Sounds of Darkness

Most of the scary albums I listen to are, let’s be honest, all in fun. This one is a little different, and it is fascinating. Louise Huebner is the “official witch of Los Angeles” … a title given to her in 1968. A year later, she recorded sort of a “how-to” for budding witches, and this is it.

Louise does a nice job on this album, with the help of a little reverb and the music of Louis and Bebe Barron. ...

I’m a big fan of old-time radio. I love Lights Out, Weird Circle, X Minus One … it was horror at a time when people were maybe a little easier to scare. I find it kind of fascinating to learn what used to be deemed “horror” and compare it with today’s horror fare. (If you ask me, filmmakers seem to have given up on scaring people, and just want to shock people instead.) Many of these classic tales are nicely scary, and they ...

We all know Alfred Hitchcock, and his contributions to the horror and suspense genres are outstanding in both quality and quantity. Few have had a greater impact, particularly in the 60’s. I do not know for sure, but it seems that Hitchcock’s involvement in this album was probably very superficial … he provides introductions and links between stories and that’s about it. The intro has clever moments, and the links are cute. ...