Johannes Schult

Here are my impressions from the second round of SpinTunes #10 (listen here!) – written and presented in the order in which I listened to the entries. This time around, my ratings reflect my personal taste (Do I like the song?) more than the successful induction of horror (Is it scary?). Why? Well, the first song I heard made me adopt this rule.

Dr. Lindyke – Happy Anniversary My Darling (shadow): Wonderful mood. Maybe a bit too much sadness, not enough horror. Of course, knowing that the song can be considered to be based on a true story, it is rather scary. The vocals become a bit too operatic as the dynamics rise. A little bit. Lots of bits here. Mh. I like the piano, I like the vocals. The “twist” at the end is rather disgusting than horrific. (Or should I have more empathy with the deceased?) Oh, screw the “low ratings for songs that don’t meet the challenge head on” attitude: 7/10

Dr. Lindyke – Howl in the Family: Mh, the happy country mood is not horrific at all. To be honest, I like both – Country and Western. So I really enjoy this song. But does it explore the horror genre musically? Thankfully, it’s a shadow, so I just refrain from rating it while I bop along. -/10

Kolton H. – Insanity’s Requiem: I’m not much of a techno fan. (Or whatever else this style should be called). I know I should elaborate how this song makes me feel. The problem is that there’s a void in my emotional core when I listen to this. The production is solid and the lyrics seem creepy. It’s me, not you. 2/10

Pete Murphy: Mellotron sounds in the background? The lyrics are rather sick. The slow built and the lush instrumentation prevent them from becoming too creepy. I really like the production of this one. The song could have been shorter as the lyrics don’t really go anywhere after the first third. I want to have a Mellotron! Mh, I really should look for some nice samples, at least. 4/10

Charlie McCarron – Knock at Your Door: Nick Cave? Tom Waits after rehab? Is this horrific? It’s a bit irritating. The lyrics could stand out a bit more. Listening to this, I feel uneasy. So bonus points for this. 4/10

Ross Durand – Lullaby?: Rock! Rock! Rock! Travis shouldn’t have mentioned Rob Zombie, I guess. I didn’t think Ross could rock like this. The song reaches a good conclusion around 1:11. Stupid 2 minute minimum rule. Dr. Lindyke wrote in their song bio that horror lyrics should be subtle. Ross isn’t subtle. I like Ross’s song. He should sell it to Alice Cooper. 6/10

The Masked Stranger – Oh So  Under Zyvytehliahtysrecht: This is madness! Nice grind core touch. No subtlety here, either. I can’t make out the lyrics; I have no clear memory of what they were about. Who cares? Evil voice at the very end, ha! 2/10

Dreiviertel Drei – Schnipp Schnapp: Finally, some music that is clearly in the tradition of horror movie soundtracks. The (male) vocals seem a bit childish. Which is good for the song. I’m just glad I didn’t follow my own “Schnipp Schnapp” idea. Overall, the song might be too quiet. An “Ouch” every now and then could have spiced things up. Do I like the song? No, it’s way too scary. So how the hell do I rate it given it’s the most spot on realization of the challenge? 5/10

Jurek Mika – Scream Funk (Screaming): This sounds horrific – and not in a horror challenge-meeting way. Sorry. The brutality I make out is appalling. The challenge was met, but I still give 1/10

James Young – She’s a Monster: Ah, the challenge was to write a smooth, relaxed song for the dance floor. No, wait. This turns into a rock song. Pop rock. Midnight Oil? Anyhow, this is groovy and laid back. The lyrics play around with love/hate feelings – they could as well be about your typical AOR topics. The music is nice. My rating isn’t (despite the good production). 3/10

Ben and the Angel Fish – Slaughterhouse of Mercy: Weird title. Weird intro. The lyrics are dark. Darkness is difficult if you’re not the Sisters of Mercy (see what I did here?). The music remains slow; it could have been a bit more engaging, I guess. No, I don’t exactly know what I mean by that. The harmonies are great for this challenge. As several previous entries, it’s difficult to discern the individual parts. Is there a refrain? Is there a climax? Is there a twist? I don’t know. 4/10

