Various Artists - Music To Scare Your Neighbours [Righteous Records/ Cherry Red - 2019]Music To Scare Your Neighbours is the fourth in the series of compilations culled from the basement grates of Lux & Lvy of The Cramps. The two-CD release brings together in all fifty tracks, and most/ many of these are obscure 45’s from the 1950s and 1960s, and as with all this series the comp is themed- and this time fittingly for the time of year and all its horror & Halloween themed. As with the other releases in the series this appears on Righteous Records, which is part of the Cherry Red family. The two CD’s are presented in a slim double jewel case- and we get an eight-page inlay booklet, this takes in a four-page write up about the comp from Mojo magazines Dave Henderson, as track listing featuring original release dates & a few reproduced 45 labels. The first disc takes in twenty-six tracks, with a total disc runtime of sixty-three minutes. And as we’ve come to expect from this series we get a nice mixture of novelty songs, down ‘n’ dirty rock ‘n’ roll, swinging big band and surf /garage rock. On this first disc, a few of my highlights come in the form of Archie Bleyer' s "The Rocking Ghost"- which starts of low key & eerier with a jiving creeping organ, whistling & smooth male swing vocals- as we move on we get sudden bombastic rolls of dramatic orchestration. Bobby Please’s “The Monster” is all janting rocking piano, sassy sax, and comedy/ rock ‘n’ roll male vocals. Bob and Jerry's “Ghost Satelite” is an instrumental track which brings together a creepy bass line, zing guitar & spacy electro effects, with later chugging & ringing surf guitar. Nervous Norvus "The Fang" is focused on jiving talking male vocal storytelling over a backing barren strum guitar & a selection of space effects. John Zacherie "Igor" is all swinging & darting guitars & sax, with almost stream of consciousness male vocals on top- going from talking about a girl who dyed her hair green with the juice from her spleen, and a cats nine lives running out. All in a nice & varied selection of tracks on this first disc. Disc two takes in twenty-four tracks and has a total runtime of sixty-one minutes. And personal highlights come in the form of the disc opener "She's My Witch" by Kip Tyler- this is strung out & doomed R ‘n’ R, with brooding bass, tinkling keys, and nicely dark noir-like sax work. The playful "The Mummy" by Bob Mcfadden & Dor, with its toy-town grooving guitar, and comic vocals & Chessy walking sound effects. "Voodoo Doll" by The Interiors is nicely bright-yet rough & ready short of Doo-wop. The sassy grooving light jazz with spoken word intro, and werewolf/ creepy sound effects of "The Spook" by The Tomko’s. The quirky barbershop meets the clip-clop percussion of "Mr. Ghosts Goes To Town" by The Five Jones Boys. Once again another varied and mostly consistent disc- though maybe not as great as the first disc. Oh and also you get a few more known tracks like the theme from the original Blob, and Screaming J Hawkins "I put a spell on you", which do rather stand out among the mainly lesser-known flow of the comp. So in finishing Music To Scare Your Neighbours is another worthy chapter in this series of compilations- as I say the first disc offers up the most ghoulish & campy sonic treats, though there are some great moments on disc two too. And of course, this is great for either Halloween night soundtrack, or pre cheesy horror flick listening. Roger Batty
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