Free legal downloads for the most horrible time of the year
Normally Halloween mixes are useful for a grand total of a weekend. Sometimes their usefulness can stretch to a week if the annual celebration of sluttiness falls on a Wednesday or something but they’re usually forgotten even quicker than the costume goes back in the closet and the embarrassing photos get uploaded to the Internet. Everyone loves “Monster Mash” but who wants to listen to it on November 1? In an effort to remedy this lack of staying power this month Radio Silence highlights some music suitable for soundtracking your Halloween party that is also worth returning to beyond the end of October.
Various artists — Scary Scary Halloween ( mediafire.com/file/wocwxtemjtc/Scary )
It’s not particularly surprising but the best way to make a decent Halloween mix that will get listened to more than once is to wholly avoid actual Halloween music. That’s exactly what the people at Stadiums and Shrines have done on Scary Scary Halloween . Instead of a couple dozen novelty songs with people singing in Frankenstein and Dracula voices the 21-song hour-plus mix props itself up largely on moody indie rock. There’s nothing overtly Halloweeny about any of the songs here but each possesses a spooky atmosphere in its own right that should play well overtop of the muted monster movies that will be gracing TVs at house parties across the country in the coming days. What’s best though is that Scary Scary Halloween will still be an ideal listen for long cold nights once the fun-size chocolate bars have been transformed into extra pounds. The Ravonettes Timber Timbre Sunset Rubdown and Thom Yorke all make appearances on the mix.
Various artists — Gorilla vs. Bear Halloween Mix ( gorillavsbear.blogspot.com/2009/10/halloween-mixtape.html )
OK this one is probably best left off the Halloween party playlist until that point in the party when there are only a few people left blearily stumbling onto couches their costumes now completely unrecognizable. Again there’s nothing on this mix by MP3 super blog Gorilla vs. Bear that is Halloween-themed but its haunting feel is palpable. Slow sinister songs from the likes of Fever Ray Pocahaunted Paavoharju and Burial drift by throughout the 29-minute mix interspersed with downright eerie dialogue pieces and a heavy dose of hazy noise. This mix isn’t going to get the party started but it just might prove genuinely unsettling enough to scare those last few stragglers back to their houses.
Memory Tapes — “Walk Me Home” ( arawa.fm/2009/10/walk-me-home.html )
Dayve Hawke the man behind Memory Cassette Weird Tapes and the amalgamation of the two Memory Tapes has received a lot of blog buzz in the last couple years for his dreamy dance collages. His work to date has been largely upbeat and nostalgia-tinged making listeners remember perfect summers they never actually experienced. “Walk Me Home” takes a different approach throughout its 17-minute run time. Instead of joyous loops built on woozy samples the song is built of frigid keyboards methodical percussion and background textures galore all of which give you the feeling that a cold breeze is ripping through your coat and someone is following you just out of view. Perfect for Halloween if not for walking home alone.
