{"id":2197,"date":"2014-10-30T13:59:54","date_gmt":"2014-10-30T21:59:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scottcolburn.com\/blog\/?p=2197"},"modified":"2023-03-20T16:13:30","modified_gmt":"2023-03-21T00:13:30","slug":"23-of-100-greatest-horror-soundtracks-of-all-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottcolburn.com\/blog\/?p=2197","title":{"rendered":"#23 of 100 greatest horror soundtracks of all time"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

‘Tis an honor to have music that you wrote end up at #23 (!) on the list of “100 Greatest Horror Soundtracks of all time<\/a>“. Nestled right between “Alien” and “Rosemary’s Baby”. Right where it belongs!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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25. Charles Bernstein
The Entity<\/em>
(1983)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bernstein is best known for his syrupy synth score for Nightmare on Elm Street<\/em> (also on this list), but his compositions for uncomfortable ghost-rape movie The Entity<\/em> are far superior. Here\u2019s a soundtrack so jam-packed with weird, memorably spine-chilling cues that Quentin Tarantino snaffled one for Inglourious Basterds<\/em> \u2013 using \u2018Bath Attack\u2019 to heighten tension in one of the film\u2019s most crucial scenes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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24. Krzysztof Komeda
Rosemary\u2019s Baby<\/em>
(1968)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krzysztof Trzcinski was a former ENT doctor in Warsaw who, using the pseudonym Komeda to avoid hassle from the censorious Communist regime, became a crucial figure in the development of European jazz. His 1960s soundtrack work is vital, with Knife in the Water<\/em> and The Fearless Vampire Killers<\/em> among the highlights in an extensive catalogue. His score for Polanski\u2019s punishing 1968 classic, however, takes top billing \u2013 a timely blend of \u201960s pop, stern orchestration and warped chanting, all centred around that coiling lullaby motif. Psychological disarray has rarely sounded groovier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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23. Climax Golden Twins
Session 9<\/em>
(2001)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Session 9 <\/em>has, in its modest slow-burning way, has become easily one of the best-loved cult horror flicks of the last decade. This tale of asbestos cleaners slowly driven to lunacy in a dilapidated mental asylum has a similarly unhurried soundtrack, courtesy of seasoned Seattle post-rockers Climax Golden Twins. It\u2019s a highly involving collection of ambient drone and rumbling piano with precise digital detailing; in its finest moments, Session 9<\/em> plays like a soured Stars of the Lid, and makes for hypnotic standalone listening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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22. Jerry Goldsmith
Alien<\/em>
(1979)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thought Kane had it bad<\/strong><\/a>? Spare a thought for Jerry Goldsmith. After all sorts of behind-the-scenes bunfighting, Ridley Scott ended up using a butchered version of Goldsmith\u2019s submitted score: only one cue remained in its original place, with the rest cut up and hodge-podged into a new order alongside material from Goldsmith\u2019s 1962 Freud<\/em> score. Goldsmith\u2019s as-intended version saw release in 1999, but the bastardised score remains remarkable effective \u2013 a blend of rich orchestration and \u201calien sounds\u201d (didgeridoo, serpents<\/strong><\/a>, strings filtered through echoplex units). A spirited botch-job, and a key component of one of the most stylised horrors ever committed to celluloid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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21. Richard Band
Troll<\/em>
(1986)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Richard Band\u2019s chiming, vocal-heavy soundtrack to Troll<\/em> stands as his finest contribution to the horror genre. His Psycho<\/em>-indebted accompaniment to Re-Animator<\/em> might be better known, but Troll<\/em> is the pro choice, with its jaunty, mischievous atmosphere mirroring the fantastical world of the on-screen Troll. Band\u2019s soundtracks stood out primarily as being so absolutely American, and his ADD compositions are now synonymous with the US VHS horror era. It probably helped that his brother Charles Band produced most of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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20. Mica Levi
Under the Skin<\/em>
(2014)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jonathan Glazer\u2019s tale of an alien abroad has many of the tropes of classic body horror \u2013 woman as devourer, sex as deathtrap, &tc. \u2013 but, presented with Kubrickian grandeur and a compassionate eye, it\u2019s an exercise in artsy eeriness rather than schlock. Much of that comes down to Mica Levi\u2019s classic-in-waiting score. Taking pointers from Penderecki and Schnittke, it blends scrimmaging strings and synthwork to thrilling effect: see that insinuating violin theme, or centrepiece \u2018Love\u2019, a sudden access of emotional energy that sets neck hairs saluting. Not bad for an art-rock scruffball<\/strong><\/a> in her mid-twenties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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19. Harry Bromley-Davenport<\/strong>
