3 out of 5

Label: Library of the Occult

Produced by: ?

The third lathe cut in a “series of haunting sounds to accompany the reading of Bram Stoker’s 1897 horror classic DRACULA.”

Since we’re three in, I’ll abbreviate my rigmarole even more: Library of the Occult features a bunch of interesting artists, but often maps their style to shticks that, for me, thematically do not work. That’s very, very true with the fun, psychedelic funk of Henning Zinoviev & Floating Candles here, as the 70s guitar and 90s video game trills on ‘Jessica Van Helsing’ definitely do not place the sounds of the song in the 1890s, or even really any other Drac era. Doing the wah-wah on a track to Ms. Helsing, for better or worse, calls to mind a campier version of the character, but that’s then countered by the gamer bleep-bloop that comes in.

To be clear: this is an awesome track. It’s fun; it’s a unique mash-up of genres that keeps adding little flourishes throughout, but man, does it not fit the vibe. …Although the harpsichord that starts it out gave me really high hopes.

Followup Where Evil Dwells is a little more organic but maintains the funk; however, it doesn’t have any horror overtones – it’s more like a jam. It’s also structured very similarly to Ms. Helsing, and with strange mixing – the drums are smoothed out to be very flat; perhaps it’s mimicking some specific recording style? – making it a lesser song overall.

Fun stuff, but as far off the Dracula mark as we’ve gotten yet.