Thursday, October 20, 2005

Halloween Music

For years I had looked for good spooky music for Halloween. Most of the stuff you find in stores has too many odd sound effects or is Monster Mash type stuff. I just want creepy background music.

A few years ago I finally found one I liked and have been using every year since. It is called . Now there are two sequels. From the samples of the sequels I think I still like the first one best, but the others are good too.

The title track of the first CD is my favorite. It and Creature often alternate most of Halloween night. Pumpkinland 2 and Creep from the second CD sound pretty good too so I think I am going to have to order that so I can have a bit more variation.

The other tracks on the first two are good, but not quite what I am looking for. The third CD is heading further away from what I want, but it might be just what you are looking for.

You can hear all the samples at .


Comments:
Hey there!

I was doing a Google search and found your blog. Glad to hear you like the Pumpkinland CDs. I've got another one in the works - let me know what you liked about Pumpkinland I (and didn't like about II or III). I'm always interested in receiving feedback.

Take care and Happy Haunting,

Mark Harvey
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Hi Mark,

What I am looking for is rather specific so not all the tracks are useful to me. I have a small one night yard haunt where the music comes from a window and can't be too loud. I just want to add a little spooky ambiance to the rather generic skeleton, spider, and pumpkin dominated scene.

Pumpkinland I:
Pumpkinland - Haunting and spooky, I really like this one. Still my favorite.
Creature - Low and eerie, I like this one.
Swamp - Too musical mixed with too many sound effects.
Ghouls - Organ music and much louder than others, too musical, I don't like this one though it certainly could be useful in the right scene.
The Pumpkin Patch - Good sound effects track, possibly too much wind (over powers other sounds), but not what I am looking for.

Pumpkinland II:
Pumpkinland 2 - sounds too mechanical, all but the ringing blends together too much, I like the part though with the ahh, ohh, ahh sounds though.
Nightfall - low and I like this one, but the track is almost all the same (which isn't necessarily bad).
Lagoon - Jungle sounds aren't scary to me, it seems that one bird noise (the opening sound) is overused, I liked the music though.
Caverns - Good mix of music and sound effects, just not what I am looking for.
Creep - Nice mix of odd musical sounds, very low key, I like it.
Behind The Castle - Seems to rely on wind a bit much, but not overpowering as in The Pumpkin Patch. Doesn't go with my theme though.
Green Mist - I like it, just doesn't go with my theme, even before looking at the title I was thinking of aliens. I like alien and UFO stuff, but don't really think of them as Halloween.
Midnight - Pretty good, but as you can guess I am not big on wind. I did like the howling wind, but the background wind seems too constant like and a bit static like.

Pumpkinland III:
Procession - I like it, very different, less organic sounding than previous tracks. But not what I am looking for with my haunt.
Rites - I like it, a bit repetitive though and not what I am looking for with my haunt.
Pumpkinland 3 - Organ music and wind, two of my least favorites combined to make a track I can skip (but I do like it better than Ghouls).
Nocturne - I like this one, kind of suspenseful, but not spooky. I could do without the rumble though.
Docks - Really weird music then suddenly, well into the track you get footsteps, after they quit you get what sounds like whale calls. This whole track just seems odd to me. Except for the footsteps, not at all Halloweenish, almost meditative.
Nightmare - Creepy, I liked it till it got to the first scream. Not only was the scream unnecessary, it went a bit long (at the same level) and made me think of a circular saw.
Graveyard - Interesting, a bit too cute. Maybe works for cartoonish dancing skeletons, which there is a market for, but I am not it.
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