Songs for October (again) and my last moments of Halloween.

As a grand finale to my endless Halloween raving I have asked my very dear and very lovely friend, Becky, to share her haunting musical loves.  Since meeting her I have relinquished my right to select music on iTunes during any form of social gathering but have never regretted this sacrifice.  Please enjoy her selection of the creepiest music on offer:

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 It is no secret, Jai has a love for Halloween that far surpasses a small child's love of Christmas. Therefore, being asked to compile a playlist of spooky tracks for this years party felt like such a huge and honourable responsibility! However, I can happily say that making the playlist was almost as much fun as the party itself!

Despite quite innocently thinking that I would never get further than 'Tubular Bells' and tracks from the Rocky Horror Show, I soon realised how many genuinely disturbing tracks there are from mainstream artists alone.

A quick search through my own playlist soon uncovered what was actually pretty obvious...almost anything by Radiohead was super disturbing. After this epiphany the ball started rolling...

Scrolling down my albums I picked up on some obvious gems, including; AC/DC, Black Sabbath, The Rolling Stones, Incubus, The Doors, Nirvana, Tenacious D, Nina Simone and many more.

Some not so obvious artists also made the playlist. For instance, Kate Nash, Laura Marling, The Beatles (Revolution 9) and The Velvet Underground all made an appearance! The White Stripes also have a surprising amount of tracks involving Death, Satan and Ghosts.

Once I had exhausted my own resources I decided to get help from ITunes. However, after searching 'Halloween' I quickly discovered that most ready made Halloween albums are made for children or just bad covers of old horror movie themes.

So I downloaded a couple that I considered the creepiest; The Omen and Nightmare on Elm Street. I believe that, besides the use of obvious minor and diminished chords, horror themes are creepy to each person individually, depending on whether the film scared them to death. Which is why I also felt the need to add a few tracks from Coraline to the mix...they would sound perfectly lovely...if you hadn't watched the film.

After a quick download of some classics....'Michael Jackson - Thriller', 'The Specials - Ghost Town', and 'The Charlie Daniel's Band - The Devil Went Down to Georgia.'...I arranged the CDs into order, starting with the creepy ones to get people in the mood and then the more danceable ones. Throwing some creepy dance tracks onto the end for good measure, including 'Faithless - Tarantula' and 'Zombie Nation - Kernkraft 400'. It was then just an old school CD burning session and it was good to go. 

By the end of the night all the CDs had been played multiple times! (Despite bulking out the best tracks with an album untitled 'Dark Classical Tracks' to increase playing time!).

However, after many different games and a fair bit of punch and an old mop turned into a limbo stick, the guests were left with one track on repeat in their head....'Let's all do the limbo!' 

With many memories of incredible costumes, pumpkins and decorations from previous years, the Halloween excitement was shared among all those attending this years party. And with a little help from Thom Yorke and Ozzy Osbourne (to name a few) the night was another superb memory to add to the collection. We already have the playlist...roll on 31st October '13!

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It is official, I am done on Halloween.  See you tomorrow for Guy Fawkes night.