Darktime II

"All the Devils Are Here"

[This is one post in a series about my music mixes.  The series list has links to all posts in the series and also definitions of many of the terms I use.  You may wish to read the series introduction for general background.  You may also want to check out the first volume in this multi-volume mix for more info on its theme.

Like all my series, it is not necessarily contiguous—that is, I don’t guarantee that the next post in the series will be next week.  Just that I will eventually finish it, someday.  Unless I get hit by a bus.]

There were a few tracks left over from the original Darktime mix after I trimmed it down to a proper volume length, but not nearly enough for a second volume.  So I’ve had to spruce it up rather significantly to flesh out this set.  Our top artists are probably Black Tape for a Blue Girl, Jeff Greinke, and Nox Arcana, who each have 3 songs between these first two volumes.  In fact, BTfaBG in particular is significant because they were almost certainly the mix starter.  It was from scouring the Internet’s early, primitive sharing sites that I accumulated the vast majority of my BTfaBG collection, and many of them inspired me to pair them up with other, equally tenebrous tracks, and that’s what eventually turned into Darktime.  You may recall that this is one of my “mood mixes,” which are the small set of mixes between the pre-modern and modern mixes.  And there was a lot of “stuff I found floating around on the Internet” involved in those.

Now that I’m bringing the mood mixes into line with the modern mixes, there’s less of that.  Most of the BTfaBG I own now I bought, because I wanted to have the full albums.  Take “Left, Unsaid”: it’s a meandering, ethereal, but still creepy track, and, when the vocals finally kick in nearly halfway through, they’re murky and provide more atmosphere than lyrics.  It’s a great example of what makes Sam Rosenthal’s personal project so perfect for this mix.  I’ve had a copy of “Left, Unsaid” for æons now, but I only bought This Lush Garden Within, their fifth album (and yet still considered one of the early ones), fairly recently.  Which is how I came across “Into the Garden,” another track off that album, which shares the gothic horns and murky vocals, but gets right into it much more quickly, and then layers on some female vocals for good measure.¹  As for Greinke, I’m returning to Cities in Fog, wherein I drew one of his tracks for last volume, because it really is the album of his that’s best suited for this mix.  “Moving Through Fog” is exactly what it says on the tin, complete with echoes that you can’t quite pin a direction to and muffled industrial sounds that could be machinery or equally could be restless spirits.  Nox Arcana also returns with its same album from last time, Legion of Shadows, which likewise is just too perfect for this mix.  “Spirits of the Past” is, as the name implies, pretty spooky, but also weirdly pretty, with its bell percussion and synthy, Phantom-of-the-Opera-esque melody; “Ancient Flame” is much calmer, giving a slight Middle Eastern vibe, like a night in the Arabian desert.

There are other returning artists as well: Amber Asylum is back with a short, bridge-like tune that begins the transition into the middle third of the volume.  “Ave’ Maria” is what you’d hear if you dared engage the old-time phonograph you found in the haunted house you were exploring.  Nox Arcana’s progenitor Midnight Syndicate² provides the “Epilogue” from their Carnival Arcane, which is here used as a bridge to transition from “Ancient Flame” to the closing triptych of the volume.  The new-age-y Angels of Venice also return with a quite long track, “Tears of the World (Lacrimae Mundi),” which I almost ditched several times; the first minute and a half is more reminiscent of Incanto Liturgica, but after that it settles into a solid, Halloweeny vibe.  Darkwavers Love Is Colder Than Death are also back, this time with “Tired to Death,” a synthy track with a funereal beat, though it does pick up a bit in the middle, and Susann Heinrich adds some ghostly vocals as well.  And we also return to the soundtrack of the original Dark Shadows for a “Seance” from from composer Robert Cobert, which sounds a bit like what the original Star Trek’s theme would have been if it had been a horror series instead of a scifi one.

This volume also reflects my newfound passion for gaming music.  Jeremy Soule provides “Aquarium of Alkonos,” a spooky, echoey track from the Icewind Dale videogame, and there’s a Jason Hayes track from the World of Warcraft game soundtrack,³ “Duskwood,” which is perfect for exploring creepy woods at night.  The newest addition to this volume—not added until I actually started getting organized for this post, in fact—was “Let Them In,” a track from the Candela Obscura soundtrack, credited to “Critical Role & Colm R. McGuinness,” though I suspect McGuinness did most of the work.  We’ve heard from McGuinness before, everywhere from Shadowfall Equinox VIII to every volume of Eldritch Ætherium except the first,⁴ and here he turns his penchant for dramatic, cinematic music to a creepier bent, as befits the Candela Obscura game.  Plus it flows so beautifully off the LICTD entry that I knew it was perfect here.

Like Greinke, Kevin Keller is usually found on Shadowfall Equinox,⁵, but “Chamber Doors” is a lot darker tonally than his usual fare, so I thought it worked well here.  And French soundtrack composer Xcyril closes us out with a weird, synthy track called “Organique.” The foreground gives insects-scattering-in-a-panic vibes, while the background is more howling-wind-on-a-cold-winter’s-night, but the whole thing works well here, and it fades into a muted something-else-entirely in a very satisfying way.

It’s also not that surprising to see hardcore gothic representatives Faith and the Muse here; “And Laugh—but Smile No More” is a creepy little harpsichord bridge that takes us solidly into the center stretch of the volume.  And witchhouse project oOoOO winds down that center stretch with the short “Crossed Wires,” which wouldn’t really be out of place on Cantosphere Eversion, but I thought it was dark enough to work well here.  As for brothers and film composers Mychael and Jeff Danna, they’ve worked together on films such as The Boondock Saints, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, and the animated version of The Addams Family, so they know how to do creepy and dramatic, and how to combine the two.  A Celtic Tale: The Legend of Deirdre is the soundtrack to an imaginary film⁶ about legendary Irish folk hero Deirdre, protagonist of a tragedy which could put any of the classic Greek ones to shame.  I’m not sure what part of the story “Druid” is supposed to represent, but, as it comes late in the album, it’s probably not a happy one.  This is the perfect song for meeting with a mysterious mage to seal a dark pact, and it flows beautifully into “Left, Unsaid.” Plus its slow boil makes it a great opening track.

Darktime II
[ All the Devils Are Here ]

“Druid” by Mychael Danna & Jeff Danna, off A Celtic Tale: The Legend of Deirdre
“Left, Unsaid” by Black Tape for a Blue Girl, off This Lush Garden Within
“Moving Through Fog” by Jeff Greinke, off Cities in Fog
“Aquarium of Alkonos” by Jeremy Soule, off Icewind Dale [Videogame Soundtrack]
“Chamber Doors” by Kevin Keller, off Intermezzo
“Ave' Maria” by Amber Asylum, off Frozen in Amber
“And Laugh—but Smile No More” by Faith and the Muse, off Evidence of Heaven
“... You” by DJ Food, off Kaleidoscope
“Into the Garden” by Black Tape for a Blue Girl, off This Lush Garden Within
“Spirits of the Past” by Nox Arcana, off Legion of Shadows
“Tired to Death” by Love Is Colder Than Death, off Teignmouth
“Let Them In” by Critical Role & Colm R. McGuinness, off Candela Obscura [RPG Soundtrack]
“Crossed Wires” by oOoOO, off Without Your Love
“Hell Is Empty” by Emilie Autumn, off Fight Like a Girl
“Psalm” by Koop, off Sons of Koop
“Tears of the World (Lacrimae Mundi)” by Angels of Venice, off Angels of Venice
“Ancient Flame” by Nox Arcana, off Legion of Shadows
“Epilogue” by Midnight Syndicate, off Carnival Arcane
“Duskwood” by Jason Hayes, off World of Warcraft Soundtrack [Videogame Soundtrack]
“Seance” by Robert Cobert, off Dark Shadows, Volume 1 [Soundtrack]
“Wandering Heart” by Xcyril, off Organique

Total:  21 tracks,  76:10

What’s unexpected here?  Not too much.  Classically trained violinist Emilie Autumn is usually more suited to Fulminant Cadenza, where we’ve already seen her, and Distaff Attitude, where we haven’t (yet⁷), but “Hell Is Empty” (which also provides our volume title), is a creepy little bridge that I thought perfectly transitioned us from the center to the back stretch.  And that back stretch kicks off with an even more unlikely candidate, Koop.  The electrojazz Swedes are perhaps the last folks you’d think would produce something dark and gothy, but “Psalm,” from their first album (which is the least jazz and the most electro), feels like a song from a black-and-white gothic horror movie—you know the kind: unsettling, but not really scary.

