<\/p>\n
Bernard Herrmann \u2013 The Murder (1960)<\/strong> More recently, I went through a phase of watching Japanese and Korean horror films. I had to stop watching them because they weren\u2019t good for my heart condition, but none of them affected me like the Psycho shower scene. Music set to visuals intensifies the audio experience and other senses. Surrendering to the film-maker\u2019s interpretation of what the sound represents holds you in a heightened state of expectation of the unexpected, which really is scary.<\/p>\n <\/span>\u2018Shivers down my spine\u2019 \u2026 Cosey Fanni Tutti.<\/span> Photograph: Chris Carter<\/p>\n Abruptum \u2013 Evil (1991)<\/strong> There are always criticisms when black metal is exposed to the wider world but I believe darkness is infinitely deeper in the light \u2013 and the mainstream is far more messed up today than that obscure dungeon of a scene was in the early 90s.<\/p>\n <\/span>\u2018Cathartic\u2019 \u2026 Witch Fever, with Amy Walpole, right.<\/span> Photograph: Frank Fieber<\/p>\n Sloppy Jane \u2013 Jesus and Your Living Room Floor (2021)<\/strong> Having been brought up in a charismatic Christian church \u2013 essentially, a cult \u2013 until I was 16, I can relate to the religious aspects. I find the song cathartic. It\u2019s a ballad, essentially, but dark, gothic and sad and I love the strange, underground atmosphere. I listen to it all the time.<\/p>\n <\/span>\u2018Deeply disturbing\u2019 \u2026 Sparky\u2019s Magic Piano (1947).<\/span> Photograph: Records\/Alamy<\/p>\n Henry Blair \u2013 Sparky\u2019s Magic Piano (1947)<\/strong> Sparky\u2019s Magic Piano fascinated me and terrified me. When Sparky\u2019s mother was out of the room, the piano would start talking to him in a voice produced by a Sonovox, a primitive vocoder. I think that was the catalyst for my ongoing preoccupation with manipulating voices, but as a five-year-old I was convinced it was a small boy trapped inside a piano for eternity.<\/p>\n Herbie Hancock \u2013 Paint Her Mouth, from the Death Wish <\/strong>soundtrack (1974)<\/strong> Later on in life I stumbled across the soundtrack, and if you hear it in isolation, it\u2019s truly chilling. Herbie Hancock\u2019s a genius but what I love about this is he gets so much out of so little \u2013 like the little snare drum sound or minimalist synthesiser, an echo or some strings. It just feels like darkness, or like someone\u2019s following you, so you need to clutch your purse or have your keys out when you get to your door.<\/p>\n
<\/strong>Scary music actually excites me, but the piece that most sends shivers down my spine is the music in the shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock\u2019s film, Psycho. I\u2019ve seen it numerous times and even though I know what\u2019s coming, the stabbing knife synched with Bernard Herrmann\u2019s score always freaks me out.<\/p>\nStephen O\u2019Malley, Sunn O)))<\/h2>\n
<\/strong>I bought this infamous seven-inch from my friend Odin in 1992 \u2013 he was one of the first people to have DIY living room black-metal distros in the States. We didn\u2019t know what this was or which speed to play it, 33rpm or 45rpm. It\u2019s really messed up, demented, improvised doom\/black metal saturated with agony and torture. There were lots of rumours and stories about their now deceased leader Tony S\u00e4rkk\u00e4, known as IT, some of which have since been validated by Dan Swan\u00f6, the engineer. Back then, we heard it was a recording of someone named IT being tortured and electrocuted during the vocal sessions.<\/p>\nAmy Walpole, Witch Fever<\/h2>\n
<\/strong>I was drawn to Sloppy Jane\u2019s album Madison because it was recorded in a cave. Jesus and Your Living Room Floor is open to interpretation, but I think it\u2019s a song about loneliness and wanting to be remembered after you die. Some of the lyrics describe dying in really grotesque ways, but then there\u2019s more mundane imagery such as a plastic horse.<\/p>\nStephen Mallinder, Cabaret Voltaire<\/h2>\n
<\/strong>This was part of a series of mini musical plays featuring a little boy, Sparky, who was trying to master the piano. I heard it when I was about five, more than a decade after it came out. The BBC used to run Children\u2019s Favourites on Saturday morning radio, playing music that grownups felt kids would like, often 40s and 50s novelty tunes, which I found deeply disturbing. Even now they trigger a PTSD response.<\/p>\nTheOGM, Ho99o9<\/h2>\n
<\/strong>My dad was a big fan of action films, so I saw Death Wish when I was a kid. We lived in an urban environment that was kinda like the New York depicted in the film, with gangs, muggings and home invasions, so I could relate to it. To me that was much scarier than Halloween or Nightmare on Elm Street.<\/p>\n