We’re at a disadvantage, we
music writers. There’s just so much out there, right? Almost too much to cover
with any sort of consistency or timeliness. Scratch that – just timeliness.
(I’m nothing if not consistent.) That’s why I’m writing about Halloween in the
doldrums of Isolation April, and it’ll be May before you even read this. See
how that works? This October 2018 compilation – still available, I might add –
landed in my mailbox a month or two ago, and I’m just getting to writing about
it. And now you know the inner workings of the process.
Meh, it’s not all like that,
but that’s how the chips fell for Chthonic
Records Presents: It’s Halloween Time, a double-cassette release that
clocks in at 66.6 minutes per tape – that’s a really spooky number!* In
conjunction with Almost Halloween Time Records, the Bari, Italy, label that
gave it a second life in October 2019, Chthonic Records cobbles together a
compilation of outsider weirdos that give new meaning to the phrase
“horrorcore,” in that there isn’t a lot of horror and also very little core.
Instead we’re treated to a bunch of lo-fi mood pieces that run the gamut from
seasonal incidental music to trippy sample collages to actual ditties about
Halloween itself, and/or creepy goings-on. (Plus extra credit to the dude who
calls himself “Charles Dingus.”)
Still, we’re not talking “Monster Mash” or “Werewolf Bar Mitzvah” to
spruce up a party or anything. It’s more like Cougheteria’s take on a Twilight Zone episode (“The Ghosts We
Know”) or Hoops’ funereal dirge (“A Monster at Home”). There’s also
Restaurnaut’s usual garbage-can soliloquizing (“I Was Possessed [by a Ghost]”),
Painted Faces’ spiked-punch reeling (“Hippy Halloween”), and a surprisingly
straightforward turn by Bob Bucko Jr. (“We Are Not All Monsters”). But nothing
you can really dance to. Which is totally fine if your Halloween consists of
sitting at home, by yourself, sad that you’re not a kid anymore, and slowly
peeling and eating every piece of candy you bought for trick-or-treaters, none
of which seem to want to ring your bell.
Is that sad, or do you just live in the country?
*Sorry, Tabs Out references just slip in subconsciously now.
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