Forbidden Planet... Sweet?

They are commonly called "Forbidden Planet Suite, Parts I and II". they are the bookends to the teaser/trailer that was released in theaters for the Sci-fi Classic, "Forbidden Planet".

What are they?

They aren't on the film's groundbreaking electronic score, by Louis & Bebe Barron. In fact, they don't appear in the movie!

What are they?

They certainly sound kinda 'spacey', kinda like a classic space-opera musical score. If you listen closely to the trailer, you can hear bits & pieces of the the Barron score mixed in.

"That's all very interesting, Harvey, but what are they?"

Well, I'll tell you! They are songs composed by Andre Previn, for other MGM films. 'Part I' is actually the main title music for 'Scene of the Crime', and Part II is the closing credits from 'Bad Day at Black Rock'

And GUESS WHAT? Both of these scores are available on ONE cd, which is available for sale at Amazon.

BUT... as I said above, if you listen closely, you can hear that a creative sound-man at MGM has mixed-in elements from the Barrons' score, along with Previn's tunes, for the trailer. I don't think these songs have ever been released in that form... as a noir-space 'mashup'.

Mashup? Did somebody say mashup? I feel needed again!

Submitted for your approval... my personal recreations, at 192 kbps:

Forbidden Planet Suite, Part I
Forbidden Planet Suite, Part II

Disclaimer: These songs are presented in a form which is unavailable for sale, and provided at a rather low bitrate. It is my intention & belief that offering these as "samples", with the included information & links, will encourage album sales, as I am not offering the full albums, nor the full quality of the songs, nor even a form in which the songs actually appear on the albums. If you like these two samples, please consider buying both scores from Amazon, or your local cd shop, please!

The Theremin

The Theremin remains the ultimate in freaky, kooky instruments of all time! Nothing can imitate the spooky, spacey, bizarrely unusual, Halloween-esque voice of the theremin, one of the first electronic instruments ever made... using transistors & antennae it literally converts movement into sound, requiring its player to stand dead still & move only the hands ever so slightly to 'bend' the eerie notes...

When it first was invented, there were attempts to make it a marketable instrument for home use-- including songbooks and a release of albums like 'Music Out Of The Moon' and 'Perfume Set To Music' -- 'easy listening' style music composed by Les Baxter & Ray Anthony, which featured the theremin playing of Samuel J Hoffman, a world-famous Theremin virtuoso.

Check Amazon for the cd 'Waves in the Ether', the re-release of this early theremin music.

Two schools of thought on the Theremin.. that it can be beautiful & classical, such as the music of Clara Rockmore, or that it can be creepy & menacing, such as the groundbreaking soundtrack to the Day The Earth Stood Still-- both of which can still be purchased, see the links to buy them at Amazon.

I love the sound of the theremin.. but, as its not ever likely that I'll ever afford one, or have the time to learn to play one, I've had to fake it.

There's a freeware VSTi plug-in, for you music software users, that simulates some of the creepier elements of the theremin, called the 'Spook Keys' (click to download) -- as well as a lost program from the BBC, a desktop theremin that you play with your mouse-- click here for what is probably the LAST place to get it online!

Here now are a few tunes played on a real theremin, which were given away free from this site:

http://www.thereminvox.com/

There are lots of songs of different styles there... I suggest you visit this cool site, and peruse their library yourself. For the Countdown, I pulled out just the ones that seemed to be the best Halloween-style tracks & put them together into a Zip file:

1. Freddie & the Hitchhikers - Sinners
2. Madam Absolut - Bruit Electronique
3. Roger Ballenger - oooOOOooo
4. Samuel J. Hoffman - Moonlight Sonata
5. Samuel J. Hoffman - So Attracted To You
6. Scott Marshall - Ghost Sonata
7. Ted Matson - Out
8. Welcome - Eviltech


Click to download ThereminVox Songs For Halloween

Bonus: In the early days of my electronic composing, I created this wacky, Halloween-related tune with a sample from the 'Rheem Kee Bass' and the aformentioned BBC Virtual Theremin.
Click here for 'That Was No Martian' in mp3, 192 kbps.

Essential Halloween Tracks

Classic Creepy Tunes!

Here's a short-but-sweet offering of some Essential Halloween tracks, mostly from old t.v shows. You probably have some of these already, if you're a Halloween/sci fi freak like me. Heck, you probably have most of them.. but you may not have all of them-- and you should.

NO entire album here... just a few tracks-- A few of them aren't available for sale.... for the ones that are, I'm offering no more than 2 tracks from any one cd-- which I offer as samples; if you enjoy these songs, I heartily suggest you buy the available cd's they are from, and you'll get a lot more music.

