The 'Orrible 'Ouse of Terrible Old Tat #11 - Even More Death & Horror

Hello dear guys and ghouls! Welcome back to the 'Orrible 'Ouse of Terrible Old Tat! Come in, sit down, and make yourself comfy! For I've got the battered old gramophone out again and some prime platters to spin for you! 

Now then, on our last visit to the 'Orrible Old 'Ouse, we learned about the infamous Volume 13 of the BBC Sound Effects record series - Sounds of Death & Horror. An infamous disc that brought us a host of memorable tracks with titles such as "Head Chopped Off" and "Heavy Breathing (Female)". And despite the somewhat predictably outcry from self-appointed moral guardians, the LP was a huge success. and the BBC were soon looking to give the kids what they wanted - another volume of gruesome and gory sounds! 

So then, a year after the first album's release, 1978 saw the Sound Effects series of LPs reach Volume 21, and this addition to the series was to be another black disc of violent vinyl! For this LP was Sound Effects No. 21 More Death & Horror! Once again helmed by the Radiophonic Workshop's Mike Harding, and this time aided and abetted by Peter Harwood, this putrescent platter served 21 tracks of madness, mutilation and mayhem! And once again it came in a brilliantly lurid sleeve designed Mr Andrew Prewitt

Now unlike its predecessor, this reprehensible record wasn't arranged into handy sections. Rather this lurid long player just jetted one long torrent of terror at the listener! There were 26 tracks in all, and here's the full run-down of those golden greats!

1. Death Of The Fly
2. Vampire Feeding
3. Death By Harikiri
4. Sweeney Todd The Barber
5. Wind Through Crack In Door
6. Wind In The Trees
7. Synthesised Wind (Electronic)
8. Sea Monster
9. Sharpening The Knife
10. Falling Scream
11. Premature Burial
12. Wild Dogs
13. The Iron Maiden
14. Death In The Swamp
15. The Sewer Rats
16. The Poisoned Drink
17. The Rack
18. Midnight Strangler
19. Assorted Gun Shots
20. At The Dentist
21. Time Bomb
22. Death By Electrocution
23. Gouging Eyeballs
24. Russian Roulette
25. Death By Garrotting
26. Suicide by Gas 

Now if I had a criticism, I would say that personally I'd have been inclined to tweak the running order so that "Synthesised Wind (Electronic)" would have been followed by "Suicide by Gas", purely for comedy reasons. However the inclusion of the track "At the Dentist" does rather suggest the makers did indeed had a dark sense of humour., albeit one not as childish as mine. Anywho, if you wish to hear the killer cuts above, here they are courtesy of some thieving git on Tube of You... 

However that's not the end of this grisly saga! For there was a third LP in the series! Well, three is the charm as they say. Released a few years later in 1982, Even More Death & Horror BBC Sound Effects Vol. 27 hit the record stores to serve up one final deadly disc of doom and destruction. 

Now of all the LPs in Sound Effects horror trilogy, this platter is now the rarest. And it was also the shortest, clocking in at a mere 27 minutes. However what a mad half hour it was! And while it may have been the briefest outing in the world of lurid listening, certainly it featured perhaps the most imaginative and darkly hilarious tracklisting yet!

1 Intentional Death
Staking A Vampire - Three Mallet Blows
Two Throat Cuts Or Two Throats Cut
The Gas Chamber - The Cyanide Tablets Drop Into The Acid Releasing The Deadly Fumes
Wrists Cut - The Blood Drips Into The Bucket
Assorted Stabbing
Drilling Into The Head - Enough Said
Body Put Into The Acid Bath
Self Immolation
Silencer (Pistol) - Vocal/Synth/Mechanical
Electric Fire Thrown Into The Bath
Boiling Oil - Poured Off The Castle Wall

2 Torture
Tongue Pulled Out
Fingernails Pulled Out - Assorted
Fingers Chopped Off (5)
Trial By Ordeal - A "Medievil" Practice Where The Accused Would Pick A Ring Out Of A Deep Pot Of Boiling Water - If The Resulting Burns Healed Up Quickly The He/She Was Innocent - Some Chance!
Whipping - A Touch Of The Lash Keeps You On Your Toes (Or Knees)
Torture Lab - A.D. 2500

3 Accidental (?) Death
Lift Falling (With Passengers)
Female Falling From A Height (Ladies First)
Male Falling From A Height

4 Reaction (To The Sounds You've Just Heard)
Viz: Involuntary Regurgitation

5 Nasty Animals And Birds
Werewolf - The Transformation From Human To Beast
Giant Killer Bees - No Honey From These
Sleeping Dragon - Don't Waken It Up
Dragon - On The Move Through The Bushes - With Occasional Flaming Bad Breath
Dragon Kill - The Death Of The Monster
Pterodactyl Flying - With Squawks
Vultures Feeding - If You Lie Around Long Enough, They'll Clean You Out
Piranha Fish Feeding - Don't Go For A Swim
In The Snake Pit - They Hiss With Forked Tongues
"The Birds" Attack A Feed - On What You May Ask
Triffids - (i) Sting (ii) "Talking"

And so then, while this may be the shortest outing in the series, and its sleeve art seems somewhat lacking compared to the phantasmagoria of the previous two volumes, even the harshest critic would be forced to admit that they really out-did themselves with the track listing for this one! Every opportunity for a ghoulish gag is taken! It's all killer and no filler! A very fitting end to the series I feel.

However there is a postscript to this tale. For some five or six years later, nearly a decade after the first LP's release, in a few issues of the blood-drenched Fangoria magazine, the following advertisement appeared under the heading "Sound o' Splatter"... They just don't write ad copy like this anymore...