Music which has scared you (no I was scared by insert name of band you weren't scared by but wish to make lame joke about type answers please)

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I ask this because I heard that piano looping track by Umek last week, the name escapes me, is it called Loops? Anyway the more I listened the more I felt uneasy, it's really offbeat and almost out of tune and I remember thinking if you were a bit paranoid or on some kind of bad comedown it would just make you think you were going insane in a club full of lunatics. Techno I guess has potential to scare a bit more than other genres.

― Ronan (Ronan), Monday, 14 October 2002 09:20 (twenty-two years ago)

The grunting sounds on NWW's "To The Quiet Men From A Tiny Girl" freaked me out first time I heard them.

― Tom (Groke), Monday, 14 October 2002 09:23 (twenty-two years ago)

the quite pleading voices on "dead skin mask" by Slayer, freaked me out a little when I was doing my art GCSE exam.

― jel -- (jel), Monday, 14 October 2002 09:30 (twenty-two years ago)

Listening to certain songs on your walkman as you walk home at night can be quite scary, but enjoyably bracing at the same time. Especially: "22 Going on 23" by the Butthole Surfers, and "Good Morning, Captain" by Slint. I once got a real fright listening to "Good Morning..." as i walked home, at the bit where the boy whispers "Help". Took me completely by surprise, I thought someone had crept up behind me and whispered in my ear.

My scariest musical moment had to be walking towards a bus stop through this dimly-lit sports field where a girl once got raped, while listening to "Very Sleepy Rivers" by Mercury Rev. This was not just due to the location, but also David Baker's eerie wailing.

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Monday, 14 October 2002 09:34 (twenty-two years ago)

Actually there was a flukey kind of scarey moment before, I was listening to Bent's album to put myself to sleep (haha) and it ended, or so I thought and I'd just drifted off. Then it came back on again with some really old recording of children singing London Bridge is Falling Down, scared the fucking hell out of me, let me tell you.

― Ronan (Ronan), Monday, 14 October 2002 09:40 (twenty-two years ago)

see 'the wicker man' thread. i made the mistake of putting it on when i eventually tried to get my head down after a big night out. it infiltrated my dreams and blurred the already fuzzy boundary between awake/asleep. i haven't listened to it in full since.

― michael wells (michael w.), Monday, 14 October 2002 09:56 (twenty-two years ago)

The children crying on The Kids by Lou Reed is genuinely spine-chilling, especially when you know why they were crying.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Monday, 14 October 2002 10:04 (twenty-two years ago)

The sound of a gun being repeatedly loaded on Tricky's Strugglin' amidst all that dense urban claustrophobia, whilst he questions his sanity, still unnerves me.

― stevo (stevo), Monday, 14 October 2002 10:39 (twenty-two years ago)

A really scary, creepy, early Main record. We had to take it off, because the noises kept spooking us, and we kept going "Is that the cat?!?" and wondering if it was the music or the pipes or a cat exploding or something. I've never been able to listen to Main since. I can't remember if we were actually on acid, or just stoned, but it was spooky as fuck.

― kate, Monday, 14 October 2002 11:00 (twenty-two years ago)

The piano in Tori Amos' Silent All These Years.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Monday, 14 October 2002 11:09 (twenty-two years ago)

The Beatles' I Want You, because of the pink noise building up at the end, and Pierre Henri's Variations pour un Porte..., where the door starts it's frantic rattling.

― Jez (Jez), Monday, 14 October 2002 11:22 (twenty-two years ago)

"Evil Dildo" by Placebo, which is basically about seventeen minutes of violent feedback, death threats left on Brian Molko's answerphone, and Aphex Twin samples.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Monday, 14 October 2002 11:40 (twenty-two years ago)

As a child: Prince and Vanity 6 (the latter only the cover, because I didn't even DARE play the tape).

― nathalie (nathalie), Monday, 14 October 2002 11:44 (twenty-two years ago)

i dunno about being scared but there are tracks where the music or lyrics or both has unnerved or creeped me out a little...but that was more from when i was a kid so dunno if its worth mentioning. i cant remember if some of Boards Of Canada's stuff (Hi-Scores, Aquarius, Nlogax, An Eagle In Your Mind, other ones i cant remember name of) made me think of scary stuff or just made me feel very depressed. Neneh CHerry's 'Manchild' used to do the same for me big time...i just have something against dystopian descending strings or synth sequences

― blueski, Monday, 14 October 2002 11:53 (twenty-two years ago)

Zan Lyons - Suicide.

