Well, it’s coming around to that time of year again, kiddies, and if you’re anything like me (God help you), your listening habits tend to be influenced by the weather. Darker days call for darker ambient, and what better holiday to bust that shit out than Halloween?! Throw out those spooooooky Halloween sounds cassettes (or at least splice and sample them for beats or something), and click below for your new freakish soundtrack. You can do what you want with it, but my plan is to rock it on my front porch while I pass out candy, which will most likely be a huge hit with all of the burgeoning experimental music fans up here in St. Albans.
The creepier side of calm… DOWNLOAD IT
1) “Suspicious Drone” – Demdike Stare
Taken from Symbiosis, which was release earlier this year, this is a heady combination of dark ambient, dub, and Turkish rhythms.
2) “No. 1″ – Nuda Veritas
Burlington’s and Aether Everywhere’s own Rebecca Kopycinski taps into her inner Philip Jeck, whether she realizes it or not. Check out the rest of her sweet tracks in the label section over at www.aethereverywhere.com.
3) “Zenit” – Rumforskning
Closing track from Livstegn, an unknown but brilliant fusion of field recordings and creepy drones.
4) “Lambing” – Philip Jeck
My favorite artist doing what he does best on the masterful Stoke.
5) “Consigned to a Yesterday” – The Caretake
One of the darker numbers from A Stairway to the Stars, which, like most of The Caretaker’s catalog, centers around his obsession with the ballroom scene in “The Shining.”
6) “Why Are You Fearful” – Desiderii Marginis
Taken from Seven Sorrows, this one sports crazy-huge blasts of sound as its backbone.
7) “Dead People’s Things” – Deathprod
Helge Sten, the electronics guru from Norway’s Supersilent, delivers some of the most revered and obsessed-over dark ambient you’ll find, and this is taken from the classic Morals and Dogma.
8 ) “Listen, The Snow is Falling” – Graham Lambkin & Jason Lescalleet
This track splits the difference between Halloween and Christmas, but it’s just too dark and beautiful not to include.
9) “Prophetic Decay of Angel” – First Human Ferro
This uses samples of 1920s Soviet and Eastern European musicians, and yes, it’s as good as it sounds.
10) “Sleep After Toyle, Port After Stormie Seas” – Kammarheit
Another heavyweight of the dark ambient scene; this is taken from Starwheel.
11) “Drivis” – Elegi
Taken from this year’s Varde, which chronicles the extreme conditions and hardships faced by early polar explorers. Released on Miasmah, which is arguably the best dark ambient label going right now.
12) “Ictus” – Letum
Letum means “death,” and if you really want to delve into the heavy shit, check out The Entrance to Salvation, released in 2001 on Cold Meat Industries.