Click Here for Essential Halloween Tracks

Shock!

The classic album 'Shock' by the Creed Taylor Orchestra- ohh, how I love this album! Only a true genius would ever come up with the idea of merging some swingin' 'space-age cocktail' music with eerie sound effects. There are actually several albums in this series, 'Panic: The Son Of Shock', and 'Nightmare' being the other two .... but 'Shock' is my favorite of them.

A bit of trivia.. I believe I once heard the track 'Haunted House' being used as intro music for a comedic segment starring the cult favorite hororr-host 'Zacherley'. In fact, here it is on Youtube. :




But as for the entry of the day...

I got this originally from a totally cool blog called 'Scar Stuff' -- which appears to be on sabbatical these days. The tracks are a 'rip' from an old vinyl record- so just sit back & enjoy the crisp ambience of the hiss & click, baby! But the version I've got is really quiet, for some reason. So I made a few edits, bumped up the volume a little, and I'm offering it today. Once again, I'm only in favor of sharity if the album in question is NOT available for sale... Shock is not currently in print. Darn shame, too... it's a lot of fun. It's one I'd happily buy as a new c.d., to hear it in high quality. That's what sharity should be about, really... not stealing established albums, but getting attention & popularity for old, forgotten stuff like this album... with the hope that maybe by sharity, we'll give these old guys some attention & make them popular enough to be offered for sale again. But I digress...

Click to Download Creed Taylor's 'Shock'

The Very Witching Hour...

It was the Very Witching Hour of night.

The sky grew darker & darker, as one-by-one the stars winked out their light.

Driving clouds obscured the moon from sight.

I'm always on a quest for the best version of a track. Performers often record several versions of a song, and usually there's one that is considered the best one. There are some that are downright dogs.

Drives me crazy to pick up an album of classics from the 60's or something, that says 'By the original artists!' in huge letters, only to find out yeah, it's the original artists allright.. only they re-recorded the songs in the '80's along with some horrid-quality synthesizer.

But I digress....

Bing Crosby, for instance, sang a version of 'The Headless Horseman'. Bing also provided the narration, and another version of that song, in Disney's classic animated film 'The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow.'

I've come to the conclusion that the version in the cartoon is Bing's best version of that song.

Click here for the version from the cartoon. mp3, 192kbps

A Public Service Announcement

Why 'Trick Or Treat'?

I read this article: "Why Bother To Save Halloween" about Halloween & Trick-or-treating several years ago, and I couldn't agree more with it.
"What is Halloween anyway? It's just an excuse for big kids to make trouble, little kids to eat too much candy, and candy companies to peddle their wares. Bah, goblin-bug! Or so I thought until, despite all the warnings, I took my three children out last Halloween...."

Definite words of wisdom. Breaks my heart to take my kids around, only to have fewer & fewer houses each year participating in the vanishing holiday of Halloween.

No, Halloween isn't Satanic, it doesn't encourage kids to become pagans, serial-killers... lawyers... I happen to think it's open mockery of imaginary things our superstitious forbears once feared.
Plus, it's a LOT of fun!

I encourage all you kids, parents, teens, slightly creepy young adults.. get out there & Trick or Treat on October 31! Or else, get some candy & offer it up to others who do.
Click: Trick Or Treat, Trick Or Treat....

The Poet Macabre

This is, I suppose, my entry for the first day of the Halloween Countdown 2008.

I'm not totally sure I can post something every day-- I may try to pace myself, skip a day or two every so often, so I don't use up all my 'good stuff' the first week. I'll most likely aim at things I have edited myself, in some way... Which brings us to this curious little file.

The Poet Macabre.

A little backstory: There's a strange & quaint little album, pipe-organ played alongside percussion instruments, called 'Fantasy In Pipe Organ And Percussion' -- Get it now at Amazon, that & 'Pipe Organ Favorites' both credited to one allegedly French wunderkind called 'Georges Montalba', together on one c.d.

Legend has it that Anton LaVey, the founder of the Church Of Satan, once claimed he was actually the organist on these albums, the mysterious Mr. Georges Montalba. Turns out, though.. LaVey's claim has allegedly been debunked-- so the story goes, Montalba was actually a former child prodigy from California, by the name of Robert Hunter. More about that in this article. in The Village Voice

Whatever the truth, the record itself remains an oddity-- it's kooky & strange, great for Halloween ambiance-- why, it even has the Danse Macabre as one of the tunes. Rob Zombie took a sample from it to use on Sinners, Inc., even... I won't share the album, as it is still in print & available for sale. But you know my policy... I'm perfectly comfortable editing one track into a parody, and sharing that.