And, finally, DJ Food is Londoner Kevin Foakes, who we’ve heard before on Mystical Memoriam.  He’s an electronica artist who often ranges from upbeat electropop to downtempo chill, but ”... You” is a short, vaguely unsettling track with some muddled female vocals in the middle (and some similarity to “Psalm,” actually).  It was too perfect for this mix for me not to include it here.

Next time, we’ll start trying to achieve inner peace using electronica beats.

⇐ Darktime I

Darktime III ⇒

__________

1 The Internet seems disinclined to identify the female vocalist for me, but I’d guess it’s Susan Jennings, who did the artwork for the album, wrote some of the lyrics, and is credited with vocals on at least one other track.

2 I feel comfortable calling them that, because Joseph Vargo, who basically is Nox Arcana, got his start working with Midnight Syndicate before breaking off to do his own project.  And the MS guys have definitely credited Vargo with a lot of their vibe, such as their themed albums which seem specifically designed to be played during Halloween parties.

3 Which we’ve mostly seen thus far on Eldritch Ætherium, specifically on volumes III and IV.

4 So II, III, and IV.

5 Specifically, volumes II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, and VIII.

6 At least that’s how AllMusic described it.

7 Perhaps in the fullness of time.

Stumbling Locomotive I

"Keep A-shovelin' That Coal"

[This is one post in a series about my music mixes.  The series list has links to all posts in the series and also definitions of many of the terms I use.  You may wish to read the introduction for more background.

Like all my series, it is not necessarily contiguous—that is, I don’t guarantee that the next post in the series will be next week.  Just that I will eventually finish it, someday.  Unless I get hit by a bus.]

One of the earliest of the pre-modern mixes¹ was Stumbling Locomotive.  Like most of the pre-moderns,² this was made to play at parties, and its central conceit was that it would feature songs that started off a bit slow, perhaps staggering around a bit, but then eventually worked up a full head of steam and went rolling and rollicking along.  Such songs are great for parties, in my opinion, because they provide natural breaks: particularly when you’re dancing, as one song fades and the next one begins, if the new song starts off slow, that gives you a little break, a short time to cool off before the song eventually hits its stride and you can get back to your frenetic gyrations.

Now, like all the pre-modern mixes, the original version was both chock full of songs from the period of my second college attendance (roughly 1989 – 1992) and riddled with bad choices.  Not meaning bad songs, of course, just songs that didn’t really fit the theme.  For instance, “Sin” by Nine Inch Nails was originally on this mix.  And that’s a fantastic song, and great to play at parties, but in no way does it fit the description I gave above.³  So this is probably the pre-modern mix that’s been most extensively reworked: less than half the tracks from the original mix survive, and only a third of what remains falls into that college timeframe that tend to dominate the other pre-moderns.⁴  As I started to get the vibe for the mix, it was easy to find songs that fit the theme.

For instance, songs about trains are common, and many of them actually tend to sound like trains.  And that’s sort of the epitome of what this mix is about.  If you can write a song about a train that has the same rhythm as a train rolling down the tracks (and if you can manage to avoid it being a country song), you’ve really got something kinda cool.  “Train” by 4 Non Blondes is perhaps the best example of this; if you’re familiar with that album,⁵ it’s even got a picture of a train right on the cover.  It’s a kind of wacky, cartoon train, sure, but there it is nonetheless.  And, on this album with a train on the cover, there’s a song called “Train” that both sounds like a train and is about a train.⁶  Plus it has a harmonica!  Totally trainy.

Many songs on that album have that train vibe, though none are quite as on the nose.  Still, “Old Mr. Hefffer” gives “Train” a run for its money, so it earned a spot here as well.  But, for powerful female vocals belting out train-inspired lyrics, Linda Perry of 4 Non Blondes has a powerful competitor in Liz Phair, whose “Baby Got Going” not only has the harmonica, but also gives us our very trainy volume title.  And we can’t leave out Johnette Napolitano: Concrete Blonde’s “Carry Me Away,” which is the transition song between the “Day Side” and “Night Side” of their amazing album Free actually throws the line “Today I saw a train roll by the river” into its first verse, and the song follows the now familiar pattern of starting off slow and then kicking it into high gear.

Of course, that brings up the question of how Stumbling Locomotive differs from Creeping Rageaholic.  The main thing is, songs on that latter mix tend to burst forth into being; these mostly ramp up gradually.⁷  And these songs have a rolling quality that is reminiscent of riding on a train.  Perhaps the best example of this is to look at Pete Yorn, who has tracks from his musicforthemorningafter featured on both mixes.  “For Nancy” is a song you belt out when you’re in a joyous mood; “Life on a Chain” is one that just carries you along in its wake while you bop your head and carry on with what you were doing.  Heck, some of these tracks actually don’t have the slow start: “Buzz Buzz Buzz” by the Primitives has that rhythmic rolling right from the opening notes and it maintains a frenetic pace throughout.  And “Railroad Steel” by the Georgia Satellites—a band which is very good at cozying up to that line that separates Southern rock from country without ever crossing it—keeps a pretty steady pace throughout as well (plus it has lots more train similes).  On the other hand, “Burn Up” by Siouxsie and the Banshees really does start out a bit slow in the first half of the first verse, picks up the pace in the second half, and finally hits its strides with the chorus.  No train imagery in this one, but the harmonica is back, and I challenge anyone to listen to this track (which is about a pyromaniac) and not think “train.”

As much as this rework diverges from the original version, there’s one place they’re exactly the same: the opener.  It was always “It Makes No Difference” by the Darling Buds.  Once described as “sounding more like the Primitives than the Primitives” by 120 Minutes music critic Dave Kendall, this band from Wales⁸ produced a great Britpop first album (Pop Said), and, while their follow-up Crawdaddy was not quite as impressive, its opening track will always epitomize this vibe for me.  It doesn’t really sound like a train, but it starts out slow and quiet, building gradually, with some breathy vocalizations from Andrea Lewis, and eventually that driving bassline kicks in, and that carries the song (and the listener) along for the rest of the journey.  It’s just brilliant.

In fact, several of the tracks here are less reminiscent of trains so much as they remind me of galloping horses.  One of the first additions to the rework was in fact “Shadow of Love” by the Damned, off the brilliant Phantasmagoria.  With Dave Vanian at his gothiest, the rhythm section of Brynn Merrick and Rat Scabies turned in some of their best work on this track.  The song takes the occasional break from that strong canter, but the sonic reflections of hoofbeats always come back, driving on and on and on.  It was an early choice for second track here.  And another track that showcases that rolling equine gait is “Take Me I’m Yours” by Squeeze.  This was actually their first single, originally released back in 1977, but I never heard it until I picked up what is quite possibly the best greatest hits compilation ever: Singles: 45’s and Under.  Every song on that collection is a winner, and this, the opening track, is a great example of what we’re looking to achieve here.