David J –  Sleep Child Sleep: Time for an autobiographical note: I’m very good at falling asleep. So this flood of lullabies sounds a bit pointless to me. It feels a bit as if you’re playing it safe. Which is okay. I’d rather have this than a song called “Oh So  Under Zyvytehliahtysrecht”. There is some kind of outburst in the middle of this song, but for the most part it doesn’t stand out (just like the previous song). 3/10

Edric Haleen – Sweet Dreams (2): What, no song about math test anxiety? I’m disappointed. Just kidding. Several people had remarked that the challenge was similar to the nightmare challenge from SpinTunes #4. Writing a sequel seems like a natural choice. The song turned out way too quiet, though. The non-piano instruments could have used more space to enhance the atmosphere, I guess. I’m thinking of chromatic lines and sudden outbursts here. I add a point because I’d certainly be more open to the approach if I hadn’t already heard several similar songs in this round. 4/10

Gorbzilla and the Gorbzookies – Tea Party: Finally, a song that deviates from the lullaby theme. I wish the lyrics wouldn’t be so buried in the distortion. Fortunately, I’ve read them beforehand. And now I feel the horror. Musically, this entry leave to be desired. And it could have been shorter. Still, I very much applaud the approach! 4/10

Atom & EV: The Demon Rig: The guitar needs more twang! I wish the playing was tighter. The narrative in the verses is wonderful. The melody line in the chorus is, mh, not so good. I can relate to suboptimal vocal talents. I can recommend triple-tracking the vocals – one voice in the middle along with one (slightly quieter) track on the left and one on the right. The story is scary enough and it doesn’t turn me off. Good! 5/10

Jailhouse Payback – The Doomed Guitar: More Country & Western? That’s fine with me – but again I get the feeling that it doesn’t really meet the challenge. The chords sound sad rather than creepy; the lyrics tend to support this notion. If I were a judge I’d give a lower rating but I enjoy listening to this one, so it’s 5/10.

Governing Dynamics – To the Honorable Charles W. Yancy, From Your Admirers: I want a SpinTunes edition with solely sad, melancholic, introverted indie rock songs. And I want Travis to win that competition. Meanwhile, here is an overlong song about I don’t know what. It breaks my heart to not find this more than okay-ish. 3/10

The Boffo Yux Dudes – Uninvited Guest: The voices in Tom’s head caught on tape? Weird? Yes. Scary? Sort of. Hilarious? Possibly. Once again, I feel uneasy. Bonus points for that. 3/10

Domingo – 4 Madrigals for Lilith: I had liked the lyrics when I read them online earlier. The choir approach sounds impressive. Making it four parts is a good way to avoid too much repetition. One note around 1:58 seems off key and the following transition takes away some of the atmosphere. Still, it’s a tense composition and each part is different enough to keep me on the edge of my seat. Good work! 7/10

Army Defense – Asylum Nights: Another choir song? No, more pop rock. The production sounds good; the drums have a 70s vibe. Good vocals. Not a lot of horror here. Sure, the lyrics are not happy-go-lucky. Still, from a challenge point of view there is not much here. Nevertheless, I enjoy listening to the track. Here’s 6/10

“BucketHat” Bobby – Back from Hell: Hell’s a place where the singers are French, right? The music has a sad touch whereas the vocals bring some insanity to the song. It’s more a song than a horror movie soundtrack. So it could have been way more horrific. Still, one of the better songs this round in my opinion. 5/10

Megalodon – Daddy Daughter Day: Horror jazz? Well, I’ve heard worse jazz tunes. Ah, metal intermission with mad lyrics that totally destroy the song. I’m glad the song returns to the light jazz. The child’s vocals are irritating in this context. More metal. I better turn down the volume. Now the guitars play lullaby melodies. What an irritating track. This should rank high on most challenge criteria, although I don’t think it’s a “good” song. 2/10