'Dave' over at Mostly Ghostly Music Sharing recently shared a recording of yet another Satanic figure, Aleister Crowley, reciting poems. One of these, "the Poet" was also sampled by Rob Zombie, in the film House Of 1,000 Corpses. So, I just had to get these two crazy kids together!!

Along the course of trying to edit together Montalba's 'Danse Macabre' with Crowley's The Poet, I discovered something truly freaky.. the words of the poem fit the tune!


Here's the short-but-freaky result of my tinkering, which is now my first entry in the 'Halloween Countdown', suitable as a bookend for your Halloween mixtapes. (nudge, wink...)

Click to download: The Poet Macabre

Heck, this one's pretty 'out there'... I wasn't even planning on sharing it when I started. Happy Freaky Halloween, everybody!!!

UPDATE!

A previous reply suggested that I made the organ music a little too loud, so I've tinkered with the file & made it a little clearer.. longer, too. Here's the 'extended' version; a full 2 minutes, plus!

Click to Download: The Poet Macabre, Extended

The Demon, again....

No, I've never ridden it.

To be honest, I'm not a roller-coaster kind of guy. This one, however, seems to be right up my alley.

The Demon.

Located at Six Flags, Great America.. which, I gather, is in California?? There's apparently a frightening tunnel of flashing lights you pass thru...



...as well as a stone face with a gaping mouth, that swallows the coaster whole!!





Anyway... as I said, I'm not much of a roller-coaster rider. It's been since I was in high school, last time I rode one...the 'mindbender' --- I won't tell you how long ago that was. But this one, THE DEMON, seems to have an amazing bit of character, of personality.



...But the aspect of its personality that I love most about The Demon is -- of course-- that there's some great AUDIO to be heard!!! It's got a theme song! There's a long comedic routine that plays for the people in line, designed to heighten the sense of excitement as you wait to board!

Here's a little info, courtesy of the Wikipedia:
"...When the Demon first opened in 1980 the speakers placed throughout the ride's queue played the Demon's own soundtrack. The soundtrack included the infamous "Demon Song", which was specially written for Marriott's Great America and was also very memorable. Along with the song there were fake radio broadcasts, some about people who reported to have seen the demon, 1 report about a US Army captain named "Bucky McMacho" bombing the ride, and a few with people trying to lure the demon out of the ride in very strange ways..."

Yeah... like good ol' 'Ermal-Doug'-- just call him Ermal-Doug- -the champion hog-caller who tries to call out the Demon with his famous hog-call! There's also a significant amount of somebody doing a decent Boris Karloff impression throughout the speil.

Of course, thru the generosity of a friend & fellow 'Freaker' -- (i.e. fan of Freakylinks I know from the Haxan boards)-- I obtained a copy of the whole shebang-- the line speil, with the fun themesong repeated twice.


I shared these files once before... but listening to them more recently, I'm a little let down by some of the editing choices I made-- I broke it into 4 parts, and it was a chop-job... also, I think the music overblew the comedy routines a little, making it hard to listen to. So, I've done a little cosmetic surgery on the tracks & I think they are a little better for the effort. Here they are again:

THE DEMON

4 tracks in a Winzip file, I believe they are at a very deceptive 192 kbps-- deceptive, seeing as that it was likely a second or third generation copy that started out at something like 65 kbps maybe? This copy may be at 192, but it doesn't sound like it.

Anyway.... Hope ya likee; grab it while you can!

Mellow and Lo Fi

These are the sounds I love to make... turn things choppy & 'dirty'-- toss in a mellotron string-orchestra to make the tune retro...

Following are two of my favorite VST programs-- one, an effect called 'Lo Fi Plus' by Subtek, the other a sample based mellotron emulator by Batsounds called the "Mellowsound"...

The Subtek "Lofi PLUS"
The Batsounds "Mellowsound"


These are VST programs & will require some kind of VST host to be used.


Both of these, being such simple programs, were freeware-- free for the taking on various websites. Neither of them is available any more-- the subtek website & the batsounds website both appear to be gone... I assume they've gone out of business.

If I am wrong, please let me know.. if you are the creator of either of these programs, and you don't wish me to be sharing them. Please let me know, and I'll remove the link.

BUT-- these were given away free for years on the KVRaudio site, as well as on the sites of the guys who created them.... so I really don't think they should mind these VST's still being available free. At least, I hope not.

The lofi PLUS has some amazing qualities to it-- Not sure how to describe it; except that it adds noise and reverb, but mixes them in a very unusual way... it can take a really clean tone, and make it sound distorted or old, or-- my favorite thing---create a very weird ringing 'harmonic' effect. It does some cool nastiness to a crappy-sounding 8 bit mono drum-machine sample! Makes it sound even crappier... but in a GOOD way!

