As the nights draw in, it becomes obvious that while there are Christmas compilations aplenty despite our being barely out of October, there’s little to soundtrack our celebration of All Hallows Eve.
However, this Edinburgh act has a spooky selection to get your sarcophagus swinging – the Chic stylings of opener ‘Haunted by a Ghost (A Party Party Ghost)’ will get any crypt rocking as well as summing up this album’s intent.
And they’re not kidding when they say “suitable for monsters of all ages,” as ‘Mummy Rap’ – there’s a song for each ‘monster’ – delivers a very educational potted history of Tut-era Egypt.
Witches, Zombies, and even Cthulhu feature, as does the vocoded ‘Frankenstein the Disco Monster’, again influenced by Nile Rodgers, with a nod to Bobby ‘Boris’ Pickett (look him up), updated for the 21st century.
The band draw deep from the funk and soul canon as well as The Twilight Zone and theremin-drenched horror soundtracks – ‘Vampire Strut’ is a homage to James Brown, while the ‘Queen of Hallowe’en’ is surely Donna Summer.
‘Monsters Rock the House’ is as you might expect a piano-driven piece of (haunted) House straight out of Chicago with a Grandmaster Flash-indebted rap.There are old-school Hammer yowls aplenty on ‘Werewolf Fever’ while ‘Panic at the Horror Disco’ is a modern monster, with a Sophie Ellis-Bextor vibe. Overall, an ideal way to get your ghoulish gathering going.
This article originally appeared in the Portsmouth News.