Sounds of Darkness

Dartman has had really fun Halloween mixes the past few years.

2006: 12 tracks. A good start. One movie trailer, some sound effects, some old tracks (“New Year’s Eve in a Haunted House”), some more recent (the great “Soul Dracula”!), and the very fun Side 1 from the classic “Halloween Horrors” album.

2007: 35 tracks. They were untagged originally, and I still don’t recognize 3 of them (6, 16, 32). The rest are all over the map … movie clips, sound clips from old cartoons and horror movie radio ads, three parts of “An Evening with Boris Karloff”. None of the tracks are super-mainstream (no “Ghostbusters” or “Thriller”), only Halloween music collectors will find much familiar stuff. No theme, just fun stuff throughout. And I like that each track is consistently short. It keeps things moving, and if you hit a track you don’t like, you don’t have to wait long for the next.

2008: 30 tracks. This time Dartman threw in quite a few songs I hadn’t heard before … songs by Vialka, 7000 Dying Rats, The Satanic Gowns? It is consistently spooky, and a nice mix of vocals with instrumentals. No radio ads this time, which I appreciate. I’d quibble about the inclusion of the nearly-8-minute “Season of the Witch” track by Vanilla Fudge, but I’ve always LOVED that track, so no foul. Again, there is no theme, which I like. And on the last mix, I had heard most of the tracks before … this time, Dartman hit some real rarities, which makes it an even better listen.

2009: Dartman brought it home with a real “mix” … a single mp3 57 minutes long combining soundtrack music, oldies, and plenty of sound effects. Oldies dominate the mix, with a few 80’s / 90’s tracks to break it up. Dartman seamlessly links the tracks together, with sound effects bridging the gaps between tracks. A fun listen.

2010: So far, Dartman has released two “Treat Bags”. It’s a little disappointing. Like a real treat bag, what is actually inside doesn’t live up to what you hoped was in there. Several tracks are not even tagged. Here’s hoping he’ll come around closer to Halloween with a mix as good as last year's … these treat bags are more quantity vs. quality, and I’d rather have a nice fat Snickers bar than a plastic pumpkin full of Smarties and candy corn. Not to look a gift horse in the mouth … still some good music in the bags ... it’s just that Dartman’s mixes over the years have gotten better and better, and this seems like a regression.