Strange Musical Tales: The September 2023 Vinyl Spin Challenge Thread

Day 15 - THE MUSIC OF ERICH ZANN (Lovecraft, 1921)
An old mute cellist named Erich Zann plays strange music at night to keep unknown creatures from entering his apartment building.
Play something that features a cello, a violin, a fiddle and/or a string section and/or you would consider as being “strange” music.

The Lovecraft Sextet - Miserere

Featuring the Cello, plus great band name!

Full disclosure, I streamed these three while driving to Atlanta and back today, which is why my pictures are just of the covers. But I do own all three on vinyl or CD.

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ay 15 - THE MUSIC OF ERICH ZANN (Lovecraft, 1921)
An old mute cellist named Erich Zann plays strange music at night to keep unknown creatures from entering his apartment building.
Play something that features a cello, a violin, a fiddle and/or a string section and/or you would consider as being “strange” music.

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No strings, just strange
 
Day 17 - THE HAUNTER IN THE DARK (Lovecraft, 1936)
Play something that in any way features a trapezoid, pyramid, triangle and/or a prism and/or is related to Egypt in any way and/or cults.

"Insane In The Brain" - Blank Sunday (1993) - Cypress Hill


The boneyard on the album cover looks a lot like a pyramid or triangle. More importantly, Lovecraftian cultists are pretty much all "insane in the brain".

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Day 16 - ALIEN (Ridley Scott, 1979)
Alien oozes with cosmic horror influence. From the discovery of the ruined alien ship being a trope out of At The Mountains Of Madness to H.R. Giger’s designs owing a clear debt to Lovecraft, Alien is basically a modern ode to cosmic horror.
Play something about space and/or features grotesque designs and/or monsters and/or aliens.

Lets keep the ELO going with Star Lord & company fighting a space monster.

Various Artists ~ Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

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Day 17 - THE HAUNTER IN THE DARK (Lovecraft, 1936)
Story features a relic found in Egyptian ruins, the Shining Trapezohedron, which is in the possession of a cult, and which can summon a terrible being originating from the depths of time and space.
Play something that in any way features a trapezoid, pyramid, triangle and/or a prism and/or is related to Egypt in any way and/or cults.

Besides the artwork, we just passed the 45th anniversary of the Grateful Dead playing at the pyramids in Egypt (Sept 15th/16th '78)

Jerry Garcia Band ~ Cats Under The Stars

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Day 17 - THE HAUNTER IN THE DARK (Lovecraft, 1936)
Story features a relic found in Egyptian ruins, the Shining Trapezohedron, which is in the possession of a cult, and which can summon a terrible being originating from the depths of time and space.
Play something that in any way features a trapezoid, pyramid, triangle and/or a prism and/or is related to Egypt in any way and/or cults.

The Cult "Love"
(1985 Vertigo Canada)
Seems like a good opportunity to spin this again. The songs are each represented by a symbol done in the style of an Egyptian glyph. Plus it's the Cult.

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Day 16 - ALIEN (Ridley Scott, 1979)
Alien oozes with cosmic horror influence. From the discovery of the ruined alien ship being a trope out of At The Mountains Of Madness to H.R. Giger’s designs owing a clear debt to Lovecraft, Alien is basically a modern ode to cosmic horror.
Play something about space and/or features grotesque designs and/or monsters and/or aliens.

Super Furry Animals - Rings Around the World


If you want to see rings around the world, space would be a good place to do it. The cover is kind of goofy and kind of grotesque in that SFA way.

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Day 17 - THE HAUNTER IN THE DARK (Lovecraft, 1936)
Story features a relic found in Egyptian ruins, the Shining Trapezohedron, which is in the possession of a cult, and which can summon a terrible being originating from the depths of time and space.
Play something that in any way features a trapezoid, pyramid, triangle and/or a prism and/or is related to Egypt in any way and/or cults.

Boards of Canada - Geogaddi


While I'm mainly picking this for the samples from cults both real and fictional, the kaleidoscopic cover adds to the spooky prismatic vibe. (Plus we can pretend the triangles on the back cover are pyramids.)

