4 out of 5

Label: Fonolith

Produced by: Neil Scrivin

Ah, The Night Monitor… in its purest form!

The Night Monitor started out with a release on Bibliotapes: an imprint specifically for creating soundtracks for books. So we can imagine that, however the relationship was initiated, when Neil Scrivin started working on a release for Biblio, he decided another pseudonym – versus the more beat-based Phono Ghosts, or the glitchy Meatbingo, or even the ambient / retro-futurism narrative style done under his own name – would be appropriate. Thus: The Night Monitor was born.

After This House is Haunted – rereleased on Neil’s Fonolith label, which is how I heard it – The Night Monitor would go on to other soundtracks, of “events” or movies; and I often had a couple main criticisms: that sticking to closely to a narrative necessitated some filler-y moments, or that the synth-based nature of NM didn’t always match the era / vibe being scored.

Back to This House is Haunted. Being the origin of this concept, and why I’d somewhat jokingly call it the ‘purest’ form – noting how rude that is, to claim I know the most-est version of someone else’s idea – House is, to me, the closest link of sound and subject matter in The Night Monitor’s catalogue, scoring an 80s book on a late 70s supernatural happenstance, the Enfield poltergeist, with the kind of crunchy synths and fuzzy sound samples that link back to a particular age of 70s / 80s thriller and horror movies. In other words: had this book been set to tunes during its time, you can absolutely imagine The Night Monitor’s creepy buzz and slow stair-ascending beats right alongside. The atmosphere, especially if you’re doing a late night, lonesome listen, can be legitimately scary, with track titles like ‘Imperfect Speakers’ perfectly capturing the sensation of almost-heard sounds, and partially explainable “house-settling” noises, with an atonal synth melody letting you know… things aren’t okay.

As to my other Night Monitor criticism, though, about the narratives feeling a bit stretched out, we kind of have the opposite problem here: This House is Haunted is almost too compressed, going from creepy moment to creepy moment, without build inbetween. That’s not wholly bad, as it means each track has impact, but it also prevents a “story” from forming. There are definitely some relative peaks, where a beat becomes more notable or synths more pronounced, but these don’t have a lead-in or cool-down – they’re surrounded by a baselevel of ooky spooky.

The 20 tracks all have a fairly short runtime (between one to three minutes), and Neil layers his sounds mightily – you’re always surrounded by atmosphere – so though I might not be able to map the tale of the Enfield poltergeist to the score, the music itself, song by song, is powerful, and capable of creating smaller stories within each track. Even if it doesn’t give you much respite between those stories, it’s a very rewarding “read.”