spooked out prog/folk/psych

[Snoop God]

i've always liked horror films/music and dark stuff in general but lately im really starting to love a lot of the really spooky sounding prog/folk/psych..i think the spooky stuff is more beatiful/sad than the straight up dark prog
some of the ones i'm liking at the min

catharsis-masque vol 1(strummy folky guitars ,ghostly wailing, a bit of organ..the tune 4 art 6 would be a perfect tune for suicide i reckon.. it starts out relaxing and sad but builds up epic style for 7 odd minutes culminating in screams and erotic noises..dont listen on your headphones while walking home late at night really stoned cos i almost had a whitey the other night from all the voices(i hadn't smoked in a bit)

third ear band-macbeth (the opening tune is full on discordant horror soundtrack style with a nice bassline that keeps it from degenarating into unlistenable while the tune fleance is really sad traditional folk with a haunting edge from the pipes and the female singers voice..)(anyone heard the alchemy lp? i fancy a listen but always too expensive when i see it)

banco del mutuo soccorsso-darwin(sp)-(so many good bits on this one..this lp is one of the ones where you sit down with a spliff and headphones and just trance out and listen to the whole thing...the vocals grated on me a bit at first but you learn to live with them.. )

so what are your picks for some similar stuff???
easier to find and cheaper the better!!

[wayne]

third ear band-macbeth (the opening tune is full on discordant horror soundtrack style with a nice bassline that keeps it from degenarating into unlistenable while the tune fleance is really sad traditional folk with a haunting edge from the pipes and the female singers voice..)(anyone heard the alchemy lp? i fancy a listen but always too expensive when i see it)

Alchemy is the only one of theirs I do have (or have heard) so can't compare it to Macbeth or others, but it's basically long, improvised pieces with modern classical/folk violin or cello playing repetitive lines over and under pounding medieval percussion and Eastern influenced oboe patterns. It's one of those things (it's a Japanese import CD rather than original LP) I really enjoy when I do play it, but that I don't play very often. Think of something like David Munrow's Early Music Consort having a go at tunes by Terry Riley or Steve Reich and if that sounds appealing then you'll probably like the album, but nothing I'd really call 'dark' or horror influenced on it. The site below calls it 'medieval raga' which isn't all that far off the mark.

http://psychedelicfolk.homestead.com/ThirdEarBand.html

[JamesF]

Would the Visitors - Visitors LP (one tune was on Prog is not a four letter word) fit? There is a fairly affordable Korean reissue floating around. I think the album is a little hit and miss though.

[benjamin hatton]

Would the Visitors - Visitors LP (one tune was on Prog is not a four letter word) fit? There is a fairly affordable Korean reissue floating around. I think the album is a little hit and miss though.

i've got the Si-Wan reissue..bit of a one tracker to be honest...

[john stapleton]

[eric-adams]

was going to say the same ^

[Snoop God]

ah comus-first utterance...
thats on my wants list....
what yuo reckon to it john/eric?

[emperor tomato ketchup]

Comus is spot on by the sound of it for what you want. Orginal vinyl is not so common but you oculd always get the dbl CD for buttons as its mid price and been out a while.

[eric-adams]

i think its brilliant.
there is a recent vinyl reissue on earmark, dont get it as the pressing is messed up and the first song skips, the record doesnt skip but the music does. which is strange.
highly recomended record.
the second lp isnt that good though so dont bother with that.
though as suggested you can get the complete comus 2cd set on play for £10.
i was glad this thread came up as i was thinking if there was any other stuff like comus around coz i think id really like some more spooky bands like this.

another point. how hard is the comus ep to find? in the book its rated about £25. so does that mean it never comes up?

[john stapleton]

another point. how hard is the comus ep to find? in the book its rated about £25. so does that mean it never comes up?

I've never seen it, I think it's probably a lot rarer than the album. I really want one so I can get rid of the reissue LP (which has the EP tracks as well) - plus I really like those Dawn three-track EPs (well, the Demon Fuzz one, not so much the Mungo Jerry ones....)