I met him the other week actually. He's a really nice bloke, but his music scared the shit out of me...

― Mr Swygart (mrswygart), Monday, 14 October 2002 12:28 (twenty-two years ago)

used to enjoy scaring myself silly by cranking up Bark Psychosis' violent "By-Blows" to rafter-rattling volume and turning out the lights. can vouch highly for this drug-free freak-out experience.

the 2nd-4th Lustmørd albs are far too creepy to play after the sun has set; Inade (esp. 'Aldebaran' and 'Crackling of the Anonymous') never fail to raise hackles during the wee hours.

read Ligotti's "In a Foreign Land, In a Foreign Town" novella cycle in time with Current93's specially prepared soundtrack for same - premium nerve-jangles guaranteed.

summerslastsound/ gg

― summerslastsound (summerslastsound), Monday, 14 October 2002 12:36 (twenty-two years ago)

'locust abortion technician' by the butthole surfers scares the shit out of me with every single listen. the birthday party used to but now that nick cave's a dull piano balladeer, their music just doesn't seem to move me the same way anymore. honourable mentions for 'frankie teardrop' by suicide and everything ever recorded by a late 80s australian band called venom p stinger.

― angelo (angelo), Monday, 14 October 2002 12:45 (twenty-two years ago)

"a figure walks" by the fall & all the other earliest fall stuff i heard too i guess. esp 'cause i mostly heard it on a distant static-y radio stn on headphones in the dark. also syd barrett sounded scary when i 1st heard him.

― unknown or illegal user (doorag), Monday, 14 October 2002 13:08 (twenty-two years ago)

PJ Harvey's "I Think I'm A Mother" off To Bring You My Love. She sounds slightly labotomized but not in the Tori Spelling way, more in the 'emptied out' way. Haunting.

― Claire (Claire Miccio), Monday, 14 October 2002 13:34 (twenty-two years ago)

current 93's dogs blood rising has always scared the shit out of me.

― todd swiss (eliti), Monday, 14 October 2002 13:52 (twenty-two years ago)

The weird-ass stuff at the end of the first Queens Of The Stone Age album. Hurts your ears.

― NickH, Monday, 14 October 2002 14:15 (twenty-two years ago)

On "The Kids" the real reason they're crying isn't that old story about being lied to about their mother dying. Rather, they're being beaten unmercifully by a percussionist.

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Monday, 14 October 2002 15:00 (twenty-two years ago)

current 93 seems to own this thread. i remember the first time i listened to "lucifer over london". truly disturbing.

also disturbing but in a different way altogether was "a ritual mask" by peter hammill.

― cecilia, Monday, 14 October 2002 16:45 (twenty-two years ago)

"11 Moustachioed Daughters" by Bonzo Dog Band. It sounds really scary and satanic - "To take a form and make it THINE!" - and the end bit sounds really wierd, like a twisted demonic parody of the Bonzos, with Vivian and some woman laughing their heads off and this wierd unimpentrable (sp) chatter.

Also, I was listening to the Beastie Boys' "Ill Communication" in bed once with all the lights out, and it came to that track which starts off with Tibetian monks chanting. It took me by suprise and I thought my house was surrounded by monks or something.

― Chriddof (Chriddof), Monday, 14 October 2002 17:14 (twenty-two years ago)

"Move Bitch" by Ludacris - not because of the lyrics, but because the backing track is disarmingly pleasant in the context, even reminds me of music from Play School in the mid-80s. you see what I'm getting at here? if the music sounded like Pharoahe Monch's "Simon Says" or something like that, it WOULDN'T scare me: it's only the dirtying of something that reminds me of innocent childhood etc etc that frightens me.

― robin carmody (robin carmody), Monday, 14 October 2002 17:23 (twenty-two years ago)

it's the first thing Luda's done that scares me because nothing else he's done (even the insanely catchy "Rollout") had such a PRETTY sound in the background

― robin carmody (robin carmody), Monday, 14 October 2002 17:24 (twenty-two years ago)

this will seem really stupid but Gudrun's "World Wide Web Girl", it made me have that mixed reaction that times are changing (and i'm not keeping up) and that someone somewhere will exploit any phenomenon (even ones i thought no one would want to touch).

― PeterALopez, Monday, 14 October 2002 17:41 (twenty-two years ago)

Cocteau Twins' Garlands. My first listen to it, I was familiar only with Heaven Or Las Vegas and Milk & Kisses, and so I was absolutely unprepared for this goth nightmare made worse by the monotonous droning, which come to think of it recalls an old recurring nightmare I used to have.

