JD Twitch (Optimo)'s10 HAlloween Tracks

Music

Ahead of their all-night session at Random Magic this weekend we asked JD Twitch of the most excellent institution that is Optimo to talk us through 10 Halloween – Glasgow-style – anthems.
You may or may not hear one or all of these on Saturday but in Twitch’s words “in all honesty I think if we played a full-on Halloween set in London it would fall flat on its arse.” So you best make the most of the below on these pages. Here’s hoping for Saturday tho. (smiley face as they say).

“The best Halloween records aren’t necessarily obscurities that nobody else owns, in any way “cool” or even necessarily Halloween specific. All the below are seasoned Optimo Halloween anthems in Glasgow”

1) Ministry – Everyday Is Halloween

The band who gave me my dj moniker with perhaps my favourite Halloween related record. This year will be our 16th Optimo “Espookio” Halloween party in Glasgow and i have played this at every single one of them.

2) Tuxedomoon – No Tears (Creatures Of The Night)

For some reason people in Glasgow go particularly crazy for Halloween; usually 99% of people who come to our party dress up. I love Halloween because it is the one night of the year when records I love that would normally clear the dancefloor are the biggest records of the night. This anthem for creatures of the night is not specifically a Halloween song but is still perfect for the occasion .

3) Black Widow – Come To The Sabbat

Halloween is also the time for ridiculous records and while I’m sure this lot were deadly serious at the time, there is something almost high camp about this song now, so much so that I had to chop out some of the “hey nonny nonny” bits before I’d play it.

4) Jocelyn Pook – Masked Ball

From the ritual scene in Stanley Kubrick’s much underrated Eyes Wide Shut, this is perfect for the start of a Halloween party and sets just the right foreboding atmosphere.

5) Current 93 – Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus

Into the realms of the genuinely scary here and a vague worry that playing it may conjure up demons and hounds of hell.

6) The Cramps – I Was A Teenage Werewolf

It’s probably possible to do a whole Halloween party only playing Cramps songs. So many to choose from by the masters of horror schlock.

7) Donovan – Season of the Witch

Glasgow’s own Donovan with a sing a long classic.

8) The Mover – Nightflight (Nonstop to Kaos)

Dark, dark techno from the master of the genre, Marc Acardipane.

9) The Frantics – Werewolf

There are literally hundreds of 50s Rock N’ Roll and 60s garage rock Halloween tracks. This one is a perennial favourite and every time I play it I can’t help think how much fun they must have had in the studio making it.

10) Bauhaus – Bela Lugosi’s Dead

I think we need one more seminal Halloween record to finish. it was a toss up between this and “Halloween” by The Misfits but Bela won. It really doesn’t get any better than this which is usually the ignition point of our Halloween parties when the dancefloor really comes to life (or death!).