For another song that gives that riding-on-a-horse vibe, there’s the aptly named “Ride,” also from Liz Phair (she can do trains and horses, on the same album, even).  The titular ride is more of a car ride, granted; here’s my favorite lyric from the song:

I don’t know, but I’ve been told
That the road to heav’n is paved with gold
And, if I die before I wake,
I need a ride ...

The best thing about this bit is that she compresses “heaven” down to a single syllable, which makes it sound remarkably like “hell,” so you’re not quite sure which one she’s singing.  Chef’s kiss.  And I follow that up with KT Tunstall’s “Push That Knot Away,” from her magnum opus Tiger Suit.  As I’ve said before,⁹ Tunstall reminds a lot of Phair, in both style and attitude, but with significant enough differences that pairing them isn’t repetitive.  So I put these two back-to-back in the closing triptych of the volume: “Knot” has a slightly different rolling gait than “Ride,” but it’s quite insistent as well.  But perhaps the best example of this rolling beat outside of “Shadow of Love” is another late-80s-early-90s classic, “Away” by the Feelies.  With two drummers, a great bassist, and some guitar work that somehow manages to sound like lonely train whistles, “Away,” with its Jonathan-Demme-directed video, was my introduction to the Feelies, and still stands as their greatest achievement in my opinion.  It was a natural choice to open up the back third.

Stumbling Locomotive I
[ Keep A-shovelin' That Coal ]

“It Makes No Difference” by the Darling Buds, off Crawdaddy
“Shadow of Love” by Damned, off Phantasmagoria
“Old Mr. Heffer” by 4 Non Blondes, off Bigger, Better, Faster, More!
“Life on a Chain” by Pete Yorn, off musicforthemorningafter
“Say Amen (Saturday Night)” by Panic! at the Disco, off Pray for the Wicked
“On the Corner Where You Live” by the Paper Kites, off On the Corner Where You Live
“Take Me I'm Yours” by Squeeze, off Singles: 45's and Under [Compilation]
“Railroad Steel” by Georgia Satellites, off Georgia Satellites
“Baby Got Going” by Liz Phair, off Whitechocolatespaceegg
“Burn-Up” by Siouxsie and the Banshees, off Peepshow
“Cakewalk” by House of Freaks, off Cakewalk
“Carry Me Away” by Concrete Blonde, off Free
“Train” by 4 Non Blondes, off Bigger, Better, Faster, More!
“Buzz Buzz Buzz” by the Primitives, off Lovely
“I Wonder Why” by the Heart Throbs, off Cleopatra Grip
“Cecilia Ann” by Pixies, off Bossanova
“Away” by the Feelies, off Only Life
“The Bosses Daughter” by the Lucky Bullets, off Dead Man's Shoes
“Shine On” by the House of Love, off The House of Love [Butterfly Album]
“Add It Up” by Violent Femmes, off Violent Femmes
“Gipsy Threat” by Ratatat, off LP3
“Ride” by Liz Phair, off Whitechocolatespaceegg
“Push That Knot Away” by KT Tunstall, off Tiger Suit
“400 Bucks” by Reverend Horton Heat, off The Full-Custom Gospel Sounds of the Reverend Horton Heat

Total:  24 tracks,  80:23

There are 3 bridges used here, of which “Cecilia Ann” by the Pixies is easily the one which hews closest to the theme: it’s a hard driving instrumental with impeccable basswork from Kim Deal (as always) and a great beat from Lovering, though it’s (somewhat surprisingly) Black Francis’ rhythm guitar that provides the “chunk-a-chunk” that gives it its impetus.  And of course Joey Santiago’s great Western-sounding ringing guitar chords.  I thought it made a nice lead-in to “Away.” Next, the title track of House of Freaks’ third full-length album Cakewalk has that great Johny Hott percussion and the now familiar rolling beat; it introduces the middle stretch of the volume.  Finally, I felt that the back third needed a little something in the middle to introduce the return of Liz Phair, so I found a bit of electronica from Ratatat¹⁰ which also featured that galloping hoofbeat rhythm that features so heavily here.

There’s not too much surprising going on.  I did want to add a few newer tunes, so I slotted in “Say Amen” by Panic! at the Disco, which is, to be fair, more of a happy trot than a proper canter, but I think it still works here, followed immediately by “On the Corner Where You Live” by the Paper Kites, a lovely Australian band that I discovered through a coworker at my current job.  They’ve been around since 2010, and this album (of which “Corner” is the title track) is from 2018, but I never heard of them until 2020, when this coworker suggested a song from their 2012 EP as our “push song.”¹¹  That song had more of a Simon-and-Garfunkel vibe to raised-by-my-record-collector-father me, but it was intriguing enough to me to send me scurrying to listen to more of their work.  As it turns out, Corner is a fantastic album, and this track is one of those not-quite-downbeat songs with a very steady pace that I thought was quite excellent coming off the much more ebuillient “Amen.” Finally, the Lucky Bullets is a Norwegian rockabilly band (as unlikely as that sounds) that also treads dangerously close to that country line, although they rarely trip over it.  “The Bosses Daughter” [sic] trades the harmonica in for a trumpet, giving it a Western hoofbeat that’s almost enough to earn it a spot on Tumbledown Flatland.  But I thought it worked well here.

For more late-80s-early-90s goodness, “Add It Up” by the Violent Femmes is a classic that, again, starts off slow and quiet, then picks up the pace.  As always, Brian Ritchie’s basswork is the stand-out, giving it the requisite rhythm.  Meanwhile, “Shine On” by House of Love hits the pace right out of the gate, then alternates between slowing down (but never too much) and speeding up (but never to a reckless level).  Both are perhaps a slight stretch here, but they match well with “Away,” and using “The Bosses Daughter” to break up the 80s goodness just seemed to work.  Our final track from this period is from the criminally forgotten Heart Throbs, who hail from Reading, home to the lead singer of the Sundays.  And Cleopatra Grip was even released the same year as Reading, Writing and Arithmetic, but the latter was a huge hit while the former produced one song that hit #2 on the Modern Rock charts and then they seemed to fade from the spotlight.¹²  And there’s no good reason for it: Cleopatra Grip is a fantastic album with consistently good songs, and “I Wonder Why” has the perfect beat for this mix.

Our volume closer is one of those patented screech fests from the Reverend Horton Heat, “400 Bucks.” The psychobilly auteur is going off this time about some money owed by an ex-girlfriend.  The relentless pace just adds to the desperation in Heat’s voice, and I thought it worked well to wrap up the set.

Next time, it’s time to get dark again.

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1 You can find a definition of that term in the series list.

2 Probably all of them, with the exception of Wisty Mysteria.

3 Which is why now you can find it on an entirely different mix.

4 The worst offender on that score being HipHop Bottlerocket, whose volume I is still 80% composed of tracks from that narrow slice of music history.

5 Yes, “album” singular.  4 Non Blondes only ever had the one, and it was primarily known for containing “What’s Up?” Which, as songs go, was ... fine.  It was fine.  Perfectly lovely.  But, like I said about Natalie Imbruglia: the rest of the album is so much better.

6 I mean, technically the song is about something else, but it uses a bunch of train imagery, which is close enough.

7 To be fair, “Carry Me Away” is a bit of an outlier there, and it might have qualified for Creeping Rageaholic if it weren’t for the obvious train imagery.

8 Perhaps oddly—or perhaps not—the Primitives are from Coventry, which is just a bit to the right of Wales on the map.

9 Specifically, on Sirenexiv Cola.

10 You may recall them from Paradoxically Sized World VI.

11 Specifically, it was “Leopold Street,” off Young North.

12 Technically, they produced two more albums, but I didn’t even know that until doing the research for this blog post.  I may have to track them down.

