[The Cult Leader]

Explain your fascination with horror soundtracks.

Is it the artwork and packaging, the auditory vibes, collection purposes or all that?

[philball1974]

I wouldn't say i collect horror soundtracks. I like soundtracks in general, mainly I like the variety you get and I like that journey and coherence with themes running throughout. Also some of the music is just awesome.

Im not a completist, I don't buy variants just to have them and I wouldn't pay loads of cash just to have that rare gem.

I love ambient neo classical stuff and when its in soundtrack form it just seems to work!

Plus Lost Boys soundtrack FTW!

[jdubtxn]

I more just like good tunes. It just so happens some really talented musicians and composers were tasked with creating music to go a long with a lot of movies. The other aspect I like is soundtracks can foster a lot of experimentation. Where the world of music was becoming more and more homogenized. Producing more and more pop music soundtracks were areas that electronic musicians could try new ideas.

[lazyben]

They help me poop

[Pitch]

A penchant for the dischordant

[DrRhythm]

.........because I'm a wilful obscurist!!

[ninjaqutie]

I like soundtracks in general; I always have. Ever since I was little I liked them. It started off with martial arts soundtracks actually. I loved crouching tiger hidden dragon, last samurai, house of flying daggers, memoirs of a geisha and of course, the classic old school MA films (whether the music was cheesy or not). That just sort of led into an appreciation of soundtracks in general.

As far as horror soundtracks goes, I have always loved Halloween. My parents threw a HUGE halloween bash every year and the decorations and such were all pretty cool for back in the day. I went on and worked at haunted houses and stuff for several years as I got older, so I have always appreciated that genre. I love horror movies and I took a public speaking/film class in high school and it taught me to appreciate film even more. I think that the way the soundtrack is used can make all the difference in a movie.

When I got into record collecting about a year ago, I didn't really set out to collect soundtracks oddly enough. I stumbled across WW's reanimator and picked it up and put it back a few times before finally settling on it. That was the album that triggered the addiction and ever since then, I've been spending most of my money on soundtracks. I think horror soundtracks have this neat little niche market and there are sub-genre's to it too. Some people appreciate the synthy side of things, some like more classic Italian scores, some really like the doom metal sound. I think there is really a place for everyone in the horror soundtrack genre if you give it a chance and I personally like to dabble in it all.

[Peek-a-boo]

@ninjaqutie it's really interesting to read how you've got into buying vinyl. Long may it last!

I'm not really a horror fan as such. I buy records of all genre & the soundtrack section of my collection is fairly limited. I love John Carpenter & bought a pressing of Assault on Precinct 13 on a French label maybe 10 years ago, but I've always been a big fan of his films too.

The first Death Waltz release I bought was the special edition version of The Fog because I loved the Chapman artwork & the film. Now I've got a Death Waltz subscription cos they've upped the 'boutique' anti.

Today in my local 2nd hand store I bought 2 x Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson albums, Kool & the Gang and a Jean Wright LP. I generally just have an addiction to vinyl!

[chandler75]

I only really got into the soundtracks/scores on vinyl recently, which is actually kind of weird, since I've always been a huge movie fan, music fan and vinyl fan - I just never combined the three until recently...

I buy and listen to a great variety of soundtracks, but I think I got into horror soundtracks a few years ago because I liked how it was very niche in the beginning. I could get the glow-in-the-dark "Re-Animator", because
Waxwork still had copies left after a week (limited to 110 copies). And even "A Field In England" didn't sell out in the first few days, if I remember correctly.

Obviously, times have changed in that regard, but I still have a high appreciation for horror soundtracks in particular because of the very different kinds of scores and the level of dedication companies like DW, Waxwork and OWS put into it.

At the same time, these scores have rekindled my interest in horror movies. I used to buy stuff like Fangoria (via import) when I was a kid, and now I find myself catching up with all the movies that are having their scores released or rereleased.