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Day 18 - UZUMAKI (THE SPIRAL) (Junji Ito, 1998)
Play something that features spirals and/or is related to Japan and/or comes from Japan.

"Heavy Rotation" - Basic Instinct (2010) - Ciara


Getting spirals AND Japan on a single disc proved difficult, but I did it... sort of. "Heavy Rotation" conjures images of spiral movement. However, for good measure I added one of my son's SPIROGRAPHS and a SPIRALIZER kitchen tool into my photo 😵‍💫.

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Day 17 - THE HAUNTER IN THE DARK (Lovecraft, 1936)
Story features a relic found in Egyptian ruins, the Shining Trapezohedron, which is in the possession of a cult, and which can summon a terrible being originating from the depths of time and space.
Play something that in any way features a trapezoid, pyramid, triangle and/or a prism and/or is related to Egypt in any way and/or cults.

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Day 18 - UZUMAKI (THE SPIRAL) (Junji Ito, 1998)
Unsettling manga set in a small Japanese village that centers around the strange effects of spirals on the town folks.
Play something that features spirals and/or is related to Japan and/or comes from Japan.


Ponyo is set in a small Japanese village, but is a very settling movie with some amazing hand drawn animation. Much of the focus is on the balance between land and sea life. And sea life is known to form spirals (and have tentacles).

Edited to add: Oh yeah. And Ponyo Likes Ham. Probably Spiral Cut.

Joe Hisaishi ~ Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea

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Day 16 - ALIEN (Ridley Scott, 1979)
Alien oozes with cosmic horror influence. From the discovery of the ruined alien ship being a trope out of At The Mountains Of Madness to H.R. Giger’s designs owing a clear debt to Lovecraft, Alien is basically a modern ode to cosmic horror.
Play something about space and/or features grotesque designs and/or monsters and/or aliens.

We can go look for aliens while we crank this space rock/metal from the Black Space Riders!

Amoretum, Vol 1
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Day 18 - UZUMAKI (THE SPIRAL) (Junji Ito, 1998)
Unsettling manga set in a small Japanese village that centers around the strange effects of spirals on the town folks.
Play something that features spirals and/or is related to Japan and/or comes from Japan.

Kinoko Teikoku - Uzuninaru


Japanese shoegaze/indie with an album title that the internet tells me means "become a whirlpool." Whirlpools are fairly spiralesque.

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Day 16 - ALIEN (Ridley Scott, 1979)
Alien oozes with cosmic horror influence. From the discovery of the ruined alien ship being a trope out of At The Mountains Of Madness to H.R. Giger’s designs owing a clear debt to Lovecraft, Alien is basically a modern ode to cosmic horror.
Play something about space and/or features grotesque designs and/or monsters and/or aliens.

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Day 14 - THE EVIL DEAD (Sam Raimi, 1981)

Geoff Berner – Canadiana Grotesquica
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Geoff Berner is an absolute master of darkly comic - it makes his my favourite of any artist mailing list to which I've subscribed through the years. In the case of this album "Super Subtle Folk Song" provides a great dose of darkly comic, but his most truly brilliant darkly comic song is the non-album cut he wrote to be the official theme of the 2010 Olympics:



Of course, he hasn't played that one much since the Olympics came and went, but hot damn was it an experience in the years leading up to the spectacle. There was nothing quite like being in a room full of people where some were singing along boisterously and others looked absolutely thoroughly disturbed. :ROFLMAO:

 
Day 18 - UZUMAKI (THE SPIRAL) (Junji Ito, 1998)
Unsettling manga set in a small Japanese village that centers around the strange effects of spirals on the town folks.
Play something that features spirals and/or is related to Japan and/or comes from Japan.

Going with a double-play today.

Harvey Sutherland "Boy"
(2022 Clarity Recordings, Japanese pressing)
First off the Japanese pressing of this fun electronic space funk album that reminds me of Todd Terje's It's Album Time. Especially love the collaboration with Dam-Funk.

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Darkside "Spiral" (2021 Matador, club edition)
Sticking with electronic music to hit the spiral prompt. As an added bonus, all record grooves are spirals.

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