Audio Vulture - Wind Up Horror Stories

Audio Vulture

Wind Up Horror Stories
Meridian House Recordings; 2015

3.8 out of 5

By Mike Przygoda

Wind Up Horror Stories by Audio Vulture is a slightly humorous/slightly disturbing trippy listen that is clever, funny and campy, but can still be quite dark.

“My Black Widows Eye” is the best song on the album built around a catchy but scary guitar riff, some distant horn-like tones and tape hiss that doubles as cracking fire throughout the middle.  Combined with some trippy filters on the hi-hat that gives some strange blips and suspensions in time adding to the soundscape trippiness. “I Love It When You Lie” has a distorted vocal that stirs in the grit with the buzzy guitars whose ostinato pattern forms the basis for the song. There is almost a dance-like quality to the song in the synths, drum pattern and overall vibe. It’s catchy and subversive. 

“Payday For Allison Rose” begins with a carnival barker announcing the various acts before an analog-sounding synth and a compressed drum track pull everything down the rabbit hole. The Beck vocal-inflection continues on this track though with a slightly Lou Reed-ish monotone apathy. Muted trumpet sneaks in the background as do various filters on the synth swirling around the location back and forth from the aforementioned carnival.“

“Replace Me With A Skeleton Key” plays with some tape loops of what could be some mad ramblings in a Steve Reich “It’s Gonna Rain” spirit (though with slightly more danger) that are sped up occasionally before the garage-pop fuzz starts. “Mr. Convalescent” derives some of its edge from an amped acoustic guitar and some gnarled synths. The melody and lyrics though are McCartney-esque (if going through the mind of Nick Cave that is). The contrast is intriguing and clever. “Tourist Trap” is based around what could be a baseball organist from hell playing through an 8-bit video game. It’s funny, clever and catchy, with the half-step modulation adding tension throughout.

Some of the songs could use a bit more time in the oven. “Paper Ghost” starts with a Tom Waits squonk-a-thon before moving into Beck-like vocal inflections. The offbeat guitar chunks add an Eastern European flavor to it, though there are a few cymbal hits that are missing and lose the groove slightly. “Red Low Rival” is an epilogue musically to “Paper Ghosts” in the same key and feel, but with more tape hiss added. As the song builds however, there is an interesting ascending line that gives a more sinister feel to the track.

“Moth Ball Flowers” has some fantastic vibraphone hits throughout that along with acoustic bass (or cello) tones drive the riff and give the song a film noir quality via David Lynch.  Some of the drum tracks, however, don’t quite line up with each other, the flams taking some of the drive away from what otherwise is a great mysterious poem. “The Black Cat” has an interesting synth patch and lyrics, but is a bit repetitive in the chord structure and beat, never quite taking off.

The album closes with “The Deadly Organ” and plays into the double entendre of the title with a short monologue not alluding to the instrument that follows (and reflects the title). The chorus is very catchy and propelled nicely by the filtered tambourine that whooshes by as it subdivides.

There is lots of tape hiss throughout the album, which can be distracting at times, but overall plays into the voyeur aspect of the experience of listening to the album, and thus is quite effective in giving a danger to the overall listening experience.

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