Comus is pretty dark, though...

[highland cow]

another point. how hard is the comus ep to find? in the book its rated about £25. so does that mean it never comes up?

Never seen one either.

I think "The Book" prices prog singles pretty low thinking that Big Prog collector's aren't interested in 45's. I think that may have been the case years ago but now seeing the prices on Harvest/Deram/Vertigo 45's things have changed a great deal.

I'd recommend WRITING ON THE WALL - POWER OF THE PICTS as a nice doomy sounding Prog album and they're from Edinburgh too so you never know you may find one in Back-beat one day

Also C.A. QUINTET'S - TRIP THROUGH HELL fits the bill IMO

[Snoop God]

I'd recommend WRITING ON THE WALL - POWER OF THE PICTS as a nice doomy sounding Prog album and they're from Edinburgh too so you never know you may find one in Back-beat one day

Also C.A. QUINTET'S - TRIP THROUGH HELL fits the bill IMO

i've boycotted backbeat cos he's getting even sketchier than before nowadays! since him and his mate have been selling stuff on ebay he's turned into a right maniac pricing stuff up even more and bragging all the time...
hopefully might turn it up in a chazza one day tho..
thank god i'm going to norwich next week as i'm suffering from prog withdrawl from having no decent finds for ages
i would buy stuff from ebay but i've not had much luck with sellers on there recently either

[wallace]

Paul Roland -ainnyfink (music be upbeat, but lyrics be Victorian errie/bizarre)
Goblin Market -fairst lp (songs aybit death)
Mantler & Ryptal - th' Edward Gorey lp -ah forgits title
Mort Garson -Ataraxia
Enid -Something Wicked This Way Comes (Wallace be guessing -wif title loike tha?...)
Orchestra of the Eigth Day
Tangerine Dream -Phaedra (hir maist elditch lp)
erlay Universe Zero
Vangelis & Pappas
Goblin -Suspira
Antonius Rex -Zora
Popol Vuh -Nosferatu (NOO errie, but relaxin')
Docktor Docktor

Lps tha be errie awl whey frue is a 'ard request.
Bettar ter arsk aybit individual tracks, me owd backardy.

[ROCKPROF]

Spooked out psych,prog folk,mmmmmm.All I can think of is Simon Finn,Pass the Distance and Dom, Edge of time but you'vre probably heard of them and even the vinyl reissues are expensive or hard to get hold of.

[effi_deep]

spooky tooth/pierre henry - ceremony
gong - camembert electrique

[wallace]

Theur shuld finn' thais scary.
Shoite thy keks.(Yew brun potter.)

Amygdala (Japan duo loike Magma,Present)
Schloss Adler -Music for survival Horror
Arachnoid-same (French instrumental fusion)
Art Zoid -Nosferatu ('ere dems droppit acoousteriks an' gang electronic)
erlay Diamanda Galas

Wallace gives, yew takes.

[effi_deep]

hmmm and the hawkwind selftitled one is a bit spooky to as far as i remember...

[jakartajive]

Wallace gives, yew takes.

Poor Wallace!!!
Wallace is making me sad.




Still Wallace DID list an ENID album!!!
A Prog too far!!!!!!
Surely there must be a limit to VV sensibilities!!
Whatever next?
Marillion??!!@@!!

On the spooked-out folk-prog-psych front . . . I can only add to the growing pagan chorus of YES for the first COMUS LP . . . what else? Any early Goblin, especially the SUSPIRA soundtrack certainly hits the spooky part of your wants . . . Tim Buckley's Starsailor: Music from Beyond . . . Gary Higgins' Red Hash Lp - strange, dark, stoner freak folk . . . and in a smilar vein, the self-titled Bob Frank LP on Mainstream.