Xtro<\/em>
(1983)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Notorious Brit sci-fi horror flick Xtro<\/em> is far better remembered than it was received at the time, and its Carpenter-esque synth score has aged surprisingly well. It\u2019s an unsettling collection of whining synth leads and haunting melodies that feels at times almost at odds with the film\u2019s schlocky visuals (when there\u2019s a full grown man being \u201cbirthed\u201d on screen, woozy electronic music probably can\u2019t cut it). Not that composer (and director of the movie itself) Harry Bromley-Davenport would agree with us; trained as a classical pianist, he now regards his soundtrack as \u201cpretty awful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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18. Basil Kirchin
The Abominable Doctor Phibes<\/em>
(1971)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hull\u2019s weirdest musical offspring (with the possible exception of COUM Transmissions), Kirchin started making scores for imaginary films in the early 1960s, before graduating to the real thing during the height of Swinging London. Dr Phibes<\/em> isn\u2019t as out there as his musique concrete<\/em> experiments from the period \u2013 compared to Worlds Within Worlds<\/em>, it\u2019s chocolate box conventional \u2013 but it\u2019s still a whirlwind of hepcat jazz motifs, rich exotica, tasteful electronic processing and concentrated quirk. The official soundtrack release truncated Kirchin\u2019s score considerably, so Perseverence\u2019s luxuriant 2004 reissue is the one to track down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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17. Harry Manfredini
Friday 13th<\/em>
(1973)
<\/strong>Harry Manfredini\u2019s Friday 13th<\/em> score should never have been so successful: he mercilessly rips of Psycho<\/em> composer Bernard Herrmann at almost every turn, but for some reason he manages to make it work in his favor. The familiar cues help add an air of unease to proceedings \u2013 it feels as if we should know exactly what\u2019s happening, but there\u2019s something different in the air. Then there\u2019s the genre-defining whisper effects that became quickly synonymous with the Friday 13th<\/em> franchise. If slasher legend Jason Voorhees wasn\u2019t heralded by the requisite \u201cch ch ch, ah ah ah\u201d sounds, we\u2019d have to wonder whether his oversized machete was even still capable of decapitating a horde of lusty teenagers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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16. Fran\u00e7ois T\u00e9taz
Wolf Creek<\/em>
(2005)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fran\u00e7ois T\u00e9taz heightened the sense of isolated dread that\u2019s at the heart of Greg McLean\u2019s terrifying Aussie horror Wolf Creek<\/em> by using elements of Alan Lamb\u2019s pioneering Primal Image<\/em> recordings. Lamb spent a number of weeks recording a 1km stretch of abandoned telephone wires on a farm in Western Australia when he discovered that the unsheathed wires made a quiet \u201csinging\u201d noise as they were caught by the wind. Calling them the wires his \u201cFaraway Wind Organ,\u201d he created an album made from the field recordings \u2013 and these form the backbone of many of T\u00e9taz\u2019s cues. Letting the eerie recordings speak for themselves, T\u00e9taz wisely allows his subtle drones to emerge slowly, building around Lamb\u2019s framework with grace and respect. The end result is both incredibly fitting \u2013 the film was set in the empty expanses of Western Australia \u2013 and oddly beautiful, and has been a touchstone for dark ambient producers ever since its release in \u201905.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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15. Libra
Shock<\/em>
(1977)
<\/strong>Billed by Death Waltz boss Spencer Hickman as the \u201cperfect companion piece to Suspiria<\/em>,\u201d Libra\u2019s score for Mario Bava\u2019s Shock<\/em> is an obscure gem, filled with frothy prog rock excesses and avant-garde synthesizer touches. It\u2019s hardly surprising that the band were actually connected to Goblin all along \u2013 occasional Goblin keyboardist Maurizio Guarini lends his talent to the band, and the band\u2019s 1975 drummer Walter Martino handles percussion. It\u2019s one of the best giallo<\/em> soundtracks ever dubbed to celluloid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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14. Ralph Jones
Slumber Party Massacre<\/em>