Midnight Synthesis I

"The Moon Is Shining in the Sky"

[This is one post in a series about my music mixes.  The series list has links to all posts in the series and also definitions of many of the terms I use.  You may wish to read the introduction for more background.

Like all my series, it is not necessarily contiguous—that is, I don’t guarantee that the next post in the series will be next week.  Just that I will eventually finish it, someday.  Unless I get hit by a bus.]

One discovers music from all sorts of places.  Once upon a time we used to use the radio; nowadays it’s super-rare for me to listen to the radio at all, much less find anything new (and good) on it.¹  Then for a while I tried Internet radio (such as the inimitable Radio Paradise²) and Pandora (back when it was an actual music discovery service, before it was bought by the detestable Sirius XM).  But probably the most reliable source of new music throughout the years has been coworkers.  My employees at Barefoot Software exposed me to things as varied as Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd to Sublime.  A guy at Thinkgeek that I barely knew introduced me to Modest Mouse, and my fellow code monkey Jon Sime, who I worked hand-in-hand with for years, introduced me to Naomi and Skyedance.  And so it’s gone, for every job since.  At my current job, we have a whole Slack channel devoted to sharing music, and I’ve picked up a lot of great ideas.

And that’s how I can tell exactly when I discovered Urban Heat: March 24th, 2022.  A coworker (again, someone I didn’t really know) posted this:

Here’s a pretty fun band I discovered at SXSW last week, for those who are into an 80s synthwave vibe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTvSIt8EUuU

Now, you say “80s” and “synth” in the same sentence and my ears perk right up.  There was a lot of fantastic music in the 80s, but, as you know from my extensive talking about my 80s My Way mix, “my way” generally means heavy on the synthpop.  It’s what really attracted me to the music of the time.

We tend to think of synthpop as upbeat and ... well, poppy.  It’s right there in the name, after all.  But, speaking as someone who listened to a lot of it in the 80s, I can tell you: synthpop has a lot of layers, a lot of different modes, if you will.  And there’s a certain flavor of synthpop songs that is best suited for listening to late at night, in the dark ... at times when you’re not necessarily sad, and not necessarily contemplative, and not necessarily wistful, but perhaps all three at once, and even experiencing other shades of emotion that you can’t quite put a finger on.  When all those feelings come together, in the deep of night ... well, when that happens, you need this mix.

So, while there can be no doubt that Urban Heat was the mix-starter here, there’s also some classic 80s synthpop that I wanted to showcase as well.  And let’s kick that off with what I really feel like is the epitome of this sound: “Today” by Talk Talk.  Talk Talk is one of those bands who never achieved mega-success—their highest charting single in the UK was the third release of “It’s My Life” at #13; in the US, they managed #31 on that track’s first go round—but, in the synthpop scene, they were hugely influential.  A huge number of artists have credited them as influences, including Tears for Fears, Radiohead, Kate Bush, and members of Pearl Jam and Porcupine Tree.  They’ve been covered by No Doubt and Weezer, a tribute concert to them filled the Royal Festival Hall in London, and a documentary about them won the jury prize at Musical Ecran festival in France.  Much of their music is poppy, sure, but all of it is also a bit dark.  And I think the perfect example of this is “Today,” from their remarkable debut The Party’s Over (which was their second biggest hit in the UK, hitting #14 in 1982).  They were doing this sort of music before anyone else, as far as I know, and in many ways they did it best.

Still, let’s not discount Depeche Mode, most especially on their album which is almost entirely devoted to this flavor of synthpop, Black Celebration.  This goth-infused synthpop album is so perfect that I actually picked two tracks off of it: “But Not Tonight” provides our volume title, while “Stripped” is, as its name implies, a bit of a stripped-down track, with its synth chords providing near-minimalism, while the reverb on David Gahan’s vocals give it an almost eerie quality.  And of course this is the perfect place for one-hit-wonder Re-Flex’s iconic “The Politics of Dancing,” which is perhaps the closest thing to “upbeat” we’ll hear in this mix.  This is a shimmering, glittery darkness, sure, but dark all the same.

Closing out the 80s, I didn’t actually discover German synthpop band Camouflage till well after that decade, but they fit right in with the Depeche Mode vibe.  Their sophmore album, 1989’s Methods of Silence, contains a number of decent tracks,³ and I felt like “One Fine Day” was just perfect here.

And just because the 80s is over doesn’t mean the bands of the 80s are.  There are two major finds showcased here.  The first I tripped over when they performed on Stephen Colbert’s late night show: he’d been hosting for less than a year when he announced that New Order was going to be performing new music after 10 years of nothing (and around 20 of nothing notable, in my opinion).  I was intrigued, but not hopeful; when most bands get back together after a gap of that long, they produce “new” music that is merely a lackluster echo of their glory days.  But Music Complete is something entirely different: it’s an album that rivals Technique, and maybe even Brotherhood, in its depth and quality.  And it is, in some indefinable way, darker than their other outings—so much so that I couldn’t resist putting two tracks from it on this volume.  “Academic” is a deceptive little tune: it seems like it’s going to be all bright and happy, but then smacks you upside the head with lyrics like these:

There was a time when my world belonged with you,
But I was so misguided in my youth.
I couldn’t help but drink this poison brew;
You had a strange perception of the truth.

The buzzing guitars of “Academic” are replaced by a synth intro reminiscent of a child’s toy piano on “Restless,” where Bernard Sumner’s breathy, almost whispered vocals give the track a softness that make it perfect for late-night listening.  Overall, two tunes that fit perfectly here.

The other 80s update that you’ll find here is Alison Moyet (Alf to her friends), who was the lead singer of what I usually consider to be the most important synth band of all time (or, at worst, a close second behind Soft Cell): Yazoo.  Typically truncated to “Yaz” here in the States, I knew their hit “Situation,” but it was the random choice to buy Upstairs at Eric’s as one of my very first albums (I think it was on sale or something), almost certainly at Peaches during my freshman year of college, that really blew me away.  Nearly every song on that album is a gem, and I chose one⁴ to be our “push song” at work one day early in 2022.  And I got to thinking, I pretty much know what happened to Vince Clarke post-Yazoo,⁵ but whatever happened to Alf?  I had always had the impression that she left synthpop behind and gone on to do more of a soul-type thing (sort of Adele before there was Adele).  And, you know, she did do that for a while ... and then she stopped recording altogether for a while, due to litigation with record labels ... and then a few more albums ... and then, over 30 years after Upstairs at Eric’s, she released The Minutes.  And this record, despite being nearly 10 years old by the time I stumbled on it, is just brilliant.  It’s synthpoppy, but in a much more modern way, and some of the tracks are just perfect for this mix.  Again, I didn’t try to restrain myself: there are two selections here from The Minutes.  First, “Horizon Flame,” a track that starts out with synths doubling as strings, adds a subtle underlying drone, and gradually ramps up to an ode to “ordinary pain.” It was perfect as the second track of our opening triptych.  Meanwhile, easing into the back third of the volume, “Right as Rain” has a much stronger electronica rhythm, but keeps the drone and even amps up the dystopian lyrics:

If you can’t be happy with me,
Be unhappy with me;
Stay unhappy with me.

Both are just amazing tracks.