― Leee (Leee), Monday, 14 October 2002 18:23 (twenty-two years ago)

I was listening to Sonic Youth's "Catholic Block" for the first time (very loud) and the girl screaming in the background has a very similar voice to my sister. I thought she was being attacked in the other room.

― Ian Johnson, Monday, 14 October 2002 18:38 (twenty-two years ago)

PJ Harvey's "I Think I'm A Mother" off To Bring You My Love. She sounds slightly labotomized but not in the Tori Spelling way, more in the 'emptied out' way. Haunting.

The same applies to the whispering in "Down By the Water."

Little fish. big fish. Swimming in the water.
Come back here, man. gimme my daughter.

― Steph (Steph), Monday, 14 October 2002 22:33 (twenty-two years ago)

That Anthony Braxton album with the physics equasions on the cover freaks me out and made me feel uncomfortable.

― earlnash, Monday, 14 October 2002 22:36 (twenty-two years ago)

The first listen to "Frankie Teardrop" was a scary one..

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Monday, 14 October 2002 22:47 (twenty-two years ago)

It was a dark night. I had just road my bike to the nearby swimming pool, and was riding it back home after a nice long swim. It was a little chilly because of the breeze in my wet hair, and I decided to take a short cut through the woods. During this ride I was listening to David Bowie's "Outside." and right as I was entering the woods "Wishful Beginnings" came on, and it freaked me out. I quickly jumped off my bike, turned it around, and took the longer but well lit way back.

― A Nairn (moretap), Monday, 14 October 2002 22:54 (twenty-two years ago)

as a kid, it was the vocals on "no quarter"; the seeming dissaffection (this is how i imagine a somnambulist singing) at the begining, the shreiking at the end, and of course the 'submerged' effect you get from way they're treated.

now it would be :

"fields of rape" by current 93.

the woman crying for help at the end of prince's "dmsr"

the space between the vocals and the track on masaki batoh's cover of
"yoo do right"

"get out of my house" by kate bush

all of shrub niggrath's shit

the artaud style freak out on can's "soup"

― mike (ro)bott, Monday, 14 October 2002 23:32 (twenty-two years ago)

"Dance of the Headless Bourgeoisie" by nomeansno

― Woody, Tuesday, 15 October 2002 09:13 (twenty-two years ago)

Clint Mansell 'Requeiem FOr A Dream' original score

― blueski, Tuesday, 15 October 2002 10:18 (twenty-two years ago)

Faip De Oiad or whatever it's called on Lateralus by Tool scares me. Also, Like Herod by Mogwai still makes me jump.

― Callum (Callum), Tuesday, 15 October 2002 15:02 (twenty-two years ago)

three years pass...

I think I liked music more when it used to scare me or make me uncomfortable. As a youngster, I used to be scared about:
Prog- music was trying to brainwash me
Hardcore- musicians liked to beat people for fun
Avant Garde- (Cage, Varese, even Clara Rockmore) just plain creepy
Even Jazz used to intimidate me with the knowledge/pretentiousness of the fans, and even that doesn't affect me anymore
Postpunk- drugs, anger, depression would rub off on me

all I have now are the flashbacks, which will have to do.

― D.I.Y. U.N.K.L.E. (dave225.3), Wednesday, 16 November 2005 15:59 (nineteen years ago)

Penderecki - Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima.

Fell asleep with classical radio on one night; I don't remember what I was I was dreaming, but I woke up terrified and this was playing.

― Daniel Peterson (polkaholic), Wednesday, 16 November 2005 16:19 (nineteen years ago)

"I'm Not In Love" by 10CC has always, *always* completely given me the creeps...

― CharlieNo4 (Charlie), Wednesday, 16 November 2005 16:27 (nineteen years ago)

I can't listen to a Miranda July track all the way through.

"I will sleep with the metal under my tongue ... I will drive home without crashing ..."

That's not really a 'music' track though, so in addition I nominate NWW's "I Am Blind" for the bit where someone starts screaming after what feels like an eternity of bits of plastic breaking.

― Brakhage (brakhage), Wednesday, 16 November 2005 16:33 (nineteen years ago)

mike bott OTM about the end of DMSR!

― petesmith (plsmith), Wednesday, 16 November 2005 16:38 (nineteen years ago)

yknow, in case he still exists, 3 years later.

