spooky songs of Raaja

Raja is unparalleled in the genre of spooky songs - the ability to create adivayithai raavura maadhiri oru sound without resorting to cacophony is a hallmark of raaja's .
chinna sambil(watch out for the interludes - they spook the sock out of me every single time).

in hollywood thomas newman has scored some comparable score (watch out for the sound at 2:20 and 6:00 - when O connor finds out his wife and kid's bodies as his elder song waits in the car - Raaja has done a similar work in Poo vizhi vaasalile when the mother is murdered in front of the kid's eyes.).

Poo vizhi vasalile murder attempt scene
Poo vizhi vaasalile collection 13:55 is when the mom is killed
This is pure instrumental magic - with all live instruments - no synth or apple computer anywhere near.
This guy Raaja is a treasure not just for the melodious music - but his ability to conjure myriad of sounds that define human emotions that need an entire semester of MA phsychology lectures to evince clearly. Let us celebrate more such musical spooky treasures of our Raaja.

Also this is the bloody standard from which we have slipped from...

Forgot to attach the thomas newman piece Murder from Road to Peredition..

Good thread Jai.

Basically, IR kitta enna specialtyna - typically, MDs resort to tune and singing special effects for such situations and end up using abaswaram and shruthi-skewed orchestration to bring the effect but our man manages the effect through orchestration. And in doing so, doesnt end up with abaswaram or shruthi and pitch manipulations.

Enakku spooky-nAlE, Dhevadhai iLam Dhevi dhAn gnAbagam varum. apdiyE adi vayithiulErundhu gili poRakkum.

Another song that is structurally so elegant but still evoking the gili is Thangaali alli naanu from jenma jenmada anubandha(Kannada - Sankar Nag/Ananth Nag I think).

The opening of Thedum Theivam (kazhugu) always freaks me out.

For me this movie first comes to my mind and tops my list, especially the title BGM. Raja freaking out to every extremes. This one is highly impossible to beat.
http://www.mediafire.com/?7fy9wrq2x3f99c7

and uruguthE idhayamE arugilE vaa :oh my god:

OK. let us cancel out every thing we said in the previous posts.
Take away WCM instruments or concepts, can a bone chilling spookiness still be evoked from a piece of music?
Raaja says yes and how? Listen to the interludes of this song and be aware of the presence of the unseen emanating from the raw voice of the village kodangi and his meagure 'instrumentation set'...
Vaidhegi kaathirundhaal - Kaathirundhu
This one song is enough to keep me awake all through the night ..

jaiganesh wrote:OK. let us cancel out every thing we said in the previous posts.
Take away WCM instruments or concepts, can a bone chilling spookiness still be evoked from a piece of music?
Raaja says yes and how? Listen to the interludes of this song and be aware of the presence of the unseen emanating from the raw voice of the village kodangi and his meagure 'instrumentation set'...
Vaidhegi kaathirundhaal - Kaathirundhu
This one song is enough to keep me awake all through the night ..

this exact segment of the song is what came to my mind when i read the thread title yesterday..

to add with, when i was listening this song initially, i was surprised by the unusual genre shift and was wondering how it travel further... but there comes this seemless switch-back to the original genre... the timing...

True jai - this was a terror song during my childhood, even more than the designated ones in Devadia ilam and urugudhe. Good catch.

Great thread. Note how any additional info in the scene dramatized by the Director is captured by Raja's score. The punctuation and dissection of the emotional beats in poovizhi vasalile is wonderful.

knock knock at IR Haven's door .

uLLa varalaamaa? Adhaan vandhaache. MAmiyArOda thagarAru. adhan ennOda pazhaiya idkke thaavittEn. MAmiyAkkAri veena

vidhoos(h)i appideenna oru nennappu. AvarOda kulavinabOdhu vechunda id adhu. Enna , puriyardhA?

I wanted to initiate a thread there on the same topic way back 2003 itself and have set an example for procrastination .

"Thangaali nanni naanu" is just a few months old discovery for me and I simply love to sing this one. My husband's favourite too, esp the ending lines "nannannu serallu bhaavaa" , repeattu. Haunting, hummable tune made for Janaki in Raja factory.

My personal ishtam in the said genre is "urugudhey idhayame" ofcourse that never fails ti send a chill down my spine.

Well, there are a lot more to come from others, I suppose. Where is SAN_K, whose fav spooky number I remember , is

"vetta veLi pottalile natta nadu raavinile" - GrAmathu mohini- - http://www.thiraipaadal.com/tpplayer.asp?sngs='SNGIRR2249'&lang=en

I am here mythila . Thanks for the special song connection

Great thread and some great songs posted here. Spooky songs of IR are my perennial favorite and it never fails to evoke the intended feel in the listener. Nooravadhu Naal score and Urugudhe Idhayame still freak me out, master compositions. I watched this movie as a kid in theater and literally closed my eyes during various scenes but the music still evoked the fear even after shutting out my eyes, the power of the composition.

Like mythila, Tangaali Alle is a recent find and became one of my most played songs. The supernatural feel painted by the orchestration (both the percussion & strings) is beyond comparison, a truly mind-bending piece of work.

I would like to add Koodu Thedi Alaiyum Kiligale from Nalla Naal to this genre of songs.

http://thiraipaadal.com/tpplayer.asp?sngs='SNGIRR4197'&lang=en
How about this one? Spine chilling prelude and first interlude, followed by K J Yesudas's eerie singing and female choir, creates a nightmare.
The second interlude starts as a nice soft orchestration, but the ending Oh My God!

Thanks V_S, now...tonight's sleep not guaranteed thanks to you

By the way, on that Kathirunthu song, who did that bayanggara voice? sAttanodu koondil adaippEn (is that right?) doesn't sound so dangerous considering that Lucifer was already in the slammer, though, unless, of course, sodomy is involved.

kandEn engum poomakaL nAttiyam
kAnbadhellAmE adhisayam Anandham
kAtRinilE varum geetham
(VJ version, I had to listen to this after reading the write-up by Saravanan in tfmpage today...link in GA thread)

Just saw this thread today. Poonthendral kaatre vaa from Manjal Nila has a disturbingly eerie feel to it. I have always wondered if it was a pEy padam. Not surprisingly I could find no info about the movie on the net. I guess it must have been another of those EVK type bombs. Veterans, please confirm!! 

Monarch of mood sangeeth's  KANDEN ENGUM POOMAGAL....
Haunting humming with hair-raising strings section for longing Janu!
HAPPY HALLOWEEN

As always just too difficult to snap out the mega sivaranjani pathos alaap by Janu!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdXn6Sex1wQ

VAANUYARNDHA SOLAIYILE...............JANAKI............BALA