Silva Screen, out October 20

Brighten up your turntable this Halloween with some gruesome green vinyl as Silva release a 12-inch compilation of original horror soundtrack recordings.

This is a great place to start to start your Hammer vinyl collection, featuring 18 themes from the studio’s prolific horror output between 1958–1974. Ranging from operatic to classical to funky, this collection features favourite Hammer stalwart James Bernard (eight of the eighteen) and a number of composers who were equally at home composing for TV – Laurie (The Avengers) Johnson and Tristram (Doctor Who) Cary.

Johnson’s Captain Kronos is a brassy fanfare – almost seafaring – while Harry Robinson’s Twins of Evil has an unusually Ron Goodwin military feel to it with crashing timpani. Franz Reizenstein’s The Mummy is an understandably Egyptian-flavoured piece, accompanied by exotic flourishes and choral, while The Satanic Rites of Dracula by John (Kojak/ Columbo) Cacavas could feel at home on an early 70s show and Mike (Warlords of Atlantis) Vickers’ Dracula AD 1972 is a groovy, swinging bossa nova, baby.

Inevitably, with so many titles to choose from the catalogue, it’s likely that some of your favourites are missing, but with four Draculas, a Mummy and a Frankenstein on the menu, it’s covered the obvious bases. Bernard’s Dracula theme is a classic, a staccato motif breaking down the Count’s name into three notes: Dra – Cu -La!

The limited edition green (though strangely not blood-red, like the cover) vinyl pressing has 500 copies, with notes by Hammer expert Marcus Hearn. My only quibble is the sequencing, which is more a problem with vinyl where you can’t resequence the tracks into a particular order. Dracula is lost in the middle of Side 1, though the album ends strongly with The Satanic Rites of Dracula, Taste The Blood of Dracula and Frankenstein and The Monster from Hell. The rest of the ordering feels a bit random, with no obvious grouping by theme or style.

Verdict: An eclectic collection of original Hammer Horror themes from their most fertile period, featuring the most obvious as well as little-known treats, served on a lurid green platter. Once more with feeling: Dra – Cu – La! 8/10

Nick Joy