[Snoop God]

Lps tha be errie awl whey frue is a 'ard request.
Bettar ter arsk aybit individual tracks, me owd backardy.

the whole lps don't have to be spooky i just find it easier to remember lp titles than songs so i know which lps to look for...
ta for all the suggestions all (hopefully i can find a few)
i've got a couple that have been mentioned such as the goblin lps(always pick these up )
tangerine dream stratosphere lp i also remember having some good spooky moments..
mebbes add magma too but i think they're more frightening than spooky

[Snoop God]

[QUOTE=jakartajive] Gary Higgins' Red Hash Lp - strange, dark, stoner freak folk . . . QUOTE]

hmm i've heard of this one as well...how hard is to find in the wild??

[JamesF]

Gary Higgins' Red Hash Lp - strange, dark, stoner freak folk . . .

Is this any good then? I've always been put off by the excessive ginger hair on the cover. Shallow I know...

[eric-adams]

nothing wrong with gingers!

[jakartajive]

I've just got the re-ish of Red Hash, and, yes, he doess come profoundly bearded - and ginger!!! Let this not afear you.

It's a really good LP . . . very dark and downer / stoner folk mode, with this strange 'troubled hush' quality to things. Great 2am LP.

Don't bother with the red hash itself, mind.
Sensi works way better.

[Antwhiplash]

Now i've got far too much stuff to hear, got the Comus reissue recently & went mad for it (no problem with my pressing) & was wondering what else could sound like it, now there's too much to discover.....excellent, thanks chaps!

[wayne]

Of course folk generally is pretty dark. Been playing Shirley Collins' 'Poor Murdered Woman' off the 'No Roses' LP in the car lately and it might not be quite what you mean, but I'm not sure how much darker it gets than dead bodies lurking around the landscape. Or indeed ghost lovers returning to tap at windows, farmboys being hacked to pieces by toffs when caught sleeping with their wives, and the many variations on satanic appearances, garottings, suicides, drownings, transvestite highwaymen and sacrifices to pagan deities contained on even the most innocuous of 'hey nonny no' folk records.

[Antwhiplash]

TRANSVESTITE HIGHWAYMEN! You'd wanna see that as well as hear it

[ROCKPROF]

Of course folk generally is pretty dark. Been playing Shirley Collins' 'Poor Murdered Woman' off the 'No Roses' LP in the car lately and it might not be quite what you mean, but I'm not sure how much darker it gets than dead bodies lurking around the landscape. Or indeed ghost lovers returning to tap at windows, farmboys being hacked to pieces by toffs when caught sleeping with their wives, and the many variations on satanic appearances, garottings, suicides, drownings, transvestite highwaymen and sacrifices to pagan deities contained on even the most innocuous of 'hey nonny no' folk records.

mmm,yes I think the think the thing wih the folky stuff its the content rather than the way its executed, unless it goes a bit wrong and hey nonny.'Love Death and the lady' by Shirley and Dolly Collins is quite dark and there are a few tracks on Dave and Toni Arthur's 'Hearken to the Witches Rune', but the latter is mostly vocal only and goes a bit hey noony nonny.

[wayne]

TRANSVESTITE HIGHWAYMEN! You'd wanna see that as well as hear it

aka Tam Lin, if I remember the spelling rightly - version on Fairport Convention's 'Leige & Lief' among many others. Come to think of it, Fairport's fairly common (well, relative to this area of music) 'Full House' has some rather dark folk on it, and might be worth a listen.

[Rich Hero]

Of course folk generally is pretty dark...

Was thinking just the same thing - from quite 'recent' songs like 'Winter's Going' and 'Morning Dew' to a broadside ballad such as 'The Murder Of Maria Marten' and on back...

[john stapleton]

in a similar vein, the first Mr Fox lp is pretty dark and spooky in places:

'Walk in a valley that never saw the sun
step by the stones where the icy waters run
stand in a church where the village choir once sang
and all along the path way where the dead man used to hang'

Taken from 'The Hanged Man' about the death reflections of a newly hung man and his bodily absorption back into nature....