The "mellowsound" is just a sample based synthesizer, utilizing (I think) genuine samples to recreate the sound of that great instrument of the psychedelic 1960' s-- the MELLOTRON! (Which was just a sampler, itself, really...) -- Sadly, it doesn't have the FLUTE, that great Strawberry-fields mellow flutey intro, sob....

Anyway... Got sick of not having these plug-ins on my new PC, so I scoured the web until I found them-- and I never want to do without them again, so here they are on my blog, hopefully to be freeware forever. Get 'em while you can.

Ah, There You Are! And Just In Time, Too....

The Exotic Haunted Mansion. Just in time for 03/31/2007, the first ever Halloween In March. I have been so looking forward to completing & sharing this little kooky mashup.

But.. it's not as cool as I hoped it would be. Oh, the many, many setbacks & obstacles! I have an audio disc full of mp3's of music & effects from the Mansion... get this; My pc decided not to open it. Here I have the full narrative by Paul Frees the Ghost Host, with none of the background music, all set to be used for my mystic mashup... the Leota Seance, the Mellomen singing 'Grim Grinning ghosts' a capella... and I couldn't open it.

But I was stuck. I was so sure this would be the perfect Halloween-in-the-Spring cocktail, what with the Exotica & the Happy Haunts... I decided it was a solid enough idea, that even my own amateurish vocals couldn't kill it. So, I decided that I would take on the mantle of the 'Ghost Host' myself.

I think it turned out well. A few 'dodgy' portions, yeh.... that caretaker's dog is whining for a very different reason, when the Happy Haunts 'begin to vocalize'. Ouch...



As for copyright issues... All songs & effects are copyright their respective owners.., etc, etc... I also invoke the same defense as I used for the Pirates of the Exotic Carribean... this is technically a 'parody' of the Haunted Mansion ride, which gives me a little more breathing-room... Plus, since I did the vocals & most of the sound effects myself, there's really very little of Our Friend Walt's material actually being used. Also, I'm not using any of the the full exotica songs, either---- just low-quality, low-volume, edited versions of them that function more like 'samples' than anything else.... if you like this & want to hear more, I recommend you visit Disneyland, and purchase 'The Exotic Sounds of Martin Denny' 2-disk set, and also grab a Les Baxter reissue or two. Or three... just cuz they are cool, daddy-o.

Anyway... This was fun to make, and I hope it's as much fun to hear. Take a moment (or 10-plus minutes at 192 kbps in mp3 format) to enjoy The Exotic Haunted Mansion.


Oh, yes.... And here's the Voodoo Dreams/ Courtyard Bells mashup, too!

Listen for my quick homage to Criswell, and Ed Wood's 'Orgy Of The Dead'....

Are YOU one of the Frightened?

No, this isn't a genuine scan! Just a little photoshop magic... Boris Karloff read scary stories to the tune of some kooky, creepy music on two albums: Tales of the Frightened Volumes I and II. Far as I know, no bona-fide soundtrack to this collection was ever released, under that name.

...However...

There was an album, simply called 'Electronic Music', released, by a band called the Electrosoniks. I was lucky enough to grab it from another sharity blog-- don't ask who, I can't recall-- about a year ago. As I was listening to it, I realized it sounded eerily familiar. Eventually I figgered out it was the same music from the Tales of the Frightened records!!

Here's a little info about the Tales of the Frightened Series. I got this from the Scar Stuff blog, who is quoting someone else:


"The vignettes in this series were written by Michael Avallone and read by Boris Karloff. Each issue of the magazine contains one of the vignettes, neither individually titled or bylined. Several years later Karloff's readings were released as a phonograph record and the texts were published as a book by Avallone."

"The music that runs underneath Boris's voice slowed down and twisted about is Tom Dissvelt and Kid Baltan's masterpiece recording of "Song of The Second Moon"... reissued as "The Elektrosonics-Electronic Music" "


Once I knew where I'd heard it before, I was quite annoyed at how FAST the tunes were on the Electrosoniks album. Seems to me, there'd be some other lovers of this album series, might want an honest-to-goodness soundtrack, at the proper speed, to include as part of the set. So I put myself to the task of editing the songs, saved 'em as 128 kbps mp3's and.. well, here ya go:

Tales Of the Frightened, The Soundtrack

Enjoy...

10/28/06 -- Well, gonna try & re-up these all. I really want to share these for Halloween, On Halloween-- so try the link above again, or any other of my links. Boo!