Emperor Gum – Express: The background track is wonderfully creepy. The artifical hihat is slightly annoying. I know, I’m complaining a lot – earlier I said some songs were too quiet. Now I wish the initial mood would prevail. Instead, it’s time to rock. The melodies are weird. This might be good for the challenge. However, I find it hard to focus after the intro. Mayhem. Chaos. Almost done. Mh. 2/10 (which just shows that this is certainly not a unidimensional measurement, because this song is totally different from Megalodon’s, which got the same rating.)

Adam Sakellarides – For Sale: Lyrically, a traditional haunted house story. Sadly, the character of the ghost remains vague. The music is hesitant and not really creepy. Otherwise I might haven given more than 2/10

Zoe Gray – Grave: Yet another quiet song. A solid entry that could have been shorter, I guess. The sparse instrumentation makes it easier to digest, but it lacks some horror elements. 4/10
(The rat says: One of the better ones. Not that it is creepy. I don’t feel afraid. Anyway, nice melody, nice voice.)

Omnious Ride – White Rose (shadow): Interesting intro. Could be part of a creepy musical. The drums at 1:30 temporarily destroy some of the atmosphere. A few other parts could be shortened, as well. I think. The vocals need to make the story clearer. Make some central words/phrases stand out. Repeat them if necessary. 5/10

Melissa Leona –  Come With Me: The horror of having a rehearsal space with thin walls. The singer is trying to sing some nice melodies but noises intrude from all around. And then she can’t get the reverb out of the PA. What do you mean, this interpretation wasn’t intended? Well, I like it, thus: 4/10

Caleb Hines – Buried Alive (shadow): Ah, finally, some true horror music. Excellent choice of instruments. Spooky harmonies. Caleb manages to weave various creepy melodies into a tense atmosphere. No rock drums interrupt the flow. Instead, the pace quickens around 1:30 only to return to the initial state of suspense. And that return isn’t a discernible switch but a steady progression towards the core of my fears. Good albeit haunting work. 10/10

The funniest* online thing of the last 12 months has certainly been The Onion‘s Film Standard featuring Peter K. Rosenthal. Here are four brilliant movie reviews to get you started:

1. The Onion Reviews ‘The Hunger Games: Catching Fire’
2. The Onion Reviews ‘The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug‘
3. The Onion Reviews ‘Dawn of the Planet of the Apes’
4. The Onion Reviews ‘Gravity’

* Funny as in I fell from my chair due to laughter-induced stomach cramps.

Apparently, the amount of ratings on GoodReads.com is highly correlated with the ratings, at least for John Green’s four novels (r = .96). But is it really ‘the more, the merrier’? I picked four more authors (in a non-random fashion), had a look at the respective correlations for their novels, and made a couple of graphs to illustrate the results.

Novels by John Green, Maureen Johnson, J.K. Rowling, and Stephanie Meyer

The relationship is a negative one for Stephanie Meyer’s books. Two books of J.K. Rowling are outliers – her first one in terms of ratings on GoodReads, her most recent one in terms of rating. I therefore took the liberty to plot a quadratic fit (instead of a linear fit). It appears that John Green might be an exception (like the Mongols?) Also, Amazon.com ratings tend to be higher; and again, there is no clear relationship between the amount of reviews and the average rating.

And since I recently finished reading “On Chesil Beach”, here’s the data for Ian McEwan’s novels, along with a more appropriately scaled plot for Maureen Johnson’s books:

Novels by Maureen Johnson and Ian McEwan

By the way, the correlation between Amazon.com ratings and GoodReads.com ratings for the 40 books I used above is r = .89. The correlation between number of Amazon.com reviews and Goodreads.com ratings is r = .75.

PS: If anyone is interested in the Stata code for the graphs, let me know. I guess, I’ll add it here this weekend, anyway, but right now I should go to bed.