But of course it was the modern revival of this darker style of synthpop that was the impetus for the mix in the first place, so let’s not fail to showcase Urban Heat.  The third track in our opening triad is “Running Out of Time,” from their debut Wellness.⁶  It sort of encapsulates all of Urban Heat’s expansive sound: there are echoey vocals, that classic synthpop drum machine rhythm, and sparkly synth chords in between the verses.  It’s just gorgeous.  Then, winding down to our closer, “Stay” starts out slow but insistent, but then blossoms into an electro-guitar-fueled chorus:

Well, I guess if you want to stay,
Who am I to tell you not to feel that way?
Tell them all, they’re all better off:
Better off anyway.

If you like synthpop, you should really pick up this album.

And it’s a truism in the music industry that, if you can find one band making a certain style of music, you can find half a dozen if you look hard enough.  We should probably start with the prolific Davey Havok, ostensibly the lead singer of punk / nu-metal / emo band AFI.  I don’t actually love AFI, personally, and even if I did, their music certainly wouldn’t fit here.⁷  But he and another AFI member went on to found Blaqk Audio, who are a perfect fit for this mix.  I actually did restrain myself this time and chose only a single track, “Waiting to Be Told.” With an almost martial beat and soaring vocals, it’s a strong entry.  But it’s Havok’s other side project, Dreamcar, to whom I gave the honor of the opening track.  I first heard “Kill for Candy” also on Colbert’s show, just a year after I heard the new New Order song, and I was immediately struck by the similarity.  Dreamcar is not synthpop, but then neither is New Order: they’re both quite strongly new wave.  But “Kill for Candy,” as hooky as it is, has a really strong dark throughline that I thought made it work very nicely here.  Plus it’s just a gorgeous song, so it certainly had to go somewhere.⁸

Finally, the Black Queen is a group founded by members of Trent Reznor’s touring band for Nine Inch Nails and members of the Dillinger Escape Plan, a band I had never heard of before, which is typically described as “metalcore.” And, apparently, what you get when you combine metalcore with industrial is this flavor of dark synthwave, because their debut album (Fever Daydream) feels like someone took Urban Heat and Blaqk Audio and ran them through a mellowizing sausage grinder.  Their single “The End Where We Start” is probably more dark than poppy, but Greg Puciato’s vocals here are high and sweet and melodic, in stark contrast to his normal growly screams in the Dillinger Escape Plan.  It’s a nice lead-in to “Stay.”

Midnight Synthesis I
[ The Moon Is Shining in the Sky ]

“Kill for Candy” by Dreamcar, off Dreamcar
“Horizon Flame” by Alison Moyet, off The Minutes
“Running Out of Time” by Urban Heat, off Wellness
“But Not Tonight” by Depeche Mode, off Black Celebration
“Academic” by New Order, off Music Complete
“Remains” by Zola Jesus, off Okovi
“Oblivion” by Grimes, off Visions
“The Politics of Dancing” by Re-Flex, off The Politics of Dancing
“One Fine Day” by Camouflage, off Methods of Silence
“Today” by Talk Talk, off The Party's Over
“Judas” by Clan of Xymox, off In Love We Trust
“Waiting to Be Told” by Blaqk Audio, off Material
“Right as Rain” by Alison Moyet, off The Minutes
“Disconnected” by Emma's Mini, off Beat Generation Mad Trick
“Restless” by New Order, off Music Complete
“Stripped” by Depeche Mode, off Black Celebration
“The End Where We Start” by the Black Queen, off Fever Daydream
“Stay” by Urban Heat, off Wellness
“Trust Me” by Zola Jesus, off Stridulum

Total:  19 tracks,  82:24

I’m not sure what here is too unexpected, but I did feel like I could find some synthy goth tunes which might fit the vibe.  My first thought was Zola Jesus, who ... well, she’s hard to describe, but she has a very distinct, synthy style of goth/darkwave.  “Remains” is a track with nearly ambient vocals and a techno beat, and I thought it provided a beautiful bridge from New Order to Grimes.  Meanwhile, “Trust Me” is a slow, sober track that just made for the perfect closer.

And why not throw in some witchhouse?  Whatever you may think of Grimes—and having a child with Elon Musk definitely does call into question one’s personal choices—you can’t deny she’s got some talent behind the boards.  “Oblivion” is my all-time favorite Grimes track,⁹ and it slots in perfectly alongside Zola Jesus as the end of the first third.

The middle stretch of the volume is a strong dose of that 80s goodness: Re-Flex, then Camouflage, then Talk Talk.  And then I needed something to bridge the 34-year gap between “Today” and “Waiting to Be Told,” so I thought of Clan of Xymox.  Xymox was of course a great, synthy (if not quite synthpop) band from the 90s.  Clan of Xymox, though, has a much stronger goth character, despite both incarnations being mostly just extensions of Dutch genius Ronny Moorings, plus it’s still going strong to the present day.  I thought “Judas” was pretty solid here: it’s certainly got the dark in spades, and it’s got some great synth work as well.

And perhaps the only truly unexpected tune here is from emma’s mini, who I introduced you to back in Smokelit Flashback VI.  In general, emma’s mini is less synthpop and more electropop, which is certainly similar, but definitely not the same.  Most of their album Beat Generation Mad Trick is pretty upbeat, but “Disconnected” has a different cast.  It has the same soft echoey vocals that many of the tracks here, and, while the chorus is nearly as upbeat as “The Politics of Dancing” (though the tune as a whole doesn’t come close), the lyrics (e.g. “I fell down”) have a darker tinge.  I thought it worked very well here.

Next time, we’ll ride the rails.

__________

1 For an exception, please refer to the not-so-long-ago story of my discovery of the only Taylor Swift song I’ve really liked (so far).

2 Which is, somewhat surprisingly to me, still going strong after a mind-boggling 24 years on the Internet.  That’s longer than Facebook, and almost as long as Google and Amazon.  Few things on the Internet achieve that kind of longevity.

3 One of which is a short bridge I used on Phantasma Chorale II.

4 Specifically, “Don’t Go.”

5 Specifically, he went on to form Erasure with Andy Bell.

6 Wellness started out as an EP, but has since been expanded to a full album.  See the Bandcamp link in the tracklist.

7 Perhaps it might find a home on the Thrashomatic Danger Mix.

8 Before this mix existed, it was slated for Totally Different Head.

9 Though, honestly, that’s perhaps not saying much: I’m not a huge Grimes fan.

Creeping Rageaholic I

"Set Shit on Fire"

[This is one post in a series about my music mixes.  The series list has links to all posts in the series and also definitions of many of the terms I use.  You may wish to read the introduction for more background.

Like all my series, it is not necessarily contiguous—that is, I don’t guarantee that the next post in the series will be next week.  Just that I will eventually finish it, someday.  Unless I get hit by a bus.]

This is one of my longest idea-to-realization mixes.  I originally had the idea for this mix back in 2003, when the guy who had been hanging out with a cartoon dog and entertaining my kids put out an album, and the first song on it sucked me in with a serene opening and then just exploded into existence about a minute in.  It reminded me rather forcefully of driving back and forth from where I went to college in Northern Virginia to my parents’ house in southern Virginia and belting out ”‘cos it already is!” at the top of my lungs, and I knew I had to pair those two somehow.  But I didn’t finalize this first volume (or at least get it as close to “final” as any of my mixes ever get) until just this year.

Part of the problem is that mix has a very specific mood.  Musically, the hook is that these are songs which lure you into a false sense of security, then just burst into being.  It’s a little more than just dropping the beat; many of these transform fully from ballads to full-on rockers, if not heavy metal bangers, somewhere between verse and chorus, or even between one verse to the next.  But, emotionally, that’s a very specific mood to capture.  Some of these songs are about loss, or about violent discovery, or about reflecting on one’s own faults and the inevitable frustration that comes when you know you need to be better but somehow just can’t manage to achieve it.  I’m just not in the mood for that very specific energy all that often.  But, when I am, these are the songs I reach for.

