Halloween Mix

My cousin Jess, knowing the thing about my birthday and Halloween, mailed me a gloriously campy and awesome Halloween CD. Delighted, I figured I’d try my hand at making one too, ’cause, well, it’s the time of the season.

1. Philip Glass, “Koyaanisqatsi”
2. Mike Oldfield, “Tubular Bells (Opening Theme)”
3. Nick Cave, “Red Right Hand”
4. Shivaree, “Goodnight Moon”
5. Pram, “Track of the Cat”
6. My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult, “Confessions of a Knife (Part 1)”
7. Ministry, “Cannibal Song”
8. Slayer, “South of Heaven”
9. Foetus, “Cirrhosis (Amon Tobin Mix)”
10. Marilyn Manson, “Doll-Dagga Buzz-Buzz Ziggety-Zag”
11. DJ Shadow, “Stem / Long Stem / Transmission 2”
12. Secret Chiefs 3, “Horsemen of the Invisible”
13. Skinny Puppy, “Reclamation”
14. Carmina Burana, “O Fortuna”
15. Richard O’Brien, “Science Fiction Double Feature”

At first I didn’t think it would cohere well, the lyric-focused stripped-down rock of Nick Cave and Shivaree (She whispers! I love that. How many singers besides her and PJ Harvey can get away with that in a song?) with the dirty, percussive on-acid techno of Foetus and Secret Chiefs 3 with metal (nothing says Halloween, after all, like a Dave Lombardo drum fill) with classical, but the segues are mostly OK. I tried to avoid going too over the top — I mean, it would’ve been easy and obvious to just make it all Skinny Puppy, or Skinny Puppy plus sludgy death metal — because that would’ve tipped that all-important Halloween balance between fun and dark.

Thanks, Jess.