5 Dark Vibe CDs: Perfect Reading Companions

One of my many pleasures involves finding and listening to dark harmony music. Mostly in the electronic/electronica vein, these five recordings add atmosphere and depth to any readers looking to ratch up the fear factor:

1.  Tim Hecker: Radio Amour. A delirious mixture of environmental recordings, micro-transmissions, instrumental snippets and tintinabular etchings, Radio Amour offers a wistful, contemplative experience. This is ambient music with a gentle pulse, demanding more than just background attention. Recommended for: fantasy stories.
2. Dark Matter: Multiverse 2004-2009. Comprised of Bristol's dark beat alchemists in dubstep, breakbeats, intelligent techno and other mutations, Dark Matter shreads your incus, burrowing into your head with nervy electrics and off-kilter rhymes. Recommended for: any zombie apocalypse story.
3. Bucolic: Dzyan Blood. A personal favourite of mine, this is one of the most accomplished recordings form the sadly defunct BSI Records. In every sense of the term, Dzyan Blood is spot-on Gothic Dub. A echo chamber of a 1,000 mirrors, Bucolic drops dusty, almost industrial vibes with a ear for impending doomy drama. Recommended for: classic/vintage horror with vampires, revenants, ghosts, ectoplasm, necromancers and witch doctors.
4. Prince Charming: Fantastic Voyage. Part of the so-called 'illbient/downtempo' school, Prince Charming offers a cosmic narrative, complete with doom dub instrumentals, mutant cha-cha, hyper spoken word jams, creepy fake jazz and other transgressions. Recommended for: weird  superhero stories, end-of-world and biogenetic sci-fi.
5. Push Button Objects: Dirty Dozen. A totally absorbing mixture of hip-hop rythmns and frosty synths, Dirty Dozen fills your ear with tantalizing hooks, spooky keyboards and gentle dirges. Perhaps not strong from start-to-finish, this one defintely fits into any Halloween bash or as a soundtrack for lonely Goths. Recommended for: existential hobos looking for a reprieve; sci-fi involving identity switching, time travel and parallel dimensions.

And remember, Keep on Creeping on!