(1982)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Exquisite scuzz. Amy Holden Jones\u2019 Slumber Party Massacre<\/em> was lambasted at the time for its clunkiness, but it\u2019s since been rehabilitated as a feminist piss-take of the worst excesses of the slasher. Ralph Jones\u2019 soundtrack is a perfect example of the VHS trash aesthetic in action \u2013 knowing, scrappy as fuck, and shamelessly enjoyable. The mood is gimcrack baroque: trebly distorted organs parp out night-at-the-carnival lines and swarm like hornets with headaches. It\u2019s not all trash (the ambient passages sound like they could have been plucked from Charles Wuorinen\u2019s pioneering \u201860s composition Time\u2019s Encomium<\/em>) but for the most part this offers plenty of well-aimed cheap kicks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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13. Bernard Herrmann
Psycho<\/em>
(1960)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Psycho <\/em>could have been so different. Hitchcock originally asked for a breezy, be-bop inspired soundtrack, but Herrmann \u2013 who already had two decades of classic scores behind him \u2013 demurred. An deliberate attempt to create a \u201cblack and white score\u201d to accompany the \u201cblack and white film\u201d, Psycho<\/em> is, unusually, composed exclusively for strings \u2013 an attempt to take violins (the stormtroopers of the Hollywood schmaltz machine, as embodied by the likes of Alfred Newman) and make them brutal and ugly. It might not have been a complete bolt from the blue \u2013 one key passage is lifted pretty wholesale from a sinfonietta Herrmann composed nearly 25 years earlier \u2013 but few scores are as harmonically complex, agitated, and attuned to the enduring power of loud-quiet-loud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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12. Tangerine Dream
The Keep<\/em>
(1983)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Towering Gods of the soundtrack world, German synth maniacs Tangerine Dream excelled themselves with their moving set of cues for Michael Mann\u2019s The Keep<\/em>. Somehow though, the OST has never been officially released. You can still hear it \u2013 there are a good 16-or-so bootlegs \u2013 but with Mann distancing himself from the film and Tangerine Dream squabbling over contracts with Virgin (it was slated for release on the label in both 1984 and 1998) it\u2019s managed to end up sitting in some kind of limbo for over three decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a corker too, more bone-chilling than the band\u2019s better-known scores for Richochet<\/em> or, er, Risky Business<\/em>, and complements Michael Mann\u2019s bizarre (and still underrated) visuals perfectly. The fact that this score is no longer even partnered with the film in newer versions (that license dispute again) is incredibly depressing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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11. Fred Myrow & Malcolm Seagrave
Phantasm<\/em>
(1979)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s hardly surprising that director Don Coscarelli was massively influenced by Dario Argento\u2019s Suspiria<\/em> when he made Phantasm<\/em>. He realized that Goblin\u2019s surreal score was a huge part of the film\u2019s success, and called on Fred Myrow and his partner Malcolm Seagrave to put together a memorably synthesizer-laced accompaniment. You can certainly hear the Goblin reverence loud and clear (plus a neck-breaking nod to Mike Oldfield\u2019s Tubular Bells<\/em> in the film\u2019s theme) but Myrow and Seagrave\u2019s treatment is deliriously enjoyable and creepy in its own way adding a welcome sense of small-town America to Goblin\u2019s distinctly Italo-prog sound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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10. Toru Takemitsu
Kwaidan<\/em>
(1964)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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09. Alessandro Alessandroni
Devil\u2019s Nightmare<\/em>
(1971)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Morricone collaborator, and the chap who did the whistling<\/strong><\/a> on all those Sergio Leone themes, Alessandroni racked up plenty of scoring caps of his own. His soundtrack for Jean Brism\u00e9e\u2019s gothic succubus flick La Terrificante Notte Del Demonio<\/em> is lamentably little heard \u2013 an increasingly cracked blend of twisted y\u00e9-y\u00e9, treated organ and industrial churn. Then there\u2019s the impossibly brilliant theme, which could very easily be an outtake from Serge Gainsbourg\u2019s Histoire de Melodie Nelson \u2013 <\/em>note-for-note, it\u2019s probably the most underrated track on this entire list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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08. David Lynch & Alan R. Splet
Eraserhead<\/em>