To give you an idea of the vibe you might get from this mix, I’ve assembled you a little cento, cobbled together from lines of the songs in this first volume.  When it comes to naming a mix volume, there’s two camps that most of them fall into: either there’s a perfect line from one of the songs that instantly suggests itself as perfect, or there’s nothing that really jumps out at me and I have to go scouring.  But this volume is a bit of an outlier: there’s an embarrassment of riches here, and I ended up with so many great candidates that I started piecing them together in my head.  Here’s what I ended up with (attributions given at the end of the post):

Day after day after sorry day,
the sun makes me sick.
One, ’cause you left me.
You hate the things that I like—
that fascist faith will kill you.
I think I’m just paranoid;
I’m fucking lazy ...
there’s just too much pressure to take:
I’m just another soul for sale.
It’s not my time to wonder why ...
You monkey, you left me.
Set shit on fire.

So that should give you a rough idea of what you’re in for.

For the most part, these tracks fulfill the original pattern: they start out slow, or mellow, or understated, then burst into a sudden sonic explosion (though we’ll see a few songs which subvert expectations in one way or another).  The mix title ... well, the imagery is a bit unusual, but overall this is one of my most intelligible mix names.  The volume title is the last line of the little cento above, of course.

So, the first two tracks of this mix were pretty much always going to be Steve Burns’ epic opener “Mighty Little Man,” from his Steven-Drozd-of-the-Flaming-Lips-produced debut album, closely followed by “For Nancy,” the midpoint banger from Pete Yorn’s debut.  Both songs play with quiet/loud dynamics in a way that’s quite different from the standard grunge pattern.  In grunge, the contrasting dynamics are just a part of the structure of the songs; bands like Nirvana and the Pixies have refined the pattern to an art form, but you can’t really claim to be surprised when they do it.¹  These tunes hit with more emotional impact when they explode: they lull you into a false sense of calm, then burst into emotional being.  There’s really nothing like that feeling.

“Shutterbug” was the next most obvious choice: it’s a magnificent dichotomy of almost-whispered vocals punctuated by raw guitar chords that are almost metal in their ferocity.  It was easily the most standout track from Veruca Salt’s excellent Eight Arms to Hold You.  It was perhaps a bit unimaginative of me to just tack it on as the third track in the mix, but, honestly, these three really combine to form an opening triptych that firmly establishes the mood.  After that, there were a few other obvious choices: Linkin Park’s Hybrid Theory is basically composed of nothing but tracks that fit this pattern (from which I thought “Crawling” was the best exemplar), and the amazing “Bring Me to Life” by Evanescence was still fresh and darkly glittering at the time I was putting together the mix.  It opens with a simple piano melody and Amy Lee’s sweet, understated vocals, then Beny Moody’s grinding guitar licks kick in, and there’s that beautiful single beat of absolute silence before each chorus bursts forth ... it’s quite transportative.  Likewise, PJ Harvey was a no-brainer: I was pretty blown away by Rid of Me when I first heard it, and in particular the way that the title track starts very softly and makes you lean in, only to rock you on your heels with PJ’s aggressive guitar and Rob Ellis’ thundering drums.  There was never a world where this tune didn’t appear on the first volume of this mix.

After that, I looked a bit to the industrial scene.  Stabbing Westward’s “What Do I Have to Do?,” with its sparkly synth-noodling intro, was a pretty obvious choice.  Meanwhile, Machines of Loving Grace’s biggest hit “Butterfly Wings” inverts the pattern by starting out with standard industrial intensity, then dropping down to quiet moments between verses.  “Kiss Off” by Violent Femmes was another obvious choice: it starts with Gordon Gano’s acoustic guitar and quiet vocals, giving it almost a folk song vibe, and this time it’s Brian Ritchie’s bass that provides the burst of feeling; the song quickly turns and becomes a bit of a rant, which makes it fit perfectly here.  In the exact opposite department, it’s the slinky toms and bass of Green Day’s “Longview” that provides the calm before the storm of the guitars and snare.  Obviously Dookie was going to have to feature here, and I thought “Longview” was a great choice (plus it leads into “Kiss Off” quite nicely).

This mix was also started at the height of my fascination with Magnatune,² so it’s not surprising that several of its artists ended up here.  Perhaps most obviously, spineCar’s “Waste Away” follows a similar pattern to “Longview”: the rhythmic bassline is joined by a studied, pulsing drumbeat, then muddy guitars and quiet vocals join in, building to the crescendo where the lead singer breaks into a scream on the third syllable of the song’s title.  It’s a piece of undeservedly little-known nu-metal from the late 90s.  Then there’s “Dirtbag”: the original version of this tune, by Brad Sucks, is a perfectly lovely piece of alt-pop—the lyrics are a bit edgy, sure, but the melody belies that.  But part of the deal with Magnatune is the artists explicitly give permission for other Magnatune artists to remix their work, and what producer Victor Stone (working under the moniker Four Stones) does with “Dirtbag” is transcendant: he adds a seething undercurrent of anxiety and simmering rage by adding echoes and contrasting drones.  It’s really something to hear.  We’ve heard from Jade Leary before;³ “Meaner than Winter” is a short, not-quite bridge track that never really explodes, but always seems on the verge of doing so.  I felt it was a pretty good transition from the first half of the volume to the slightly harder edge of the second half.  Then we have “Charming Gun,” by trip-hop artist Artemis.  Honestly, I’m not sure this track really fits the theme all that well, and I was on the verge of taking it out several times.  But, in the end, I think it maintains just enough contrast (not only quiet/loud, but also slow/fast) to keep its place.

After that, two later additions were Metric’s “Black Sheep” from the Scott Pilgrim vs. the World soundtrack, and “The Pretender” by the Foo Fighters.  The former is just a solid post-punk offering that actually punctuates its quiet verses with strong guitar/bass/drum licks between the lines in a way that I found irresistible.  The latter ... well, I’m not one to think that Dave Grohl learned his craft from his time in Nirvana, because I think he was always pretty damned talented.  But I can’t help but wonder if his unerring talent for knowing when to crank up the vocals into a a full-on scream and when to back off is at least a little influenced by Kurt Cobain, who was undoubtedly the master of that technique.  When I first heard “The Pretender,” I knew unquestioningly that it had to be on this mix.

I follow that track with another one that manages to simmer without exploding and yet never feels unsatisfying: “Glycerine,” by Bush.  The only proper grunge song on this frist volume, the contrast here is provided by Nigel Pulsford’s crunchy guitars and strings, of all things.  Sixteen Stone is a revelatory album, and I’m kind of surprised it’s taken me this long to feature a track from it.  And I close with Smash Mouth, who, along with Nickelback, it seems to be fashionable to hate on these days.  But Fush Yu Mang is a pretty important album itself, and “Let’s Rock” is a great tune that hits a lazy, almost ska vibe for its verses, then bursts into a beautiful metal-inspired crescendo of emotion.  “Fuck it, let’s rock” indeed.