― petesmith (plsmith), Wednesday, 16 November 2005 16:38 (nineteen years ago)

Radiohead's Climbing Up The Walls really bothered me the first time I heard it.

― joe schmoe (joeschmoe), Wednesday, 16 November 2005 16:43 (nineteen years ago)

christian death freaked me out in high school, but i haven't heard it since, it might just be silly now.

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Wednesday, 16 November 2005 16:44 (nineteen years ago)

A lot of loud, avant-garde, heart-stopping "surprise! motherfucker" moments indeed. But SPK is definitely the creepiest indutrial/ambient stuff I've heard. It's hair-raising, morbid, hospital-smelling music *shudder*

― blunt (blunt), Wednesday, 16 November 2005 16:56 (nineteen years ago)

I've nothing against hospitals (except on TV series) but who wants to know what, say, an abandoned mental asylum smells like *re-shudder*

― blunt (blunt), Wednesday, 16 November 2005 17:00 (nineteen years ago)

If you happen to be taking a plane for the first time in your life, do NOT fall asleep while listening to Dead Voices On Air Versus Not Breathing - A Fire In The Bronx Zoo. Just a bit of advice there.

― kaliflwr (kaliflwr), Wednesday, 16 November 2005 17:05 (nineteen years ago)

The first time I listened to Endtroducing it was late at night and I was falling asleep by the end. When I heard the Twin Peaks sample of the Giant saying "It is happening again..." I had no idea it was on the cd and I couldn't figure out where it was coming from and couldn't sleep for the next couple hours.

― wmlynch (wlynch), Wednesday, 16 November 2005 19:29 (nineteen years ago)

Seriously frightening:
Throbbing Gristle - "Hamburger Lady" (hands down winner, this song will physically activate your fear center)
SPK - Leichenschrei, particularly the track with the glass breaking and woman screaming
Diamanda Galas - "Litanies of Satan" and "Deliver Me From Mine Enemies"
Swans - Public Castration Is A Good Idea
Psychic TV - "In The Nursery"
Residents - "Satisfaction"

Honorable Mentions:
Sonic Youth - "Protect Me You"
The Fall - "Smile"
Cat Power - "Water and Air"
Wiseblood - "0-0 (Where Evil Dwells)"
Butthole Surfers - many creepy moments on Rembrandt Pussyhorse, more than on Locust Abortion Technician methinks
Screamin' Jay Hawkins - "I Hear Voices"
Birthday Party - "Jessica's Veil", and the "Nick The Stripper" video is v. creepy
Einsturzende Neubauten - Drawings of Patient O.T.
Schoolly D - "Same White Bitch"
Executive Slacks - "The Bus"
Siouxsie Sioux - "Voodoo Dolly"

Is it me or were bands in the 80s a lot scarier than any other time? Was it the constant fear of nuclear holocaust?

― Edward III (edward iii), Wednesday, 16 November 2005 19:39 (nineteen years ago)

Leichenschrei
that's the one indeed.

― blunt (blunt), Wednesday, 16 November 2005 20:24 (nineteen years ago)

The first time I heard "Treetops" by Black Dice, I'd fallen asleep and it woke me up, and there was something terrifying about it.

― Momus (Momus), Wednesday, 16 November 2005 21:30 (nineteen years ago)

Led Zeppelin's "Black Dog," the first time I heard it. I was eleven.

― xero (xero), Wednesday, 16 November 2005 22:00 (nineteen years ago)

i don't think any music truly scares me, maybe unnerves is a better word...
certain moments of sun ra can be truly creepy, though i still really like it.
towards the end of white noise's "an electric storm" it gets great and freaky.
father yod's shit can get you pretty bent out of shape, but again i kind of like records that make me feel like the world is about to end or something. maybe that's the beauty of psychedelic music? the good stuff is truly scary? actually as a wee lad pink floyd (post-barrett) definitely used to bother me. the cheesy synths combined with waters' permanently bothered nature evoked like kiddie porn and kids being molested and justgeneral sleaziness in a bad way. i'll second whoever said it above that when you understand more about the dudes making the music the shit that freaked you asa kid is just kinda dumb now.