(1977)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We wouldn\u2019t be doing our job very well if we didn\u2019t at least give a massive nod to David Lynch. Although his work with Angelo Badalementi is more widely acclaimed (and, let\u2019s be honest, not exactly \u201chorror\u201d) it\u2019s his influential soundtrack to Eraserhead<\/em>, composed with sound designer Alan R. Splet, that finds Lynch at his most terrifying. Without a library of sounds they could use, the two set about employing radical techniques to achieve the vanguard \u201cindustrial\u201d soundscape, recording air blowing through glass tubes and actual machinery and filtering in snippets of jazz to add to the woozy ambience. It\u2019s a soundtrack that\u2019s almost without cues, instead opting to set a mood that mirrors the film\u2019s eerie, dream-like abstraction. Drone music producers have spent decades trying to unpick Eraserhead<\/em>\u2019s tangled genius and it still sounds like nothing else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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07. Colin Towns
Full Circle<\/em>
(1977)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You might not have come across Full Circle<\/em> (also known as The Haunting of Julia<\/em>) before \u2013 the film still remains difficult to obtain digitally \u2013 but that shouldn\u2019t put you off. Colin Towns\u2019 spacious, melancholy soundtrack is an absolute joy, and reflects the control he was given over the sound. The film\u2019s star Mia Farrow was actually wooed to the role by hearing an early demo of Towns\u2019 main theme, and Virgin Records were so interested in the soundtrack that they even managed to convince Queen (seriously) to help with the record\u2019s funding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fascinated by using the synthesizer (in this case an ARP 2600) as an emotional instrument rather than simply as a toy, Towns combined the brassy, bassy electronic sounds with simple piano and flute motifs, ending up with a series of cues that strike a rare middle ground between the synthetic and the organic. Full Circle<\/em> might not be as showy as some of the other soundtracks in the list, but what it lacks in bombast it makes up for with heart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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06. Tobe Hooper & Wayne Bell
Texas Chainsaw Massacre<\/em>
(1974)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tobe Hooper and Wayne Bell\u2019s score (like the film itself, edited in Hooper\u2019s living room) still hasn\u2019t had an official release, circulating instead in bootleg or fan-assembled form. If, like many, you excise the twangy country originals from Texan singer songwriters like Roger Bartlett and Arkey Blue, you\u2019re left with a proto-industrial masterpiece \u2013 hellish psychedelia cooked up on a minuscule budget. The score\u2019s genius lies in its unique blend of diegetic and non-diegetic sound: metallic scrapes underpin the sound of shovelled dirt; the whirr of Leatherface\u2019s chainsaw impressionistically blurs with analogue synthesiser; screams dissolve into analogue tones or blend with the whirring of drills. The effect is genuinely unheimlich<\/em> \u2013 a triumph of shoestring atmospherics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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05. Howard Shore
Videodrome<\/em>
(1983)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It would be hard to understate David Cronenberg and frequent collaborator Howard Shore\u2019s influence on horror filmmaking. Cronenberg\u2019s oozing \u201cbody horror\u201d would inform a long list of films, and Shore\u2019s scores effortlessly complemented the impact of Cronenberg\u2019s pioneering visuals. Few of their collaborations gelled as perfectly as Videodrome<\/em>, as Shore attempted to parallel the film\u2019s themes by embarking on an unusual recording method. To mirror Max Renn\u2019s on-screen technology-addled psychosis, Shore composed an orchestral score which he then programmed entirely into the early synthesizer\/sampling workstation the Synclavier II. Following this, the score was played by ear from the finished electronic score by a pared down string section, and the two recordings were blended together to create the finished product. The fact that at times it\u2019s hard to hear the difference between what\u2019s real and what\u2019s synthesized is precisely the point. Long live the new flesh!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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04. John Carpenter & Alan Howarth
Halloween 3: Season of the Witch<\/em>
(1982)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It had to be Halloween<\/em>, didn\u2019t it? Of all the horror scores in existence, John Carpenter\u2019s delicate piano composition is the one that will be trucked out every year on October 31 until flesh eating corpses rise from the dirt and devour us all. It\u2019s a deceptively complex piece of writing too and chances are you\u2019re not remembering it entirely correctly. It\u2019s actually written in 10\/8 (whether this was purposeful or not is unclear, Carpenter has said on numerous occasions that he \u201ccan\u2019t read or write a note\u201d) which adds to the eerie, spine-chilling mood usually without you even noticing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the years Carpenter has re-imagined his original score several times, the best of which is the accompaniment to Halloween III: Season of the Witch<\/em>, produced with regular collaborator Alan Howarth and exclusively made with synthesizers. The film itself might be lacking considerably, but Carpenter and Howarth\u2019s moody electronic score takes the unmistakable original theme and expands it into a fully-fledged suite of Prophet-heavy goodness. It is also notable for being composed while the duo watched the film \u2013 the first time they were able to work in this way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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03. Fabio Frizzi
