolutely awesome, the perfect thing to have on in the background during a party, even on repeat.

By: alby

alby — Tue, 13 Sep 2005 09:47:13 -0800

^^^
Bollocks.

Just discovered the .torrent doesn't work. Can MeFites help? If so, I'd like a copy too!

By: clgregor

clgregor — Wed, 14 Sep 2005 14:57:05 -0800

I'm not sure how 'must have' "Oh Lately It's So Quiet" by OK Go is but I heard it and thought it would be great for a Halloween party. Not very spooky but it s chorus is "Whose house/are you haunting/tonight."