[vi_resmusic]

I grew up with family members that played a lot of instrumental music in the house.
Some of it was film music. I was also exposed to horror film at a young age. Horror freaked me the absolute fuck out. Most of the time I would be aware of the music as well. The music was as much scarey as the story. After a while I became interested in the dramatic effect of film music as well as any kind of music that wasn't song. Radio music couldn't supply the music that I liked but film could. I find it stimulating.

[Spun out of control]

Like Mr @Vi-Res, grew up watching horror movies... but was never really aware these scores were available to pick up & collect (apart from and separate to the movies themselves) until fairly recently.

Don't know why, but never saw them in the record stores I frequented as a kid and teenager in the 1980s - it was all just bubblegum chart stuff or indie chart stuff like Jesus & Mary Chain & The Smiths - so it is quite fascinating digging on Discogs and the like and finding these scores to what would have been considered cult movies did actually get pressed... whether Stateside or in Italy.

Going further back to the 60s and 1970s, also fascinating discovering that composers like Morricone had history that wasn't just all about lavish scores to The Mission, but started in avant garde experimentalism and nasty low budget giallos.

So I guess the Internet is a large part to blame for collecting these scores now - as they're easier to find and access than ever before in history. It was only really 5 or 6 years ago I guess that the interest in film music clicked big time.... had always been well into my music and films as separate entities, but as I say it was probably only the early Death Waltz releases that woke me up to the fact that scores were a way for those two interests to dovetail.

Also been fascinating discovering how these pieces can work as satisfying listens even when divorced from the images they were (for the most part) created to accompany.

[chiefbrody]

Way to revive a thread, Vi-res.

My memory could be fuzzy, but I think the first scores I bought (not soundtracks) were The Fog and Escape from New York. The Fog was a real eye-opener as I realised how great it was divorced from the images (although still triggering memories of the film). Sometime after that I started buying scores for films I haven't seen, although i still prefer the added dimension of having both images and sounds in mind when listening.

I listen to lots of scores, but I do have a disproportionate amount of horror scores. There are a few reasons, including:
- John Carpenter
- Carpenter-esque (over-used, but there are still a lot of scores out there that owe a debt to the man)
- horror is my favourite genre, so I've seen more horrors than anything else
- horror scores, more often than with other genres, are often integral to, or up front, in the film. Like horror films, I often find horror scores are more 'effective' (sweeping generalisation)
- the horror score 'genre' really spans so many musical styles - It Follows, Cannibal Holocaust, Halloween, Martin, Candyman; none of them sound alike. Liking 'horror scores' actually means very little in terms of what 'type' of music you like.

[m-bryce]

Gotta be better than listening to the Jay Z and the Taylor Swift and all that tackle!

Serious though. My mum got Halloween and Halloween II on betamax when I was a pre-teen. I fell in love with the music, not just the main theme but the whole shebang. I put my tape recorder mic up to the speaker on the telly and recorded the entire films.. dialogue and all. I was obsessed, used to play those crude recordings back till me folks went mad.
From then it was a natural evo of loving horrors and the music within.
I remember getting the Clockwork Orange s/track cassette as part of my Christmas pressie when I was 12 or 13. That was it for me from then it was collecting pop music and soundtracks, especially horror. Wish to christ I still had those old tapes and vinyl.

[m-bryce]

^^ Lost interest for a good few years in my 20's/30's... life, problems, growing up and shit but when Death Waltz arrived it all came flooding back.

[The Cult Leader]

Cool thread ;)

I've been collecting vinyl for a little over 10 years. I started off collecting my favorite hip hop and rock records when I was in college, but it never crossed my mind to check for soundtracks until a rapper Ive been listening to forever (ILL BILL) posted the Ms. 45 record on his Instagram. I love Ms. 45! Fucking Death Wish in a skirt! I made my first ever soundtrack purchase from the old Death Waltz site that day. I've been a film junkie all my life so once I discovered Death Waltz I felt like a kid on Christmas, I still do :)