City of the Living Dead<\/em>
(1980)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of all the composers so tied to the schlocky video nasty genre, it\u2019s Fabio Frizzi that lords above them with an air of grandeur. It\u2019s not that his synth-heavy cues boast higher production values than those of his peers exactly, rather there\u2019s something in his compositions that keeps you coming back again and again. City of the Living Dead<\/em> is crucial because it\u2019s so varied \u2013 that haunting guitar riff, the unmistakable mellotron choir sounds, the syrupy, plasticky rhythms. Frizzi only really uses synthesizers here in moderation, and when we reach the triumphant \u2018Apoteosi Del Mistero\u2019, the analogue bleeps and brassy leads only accent a score that was already a classic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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02. Popol Vuh
Nosferatu<\/em>
(1978)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Popol Vuh were to Werner Herzog what Goblin were to Dario Argento, and Nosferatu: The Vampyre<\/em> was possibly their greatest collaboration. Herzog\u2019s psychedelic and often surreal take on the classic vampire story would have floundered without the correct use of musical cues, and Florian Fricke\u2019s spacious Eastern-inspired motifs are memorable and absorbingly eerie. In fact, Herzog pushed Fricke to raid the archives for his darkest material, and the resulting selection of tracks combines Popol Vuh\u2019s early electronic experiments with a number of their later more organic works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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01. Goblin
Suspiria<\/em>
(1977)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What can you say about Suspiria<\/em> that hasn\u2019t been said already? Of all Goblin\u2019s phenomenal scores, this one towers above \u2013 mainly because it complements the film so perfectly while standing as a corker of a record in its own right. The band were desperate to experiment this time around, and Argento was prepared to give them the time to do it (Profondo Rosso<\/em> was famously recorded in a day). So Simonetti and co hired a \u201cbig Moog\u201d (the cumbersome pre-Minimoog modular system) and a bunch of Middle Eastern instruments and crafted a soundtrack based on the film\u2019s themes of witchcraft and Argento\u2019s excited notes. The result is a terrifying cacophony of occult themes and prog tropes that sounds defiantly ahead of its time without trying to re-invent the wheel. If you only listen to one horror soundtrack, this should be it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

‘Tis an honor to have music that you wrote end up at #23 (!) on the list of “100 Greatest Horror Soundtracks of all time“. Nestled right between “Alien” and “Rosemary’s Baby”. Right where it belongs! 25. Charles BernsteinThe Entity(1983) Bernstein is best known for his syrupy synth score for Nightmare on Elm Street (also on this … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “#23 of 100 greatest horror soundtracks of all time”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcolburn.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcolburn.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcolburn.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcolburn.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcolburn.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2197"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/scottcolburn.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2197\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7825,"href":"https:\/\/scottcolburn.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2197\/revisions\/7825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcolburn.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcolburn.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcolburn.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

A giant in the 20th century Japanese avant-garde, Takemitsu scored in excess of 90 films before his death in 1996 (interested parties are directed towards JVC\u2019s exhaustive 55-disc retrospective, Complete Takemitsu Edition<\/em>). Kwaidan,<\/em> Kobayashi\u2019s set of impressionistic supernatural vignettes (at the time, the most expensive film made in Japanese cinema history), <\/em>is surely one of his greatest efforts \u2013 a savage, curdled version of Japanese folk music, strangled out of an abused biwa<\/em><\/strong><\/a>. Notes are plucked and spat with force, with found sound and moments of yawning space accentuating the unease. Highly singular, and a key example of horror cinema being one of the few platforms where avant-garde music has a fighting chance of reaching a wider mainstream audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n