Anton LaVey - Strange Music e.p.

Found this 10" e.p. back in 1994 in a record store in San Francisco. I believe it had just come out and I can't a resist the novelty of a 10 inch record (not to mention one featuring someone like this) so I grabbed it. Years later I found myself in need of a record needle and unable to play my vinyl. I had a friend of mine rip some singles and this e.p. to a disc for me so I could listen to them. That was probably seven years ago and yesterday I found the disc so I decided to upload this. Looking around on the net, I could hardly even find a reference to this record so I figure it's still very obscure even in the days when you can find just about anything on blogs and forums. So here you go! As the title of the e.p. suggests, this is indeed some "Strange Music". Anton LaVey, founder of the "Church of Satan" recored these versions of early 20th century standards and rarities using vintage organs and keyboard instruments. As I understand it from the liner notes he plays all the instruments in the recordings and all were done without overdubs. It's kind of amazing really. Most of the tracks are instrumentals with only two of them featuring vocals by his then wife, Blanche Barton. There is definitely an eerie quality to the music, especially the version of "Gloomy Sunday" (the famous song that caused a suicide craze/scare when it was originally released in the1930's. The Wikipedia article on it is an interesting read. Anyway, since I've not been able to revamp this blog as of yet I thought I would post a couple of things in the meantime that kind of fit with the theme and this one certainly does. Maybe some of the earliest examples of "death rock" by one of the most infamous people of the last century.

Tracks:
Thanks For The Memory
Strange Music
Temptation
Start The Day Right (vocal by Blanche Barton)
One For My Baby (And One More For The Road)
The Year Of Jubilo
Gloomy Sunday (vocal by Blanche Barton)

Download "Strange Music"