― jack dee, Wednesday, 16 November 2005 22:35 (nineteen years ago)

1. James Brown and the First Family, "Control (People Go Where We Send you)" - I can't help thinking of Jonestown mass suicide when I hear this

2. PG&E, "Are You Ready" - apocalypse soul freaks me out

3. Curtis Mayfield, "If There's a Hell Below, We're All Gonna Go" - ditto

4. Timmy Thomas, "Why Can't We Live Together" - something spooky about the hollowness of the recording

5. Isaac Hayes, "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" - nothing to do with him, but I once woke from a nightmare as this was on the radio and I can't separate the two (though I don't even remember the nightmare)

― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Thursday, 17 November 2005 04:18 (nineteen years ago)

Has someone already mentioned "Dead Flag Blues?" Because when you listen to it with the lights out, it is scary as all hell. The scariest music I know is "The Marble Index" by a large margin.

― owen moorhead (i heart daniel miller), Thursday, 17 November 2005 19:53 (nineteen years ago)

Y'know I was considering Dead Flag Blues for my list, but didn't have it handy to verify.

― Edward III (edward iii), Thursday, 17 November 2005 20:20 (nineteen years ago)

two months pass...

i can't believe no one mentioned tom waits "what's he building." i still wonder. what is he building? goddamn it, he's gotta tell us. we have a right to know. fucking freak.

― flannelmouthed, Thursday, 19 January 2006 02:44 (nineteen years ago)

He is building you.

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Thursday, 19 January 2006 02:50 (nineteen years ago)

Any version of "Somewhere Over The Rainbow/What A Wonderful Life" - especially that version by (I'm slaughtering his name) Israel Kamakawiwo'ole... It makes me think death is near, and I get chills up my spine. It is also my least favorite song....

― Tape Store (Tape Store), Thursday, 19 January 2006 03:28 (nineteen years ago)

revolution #9 used to terrify me...also, that ghosly moaning at the end of long, long, long. The whole second LP freaked me out, partially, I think, because I read about Manson so it was all tied up in murder in my fragile 11 year old mind

― kyle (akmonday), Thursday, 19 January 2006 03:34 (nineteen years ago)

three years pass...

I remember the first time I heard "Long, Long, Long" as a child and scarmpering out of the room with all speed.

― Alex in NYC, Monday, 26 October 2009 20:47 (fifteen years ago)

I hid Mr. Bungle's self-titled album in the back of my closet and it took me a year before I got up the nerve to take a second listen.

― alexfromnycderpoolera (kingkongvsgodzilla), Monday, 26 October 2009 20:54 (fifteen years ago)

china pig - tip toe through the hatching chamber

― 6335, Monday, 26 October 2009 21:18 (fifteen years ago)

wow, serious waves of nostalgia for china pig. part of our danbury krew. (xCTxHCx4xEVERx)

― scott seward, Monday, 26 October 2009 21:21 (fifteen years ago)

specials - the boiler

i seriously can't listen to it

― dryga, Monday, 26 October 2009 21:23 (fifteen years ago)

this is what craig from china pig is up to now:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=988tCKKKc_8

― scott seward, Monday, 26 October 2009 21:49 (fifteen years ago)

that's great, scott.

― ian, Monday, 26 October 2009 21:54 (fifteen years ago)

that's really neat. i don't know anything about china pig - a former bandmate gave the disc to me as a gift. last halloween, i played it really loud during trick'n'treating hours

― 6335, Monday, 26 October 2009 22:19 (fifteen years ago)

Once while on some sort of stimulant/hallucinogen I walked into a dark room in which my roommate had left Autechre playing. It was not great for my buzz.

― adamj, Tuesday, 27 October 2009 07:58 (fifteen years ago)

The two songs that still give me chills - Stay by Shakespeares Sister (the video freaked me out as a child and it never stopped I guess) and whatever the second track on Tilt by Scott Walker is.

― Samuel (a hoy hoy), Tuesday, 27 October 2009 08:03 (fifteen years ago)

For a fifth-birthday gift, my grandparents bought me Alice Cooper's "School's Out" (?!), the apocalyptic ending of which seriously freaked me out. I once had to beg my babysitter not to play it. Never played it willingly till I was 10, when I was under the mistaken impression that Alice was a member of Kiss.

Listening to Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring" on mild hallucinogens was quite unpleasant.

― Race Against Rockism (Myonga Vön Bontee), Tuesday, 27 October 2009 09:08 (fifteen years ago)

years ago, listening to a compilation tape made by a friend, hearing 'frankie teardrop' for the first time and being lulled to sleep by the opening throbs. the screams are a not-unterrifying alarm clock.

latterly, scott walker's 'the drift', khanate's 'things viral' and virtually everything racebannon has ever done.

― m the g, Tuesday, 27 October 2009 09:13 (fifteen years ago)

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