Ak'Chamel, Live In Cleveland 10-25-26

Last night I got the chance to go see a show so unique and fascinating that I literally haven't stopped thinking about it since. A performance that incorporated incredible organic (and somewhat horrific) costuming, hypnotic tribal music featuring unique global instruments (with elements of African, Eastern, and Louisiana Bayou influences), and a quaint venue that was once a former church, allowing the audience to experience the layered richness of the trio's full sound.

Image courtesy of It's Psychedelic Baby! Magazine.

From Discogs:
Ak’chamel has built a solid reputation as a compelling stage project. Wearing nightmarish costumes and engaging in hallucinatory “rituals”, their singular sound comprising desert-scorched psychedelia, post-apocalyptic shamanism, and lo-fi ritual-folk is as unique as the physical theater of their live performances.

And this description sums up the evening perfectly. A hard jump from the usual punk and metal shows that I still venture out to, Ak'Chamel, The Giver Of Illness's "performance art" showcased their rich visual imagery as well as their incredible musicianship. I was a bit hesitant to go to this show solo, but I'm SO glad I did. I had never been to Cleveland Uncommon Sound Project before, but the former church turned performance art center and gallery was the perfect venue to see this.

A quick clip from the show:

And a more encompassing representation of Ak'Chamel's sound and imagery can be seen in their live KEXP performance from July. Definitely a new artist to hear (and see) and add to the seasonal Halloween playlists.

Enjoy!

49 Years Ago Today...

The horror movie that started it all. The original slasher. The timeless classic. John Carpenter's Halloween premiered on this day 49 years ago. (I can't wait for next year's inevitable 50th anniversary hoopla!)

Happy anniversary, Michael!

The Misfits - "Halloween"

Just one more week until...

"How To Haunt A House" Cassette

Welcome to another weekly installment of Freebie Fridays where I share another nugget from my ever-expanding Halloween "spooky sounds" collection!

I originally picked up this cassette on a whim, based solely on the creepy font and standard Halloween orange cassette color. With these two boxes checked, I knew I was in for another stellar Halloween release.

And when I pulled this cassette out earlier this year, deciding to add it to this October's Freebie Friday offerings, I wanted a little bit more info on it. So off I went to scour the internet for more information. And what info I found!!

It turns out that this cassette was part of a pack from 1995 entitled House Haunting Kit, by Dan Witkowski. And in this incredibly cool fold-out kit came an instruction book, this cassette, a packet of cotton spider webs, AND a small tube of theatrical blood! A full intro on how to become a home haunter in one convenient package!

I ended up finding a full kit on Etsy and quickly put my money down. Aaaaaand unfortunately a full month later still no package. I've had conversations with the seller and promises to get it out, but as of right now nothing. So I'm going to borrow their photos in the meantime. No setback is too big!

I was able to go back and record the original cassette and what a release it is! Nothing earthshaking it its content, but it has all the continuous howls, groans, shrieks, wind, cackles, roars, heartbeats, crashes, organ, and screams to make a really great "spooky sounds" release! Roughly 15 minutes of continuous sounds, and different sounds on each side.

Overall, this cassette is a lot of fun. It really nails that old nostalgic "spooky sounds" feel, and has a pretty high production quality that makes this a really good one to add to your collection. Enjoy!

(And if the book package EVER arrives, I will add a post for it, too!)

DOWNLOAD "HOW TO HAUNT A HOUSE" HERE.

Metatron Omega - "Ecclesia Universalis"

Here's one from all the way back in 2017, but Serbian artist Metatron Omega's beautifully haunting Ecclesia Universalis still holds up as a ritual dark ambient Halloween classic. A truly perfect dark atmospheric track for a cold autumn night.

Enjoy...

The Highbury Cross Tombstone Prop

With less than two weeks to go, I was able to quickly knock this cool little tombstone prop out!

I saw the original 20" foam tombstone two-pack at Lowe's, specifically eyeing the cross tombstone. As I sat and thought about what to do with it, I realized that it was pretty uniform and getting a second stone and gluing them together would give it the thickness and realism that I'm always putting into my cemetery display. So I grabbed a second two-pack and made my way home to get to work on it.

The other stone in the pack was a cool carved woman figure. I'm not sure what to do with them just yet, so they are going into storage in the basement for now...

So the first thing I did was glue the two cross tombstones together back-to-back, and luckily they lined up pretty closely. I then quickly spackled out the seam all the way around, as I wanted this to look like one stone. And after a quick sanding the stone was ready for the next step.

I then took a separate piece of foam and quickly made a simple epitaph, printed it out, attached it to the foam, and then carved it with a Dremel. The finished plaque was then glued to the front of the stone, and once dried was ready for paint.

I gave it my standard three-color paint job: first, a full coverage of dark purple-black (just a color of paint I happen to have on hand), followed by an overall dry brush wash of white (leaving all the recessed areas black and giving the stone a natural, aged grey look), and then finishing with a sparse, dripping patchwork of green to give it an organic, weathered, mossy feel.

The final step was drilling two holes into the bottom and inserting two pieces of old pex-pipe PVC that I had on hand. These pieces act like sleeves that will slide over dowel rods inserted into the ground, holding the tombstone in place.

And before calling it done, I decided to add a coating of dense spider webbing to really give it an aged look. I have been having success with the new Web Caster Gun spider webs on my earlier props this year, so I added another coating of the hot glue webs to this stone. And again, I was really happy with the results.

A completed tombstone in about two days, and the short size of it will fit nicely among the other larger stones, breaking up the uniformity of tombstone sizes across the display.