I am sure this has been brought up before. At least in the broad sense of what music do you play.

This I want to be a little more specific though, what do you guys think is suitable thematically? Wether it be thematic to Arkham itself, or the Ancient Ones?

For example I would imagine that Nyarlathotep games would do well to have some Egyptian style music.

I think it would be best to try and keep it orchestral. I don't think Britney Spears - Toxic is going to count as Thematic to Cthulhu for example.

Do you guys have any suggestions? Any you use? It'd be awesome to hear what people think

Britney Spears' "Toxic" fits any situation and any theme!

I got two of the discs from here:

www.aklo.net/

And then also picked fitting tracks off of a bunch of Silent Hill and Resident Evil soundtracks.

Normalize, randomize, 5-second crossfade.

Unfortunately as far as I can make out they don't ship to the UK

Sol Invictus-Lex Talionis(dark industrial fok from the 80s)

Candlemass-Epicus Doomicus Metallicus(doom/heavy metal from the '86)

Some Metallica is nice-like the Lovecraft-inspired tune The Thing that Should Not be.

The Protagonist-Songs of Experience(brooding dark ambient soundtracks)

Shub Niggurath-Les Moerts Von Vite(jazzy operatic zeuhl/RIO music with call/response chanting and dark ambience)

http://www.darkambientradio.de

say (search) no more.

For Nyarlathotep I use foreign language music (usually prayer related) in Latin, Hebrew (not so much since I can understand a decent amount of it), and Arabic.

For Hastur I like organ music (search for Bach stuff). Certain sinister sounding opera tracks work for him as well (it would seem out of place for other AOs, but not for the King in Yellow). I'd probably aim for a language you can't understand there as well if you're going to use something with lyrics.

I think a number of the tracks here are useful.

http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Case_Studies/Nine_Inch_Nails_Ghosts_I-IV

Nox Arcana has a whole album inspired by HPL called Necronomicon. Youtube it or search online. I think their website is www.noxarcana.com. They are mainly insumental but have some chants on a few tracks.

I'm a fan of Darkest of the Hillside Thickets for anything Cthulhu based (since all their stuff is Cthulhu based)

My Dying Bride to convey Lovecrafts genneral attiute toward hoplessnes

And Death Metal is good for any occasion, its even been proven to grow plants better then any other type of music

Especially good old-school death metal from the 90s'(;

You said it brother

zealot12 said:

::shock:: I generally suggest listening to Endvra "The dark is light enough" or "Dreams of dark waters" or some other dark ambient music. First time I see somebody mentioning a CMI-release or old Wakeford stuff (even if I must say I'd rather prefer some Current 93 music to the early Sol Invictus)

Anyway, Sally Doherty, former member of Sol Invictus, composed a score for something egyptian related... should have that disc buried somewhere at home...

H.P. Lovecraft said:

The light at the end of the world seems to be a very lovecraftian title, indeed

I like some of the suggestions others have made. I went a little different way for now but will look at some of the suggestion. I ordered some 20's hit music from Amazon as well as a 3 CD of horror movie music.

Vintage Music: Original Classics from the 20's & 30's

Cinema Thrillers: Music from classic horror movies (3 CD set)

I also like a group Amethystium. They are instrumental with some voice in the background, not really singing but using their voice as an instrument. It is more New Age however. (and also my favorite Yoga music)

Then there are a number of India music with chanting and instrumentals. A nice singing CD is a group called Deva Primal. I was reading last night where YIG was worshipped by the SouthWestern American Natives so I guess even Native American Flute Music could be played for him but I doubt it would fit the theme or Arkham Horror.

Anyway I always like music in the background playing almost any game.

I would like to admit however that if you are playing some hits from the 20's it is a little weird if you are fighting a Shoggoth and the song "Baby Face" starts playing.

"Baby Face, you got the cutist little Baby Face." Although I guess you could replace "cutist" with "cultist".

Julia said:

Yea, I love Sol's early experimental works. Lex Talionis is my favorite record by them along with Against the Modern World.

I'd also mention:

Magma-Mekhanik Destruktiw Kommandoh. One of my favorite French outfits. This album and band pioneered the unusual zeuhl movement in the 70s. Essentially, a jazzy bombastic rock opera sung in a completely made-up language that sounds like a warped hybrid of German and French(it was named Kobaian by Magma's mastermind and drummer-Christian Vander).

Histrionic frenzied female vocals spew forth nonsense , as if having a dialogue with the well-integrated male chants(this technique is called call-response singing),along with expert use of brass instruments and great ambient drumming-all this manages to create a strangely uplifting ritualistic atmosphere.

Highly recommended: www.cthulhumusic.com/withnewsletter.html

New album said to arrive soon.

Drakson said:

This is true, in part...

Dark ambient may no like to everybody and people tend to get nervous/upset with the "soundtrack"

On the contrary 1920/1930 popular music and jazz is more fitable to create a cozy environment where everybody are concentrate on the game and we can play "more relax" with some appropiate music in the background.

*I hear someone in the back of the room yelling... "But heyyyy!! who said that fighting the mythos is a relaxed job?!"

In the end... it all depends in the musical tastes of the players reunited.

mentorius said:

Or who ever the game belongs to..

Background noise in-game ability/difficulty variant :

"the first player chooses to put death metal in the background. The other players are forced to comply. Any investigators who are not fans of the genre, have their focus reduced to 1 for the duration of the game. Those with a starting focus of 1 are permanently cursed."

zealot12 said:

The curse of Marduk! ::laughing:: well, maybe it's black and not death metal. Uhm.

I don't listen to entire albums, but there are some individual tracks that I enjoy.

The Mekons - Dark Dark Dark (it sounds like it was written specifically for cultists at the Unvisited Isle)

Fats Waller - Dry Bones (can't recommend it enough)

Dusty Springfield - Spooky

The Revels - Midnight Stroll

Bessie Smith - Devil's Gonna Get You (written the same year that the Dunwich Horror was published)

I usually throw in several Gothic Archies tracks, but bear in mind that we're the sort of group that starts singing "Uptown Girl" whenever Jenny's in the Uptown Streets, so one's idea of "atmosphere" may vary.