Creeping Rageaholic I
[ Set Shit on Fire ]

“Mighty Little Man” by Steve Burns, off Songs for Dustmites
“For Nancy” by Pete Yorn, off musicforthemorningafter
“Shutterbug” by Veruca Salt, off Eight Arms to Hold You
“Part 2 [Dirtbag Remix]” by Four Stones, off Ridin' the Faders [Remixes]⁴
“What Do I Have to Do?” by Stabbing Westward, off Wither Blister Burn + Peel
“Vinegar & Salt” by Hooverphonic, off The Magnificent Tree
“Big Mistake” by Natalie Imbruglia, off Left of the Middle
“Butterfly Wings” by Machines of Loving Grace, off Concentration
“Charming Gun” by Artemis, off Undone
“Meaner than Winter” by Jade Leary, off The Lost Art of Human Kindness
“Waste away” by Spinecar, off Up from the mud
“Black Sheep” by Metric, off Scott Pilgrim vs. the World [Soundtrack]
“Longview” by Green Day, off Dookie
“Kiss Off” by Violent Femmes, off Violent Femmes
“Crawling” by Linkin Park, off Hybrid Theory
“The Pretender” by Foo Fighters, off Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace
“Glycerine” by Bush, off Sixteen Stone
“Rid of Me” by PJ Harvey, off Rid of Me
“Bring Me to Life” by Evanescence, off Fallen
“Let's Rock” by Smash Mouth, off Fush Yu Mang

Total:  20 tracks,  78:00

Which only leaves us with the two tracks that break up my two industrial picks.  I’ve talked before about my discovery of Natalie Imbruglia’s amazing Left of the Middle, so I won’t belabor the point, but it’s a testament to her versatility that, in addition to all the other places we’ve seen her in these mixes,⁵ here she is again.  “Big Mistake” starts out sweet and synthy, then right at the one minute mark it turns on you and tells you what a big mistake you’ve made trying to pigeonhole the song based on its opening.  Then there’s the truly stunning “Vinegar & Salt” from trip-hop impresarios Hooverphonic (who we’ve also seen on a pretty wide variety of mixes⁶).  This track is barely more than three minutes long, but it packs so much emotion into its short span that it fairly makes your head spin.  The verses are an almost matter-of-fact enumeration of the problems in a relationship, then the bridges crank up the tension—“honesty’s your church”—and then the chorus explodes into the stunning revelation that “sometimes, it’s better to lie.” It’s a rollercoaster ride in all the best ways.

Next time, I think we’ll dip our toes into the darker side of synthwave.

[As promised, here’s my pseudo-poem along with which songs they derive from:

Day after day after sorry day, [“Meaner than Winter,” Jade Leary]
the sun makes me sick. [“Shutterbug,” Veruca Salt]
One, ’cause you left me. [“Kiss Off,” Violent Femmes]
You hate the things that I like— [“Vinegar & Salt,” Hooverphonic]
that fascist faith will kill you. [“Butterfly Wings,” Machines of Loving Grace]
I think I’m just paranoid; [“Let’s Rock,” Smash Mouth]
I’m fucking lazy ... [“Longview,” Green Day]
there’s just too much pressure to take: [“Crawling,” Linkin Park]
I’m just another soul for sale. [“The Pretender,” Foo Fighters]
It’s not my time to wonder why ... [“Glycerine,” Bush]
You monkey, you left me. [“Shutterbug,” Veruca Salt (again)]
Set shit on fire. [“Dirtbag,” Brad Sucks, remixed by Four Stones]

Yes, I used “Shutterbug” twice; it really worked for this cento.  Those lines, of course, are back to back in the Veruca Salt rendition, whereas I separated them by almost the length of the entire piece.  I don’t think this is as good as either of my two previous centos, but it has a certain charm.  At least I think so.]

__________

1 I’ve mostly avoided using grunge tunes here, but you can expect to see at least a few in future volumes.

2 I told the story of how I discovered Magnatune in Rose-Coloured Brainpan.

3 On Shadowfall Equinox V and VI, and also on Fulminant Cadenza I and Slithy Toves II.

4 Original version by Brad Sucks, off I Don’t Know What I’m Doing.

5 Besides the aforementioned Smokelit Flashback, there was Distaff Attitude and of course her triumphant tune on Cumulonimbus Eleven.

6 Starting with Smokelit Flashback III, IV, V, and VI, and thence to Bleeding Salvador I and Plutonian Velvet I.

Plutonian Velvet I

"Ministers of Night"

[This is one post in a series about my music mixes.  The series list has links to all posts in the series and also definitions of many of the terms I use.  You may wish to read the introduction for more background.

Like all my series, it is not necessarily contiguous—that is, I don’t guarantee that the next post in the series will be next week.  Just that I will eventually finish it, someday.  Unless I get hit by a bus.]

As we approach the pinnacle of spooky season, I thought it appropriate to present one of my spooky mixes.  And I have several of those, many of which we’ve already encountered.  As a connoisseur of all things creepy and crawly—as an aspiring author whose pentagram of literary idols include Stephen King and Clive Barker—I distinguish among many different flavors of spooky.  We’ve seen Phantasma Chorale, for instance, which is lightly creepy, with a bit of child-like thrown in for good measure.  We’ve seen Darkling Embrace, which is creepy but pretty, and Dreamscape Perturbation, which is creepy and dream-like.  Darktime was all about dark music, and Penumbral Phosphorescence was full on goth.  But how about some music which is downright spooky?  Well, you’ve finally come to the right place.

For this mix, we’ll be concentrating on music which sounds a bit scary or unsettling.  If it has some creepy lyrics, that’s a bonus, but it’s not the focus.  Mainly these are songs from artists which usually are perfectly normal-sounding bands, putting out perfectly normal-sounding albums, except for that one track that makes the fine hairs on your arm stand on end.  The name of the mix is drawn from a few lines from The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe, the patron saint of Hallowe’en if there ever was one.  The ends of two different stanzas of that excellent poem are:

“Ghastly grim and ancient Raven wandering from the Nightly shore—
Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night’s Plutonian shore!”
Quoth the Raven “Nevermore.”

On the cushion’s velvet lining that the lamp-light gloated o’er,
But whose velvet-violet lining with the lamp-light gloating o’er,
She shall press, ah, nevermore!

So, as we sit here, on the violet-velvet cushion of Night’s Plutonian shore, let’s see what dark and festering cobwebby corners of alternative music we can find to chill our bones.

When I first discovered Falling You, back in the early days of the Internet,¹ I immediately fell in love with them² and started trying to download every single thing I could find by them.  Which is how I stumbled on this “remix” of “Hush” by Abney Park.  The original is pretty good—listen to it if you like—but it’s not significantly creepy.  What Falling You did was to entirely mute Robert Brown’s lead vocals, kick up Abney Park keyboardist Kristina Erickson’s almost whispered backing vocals, cut out nearly all the instruments except for the synths (which are perhaps even enhanced a bit), and add some creepy sound effects.  The result is something entirely different from the original ... and insanely dark and excellent.  For years I had it paired with “Mad Alice Lane” as the opening to Darktime, but honestly it transcends just being about darkness.  It’s a wonderfully creepy tune that serves as a wondeful intro.

And it’s followed by my other great find from those early Internet days: “Mad Alice Lane” by Peter Lawlor, founder of the Scottish band Stiltskin.  It took me forever, but I finally tracked down the CD single of this excellent (and excellently spooky) song; the version I’m using here is the slightly longer “A Spooker Ghost Story” one.³  The story of the song is just as creepy as the song itself, so defnitely give that a look-see.

Once I divorced these two excellent tracks from Darktime, I decided they should form the core of their own spooky mix.  And instantly I knew the first two companion tracks that had to be added: both are by Siouxsie and the Banshees and both are off Peepshow.  “Scarecrow” is one of my favorite tunes to play at this time of year, and, while the choruses are a bit rockin’ (as much of the Siouxsie œuvre is wont to be), the verses are super eerie.  As for “Rawhead and Bloodybones” ... well, based on a disturbing British tale of child-snatching boogeymen (or a single boogeyman with a compound name; versions conflict), the song has a lot of discordancy and notes that just jangle your nerves.  It made for the perfect closer.

After that, “The Lights are Going Out,” the closer for OMD’s 1985 masterpiece Crush, was so unlike anything else on that album that I’d always had it in the back of my mind as a candidate for a spooky mix, and the Cure’s short “Subway Song” is a little two-minute gem with a little jump scare built right in.  I follow up the latter here with “Barrowlands” by the Bolshoi.  The Bolshoi were contemporaries of OMD, though not nearly so well-remembered these days.  They had a similar sort of new-wave/synthpop sound, and “Barrowlands,” the penultimate track on Lindy’s Party, is similarly conspicuous in its dissimilarity to everything else on that album.  It’s got a great graveyard feel to it, and also provides our volume title.

Rounding out the 80s contributions (though I embarrassingly didn’t think of it until quite recently) is “Sanctum Sanctorum” by the Damned.  I was looking for a replacement for another track that just didn’t seem to fit, and it suddenly occurred to me that I didn’t have anything by the Damned.  And, while the Damned may not be a proper goth band, lead singer Dave Vanian is the gothiest motherfucker on the planet: black leather and huge white streak in his jet-black hair (at least during the Phantasmagoria era), married to Patricia Morrison of the Sisters of Mercy (which is a proper goth band)—hell, he even used to be a gravedigger before becoming a rock star.  And Phantasmagoria has some goth gems on it, of which “Sanctum Sanctorum,” with its Phantom-of-the-Opera-style opening organ chords and backing thunder-and-lightning effects, is easily the spookiest.

Other obvious, if more modern, choices were “Shadow of a Doubt” by Black Tape for a Blue Girl (with Elysabeth Grant breathily telling us how she “met a stranger on a train” and Sam Rosenthal’s goth-soaked arrangement), “Mary of Silence” by Mazzy Star (more organ, sludgy percussion, and echoey vocals by Hope Sandoval), and “Danny Diamond” by Squirrel Nut Zippers (a taste of New Orleans creepy accompanying a song of tragedy sung by Katharine Whalen).  Those fell naturally into a little block, starting with “Diamond” and ending with “Mary,” that closes out the first third and sets us up for the middle stretch.

A few more self-evident choices: modern goth masters Faith and the Muse, who here give us the breathy, bassy track “Kodama,” and dark ambient, strings-heavy Amber Asylum, who provide “Cupid.” The lyrics of “Kodama” are actually about the commodification of Hollywood,⁴ but the song still retains enough sinister to secure its position here.  As for “Cupid,” it’s a rare vocal outing for band founder Kris Force, and those vocals soar and swoop; it’s not always clear exactly what the words are, but the arrangement is a bit menacing and a bit tortured, so it works well here.

Tossing in a bit of early-to-mid-’aughts trip-hop, the Belgian band Hooverphonic can go dark with the best of ’em, and I always thought “L’Odeur Animale” was one of their darkest.  The whole song just feels ... off, and that creepy little tag at the end just seals the deal.  When Geike Arnaert sings “deep inside,” it makes you shiver, even if you don’t know quite why.  My other choice was Germany’s Trost, whose Trust Me is normally fairly uptempo, if a bit surreal.⁵  But the last track,⁶ “Filled with Tears,” has more of that bass-driven, echoey and breathy vocals that have popularized so many of the other tracks I chose.  Plus the one-two punch of Hooverphonic and Trost makes a fantastic wind-down to our closer from Siouxsie.

Plutonian Velvet I
[ Ministers of Night ]

“Hush [Flashback Mix]” by Abney Park [remix by Falling You] [Single]⁷
“Mad Alice Lane (A Spookier Ghost Story)” by Lawlor, off Mad Alice Lane (A Ghost Story) [CD Single]
“Cupid” by Amber Asylum, off The Natural Philosophy of Love
“Scarecrow” by Siouxsie and the Banshees, off Peepshow
“Kodama” by Faith and the Muse, off :ankoku butoh:
“The Lights Are Going Out” by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, off Crush
“Danny Diamond” by Squirrel Nut Zippers, off The Inevitable
“Shadow of a Doubt” by Black Tape for a Blue Girl, off The Scavenger Bride
“Mary of Silence” by Mazzy Star, off So Tonight That I Might See
“Now, When I'm This” by the Black Queen, off Fever Daydream
“Ghost Children” by Bruno Coulais, off Coraline [Soundtrack]
“Toccata” by Nox Arcana, off Legion of Shadows
“Waltz of the Damned” by Lee Press-On and the Nails, off Swing Is Dead
“Subway Song” by the Cure, off Boys Don't Cry
“Barrowlands” by the Bolshoi, off Lindy's Party
“Sanctum Sanctorum” by Damned, off Phantasmagoria
“L'Odeur Animale” by Hooverphonic, off The Magnificent Tree
“Filled with Tears” by Trost, off Trust Me
“Rawhead and Bloodybones” by Siouxsie and the Banshees, off Peepshow

Total:  19 tracks,  79:13

And that just leaves us with the centerpiece of the volume.  We start with 3 instrumentals: a rare double-bridge leading into a hardcore synth-driven update of Bach’s “Toccata and Fugue in D minor.” First up, the Black Queen, a dark synthwave band composed of former members of Trent Reznor’s touring band for Nine Inch Nails.  I discovered these guys while checking out the veritable cornucopia of dark synthwave that’s springing up these days (such as Urban Heat and Light Asylum), and while dark synthwave doesn’t necessarily mean creepy, there’s certainly something ominous about “Now, When I’m This,” which is the short intro to the Black Queen’s debut album, Fever Daydream.  And the transition from “Mary of Silence” straight into “Ghost Children” wasn’t working for me, so this little track made a nice bridge to the bridge, if you see what I mean.  And “Ghost Children” itself was picked to be a little bridge into “Toccata”: it’s a nice (but creepy) little track off of Bruno Coulais’ excellent soundtrack to Coraline.  I mean, all of Coraline is pretty creepy—it’s the entire raison d’être for Phantasma Chorale after all—but I tend to think that “Ghost Children” is one of the few actually spooky ones.  And it tees up the Nox Arcana take on Bach’s classic, given its uncanny bona fides by association with early silent horror films such as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in 1931 (it didn’t become associated with The Phantom of the Opera until 1962, by which point it was already cliché horror film music).  Nox Arcana does some excellent work here, keeping it lively while also providing the appropriate amount of darkness for being the anchorpoint of an album named Legion of Shadows.

And all that takes us to perhaps the only surprising choice of the volume: Lee Press-On and the Nails.  Retroswing auteurs LPON are often silly, but also occasionally gothy, and their album Swing Is Dead contains a few tracks that aren’t out of place in the Halloween season.  But only one is truly spooky: “Waltz of the Damned” sounds almost exactly like what you would hear while waiting in line to see the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland.  The amusement-park-style sound effects fade into some New-Orleans-style dirge before leaping into LPON’s more typical big-band sound, with Lee’s vocals heavily processed through a voice-distortion unit spewing lines like “and when the leader waves his fiery baton, the band begins to scream in three-quarter time!” It’s eerie, spooky fun.

Next time, we’ll sneak up on some sonic explosions.

__________

1 Which is when I also discovered a bunch of other crazy things I’ve shared with you, like Ensemble of the Dreamings and Zoolophone.

2 Well, him: Falling You is almost entirely composed of John Michael Zorko.

3 That single also contains the nearly-ambient “Dogs of Breakfast,” which we heard on Shadowfall Equinox III.

4 Or at least that’s my interpretation.

5 We’ve heard from Trost once before: her weird little ditty “Even Sparrows Don’t Like to Stay” was featured on Gramophonic Skullduggery.

6 These sorts of weird, creepy songs are often used as closers for their native albums.

7 This one is so damned hard to find that I just gave up and uploaded it myself.  You’re welcome.