You are on the Desktop website, Click here to go back to our mobile website
ARTICLE
The best Halloween sets begin the moment guests walk in. Your opening tracks should be all about atmosphere. Use ambient textures, low drones, or horror film soundscapes to create tension and intrigue. Think slow-burning intros with eerie whispers, creaking doors, howling winds, and distant footsteps. This is your chance to play with mood and space, gradually drawing guests into your haunted world.
You might want to start with some downtempo, moody selections – dark jazz, chilled-out pop-rap, or atmospheric house music with spooky overlays. The goal isn’t to get people dancing right away, but to immerse them. Think of it like scoring a movie: build anticipation before the action starts.
As more guests arrive and the energy starts to build, shift gears into mid-tempo grooves. This is where remixes and mash-ups shine. Blend familiar tracks with creepy twists – add a deep bassline to a vintage horror theme or turn a pop anthem into a ghoulish, echo-laden slow jam. Mix styles like dark disco, synth-pop and new-wave, or minimal tech with eerie vocal samples or twisted melodies to keep things interesting and on-theme.
Mastermix has created a wide range of Halloween-themed content that can be played to build the desired sets. Mixed content from Mastermix Collection: Halloween and the two Halloween Grandmasters are full of pop, rock and dance tracks with added Halloween samples. If you’ve not heard the story of how I produced the first Grandmaster Halloween mix alone in a studio late one evening, remind me to tell it to you one day!
Once the party is in full swing then you can mix up things up using classic tracks and modern hits from the Essential Hits: Halloween albums, get creative with DJ Beats, perform fast moving sets with DJ Edits and add in some mash ups and remixes courtesy of Jet Boot Jack to take the tempo up a level.
Use FX like reverb, filters, and pitch shifting to make things feel otherworldly. Incorporate horror samples – screams, laughing witches, or villain monologues – for surprise moments that hit hard.
Leave your audience with a lingering sense of the surreal – something that sticks with them after they leave. Just don’t have nightmares!
1// ‘A Nightmare On My Street’ (Toolkit: Halloween) – DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince
2// ‘Stranger Things (TV Theme)’ (Toolkit: Halloween) – O.S.T.
3// ‘This Is Halloween (DJ Edit)’ – Marilyn Manson
4// ‘Amityville (House On The Hill)’ (DJ Beats Halloween) – Lovebug Starski
5// ‘Werewolves Of London’ (DJ Beats Halloween) – Warren Zevon
6// ‘Hells Bells’ (Essential Hits: Halloween) – AC/DC
7// ‘Batdance’ (Essential Hits: Halloween) – Prince
8// ‘Bury A Friend’ (Essential Hits: Halloween 2) – Billie Eilish
9// ‘Ghostbusters vs. Uptown Funk’ (Mastermix Collection: Halloween)
10// ‘Thriller (Jet Boot Jack Remix)’ – Michael Jackson
11// ‘Somebody’s Watching Me’ (DJ Beats Halloween)
12// ‘Psycho Killer (Jet Boot Jack Remix)’ – Talking Heads
13// ‘Sympathy For The Devil (Jet Boot Jack Remix)’ – Rolling Stones
14// ‘‘Spooky’ (Essential Hits: Halloween) – Dusty Springfield
15// ‘On Our Own (Jet Boot Jack Remix)’ – Bobby Brown
16// ‘Monster’ (DJ Beats) – Automatic
17// ‘Superfreak (Jet Boot Jack Remix)’ – Rick James
18// ‘The ‘X’ Files’ (Toolkit: Halloween) – Mark Snow
19// ‘Nightmare (Mastermix Horror Version)’ (Toolkit: Halloween) – Brainbug
20// ‘Zombie’ (Essential Hits: Halloween 2) – Jamie T
You might want to start with some downtempo, moody selections – dark jazz, chilled-out pop-rap, or atmospheric house music with spooky overlays. The goal isn’t to get people dancing right away, but to immerse them. Think of it like scoring a movie: build anticipation before the action starts.
As more guests arrive and the energy starts to build, shift gears into mid-tempo grooves. This is where remixes and mash-ups shine. Blend familiar tracks with creepy twists – add a deep bassline to a vintage horror theme or turn a pop anthem into a ghoulish, echo-laden slow jam. Mix styles like dark disco, synth-pop and new-wave, or minimal tech with eerie vocal samples or twisted melodies to keep things interesting and on-theme.
Mastermix has created a wide range of Halloween-themed content that can be played to build the desired sets. Mixed content from Mastermix Collection: Halloween and the two Halloween Grandmasters are full of pop, rock and dance tracks with added Halloween samples. If you’ve not heard the story of how I produced the first Grandmaster Halloween mix alone in a studio late one evening, remind me to tell it to you one day!
Once the party is in full swing then you can mix up things up using classic tracks and modern hits from the Essential Hits: Halloween albums, get creative with DJ Beats, perform fast moving sets with DJ Edits and add in some mash ups and remixes courtesy of Jet Boot Jack to take the tempo up a level.
Use FX like reverb, filters, and pitch shifting to make things feel otherworldly. Incorporate horror samples – screams, laughing witches, or villain monologues – for surprise moments that hit hard.
Leave your audience with a lingering sense of the surreal – something that sticks with them after they leave. Just don’t have nightmares!
1// ‘A Nightmare On My Street’ (Toolkit: Halloween) – DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince
2// ‘Stranger Things (TV Theme)’ (Toolkit: Halloween) – O.S.T.
3// ‘This Is Halloween (DJ Edit)’ – Marilyn Manson
4// ‘Amityville (House On The Hill)’ (DJ Beats Halloween) – Lovebug Starski
5// ‘Werewolves Of London’ (DJ Beats Halloween) – Warren Zevon
6// ‘Hells Bells’ (Essential Hits: Halloween) – AC/DC
7// ‘Batdance’ (Essential Hits: Halloween) – Prince
8// ‘Bury A Friend’ (Essential Hits: Halloween 2) – Billie Eilish
9// ‘Ghostbusters vs. Uptown Funk’ (Mastermix Collection: Halloween)
10// ‘Thriller (Jet Boot Jack Remix)’ – Michael Jackson
11// ‘Somebody’s Watching Me’ (DJ Beats Halloween)
12// ‘Psycho Killer (Jet Boot Jack Remix)’ – Talking Heads
13// ‘Sympathy For The Devil (Jet Boot Jack Remix)’ – Rolling Stones
14// ‘‘Spooky’ (Essential Hits: Halloween) – Dusty Springfield
15// ‘On Our Own (Jet Boot Jack Remix)’ – Bobby Brown
16// ‘Monster’ (DJ Beats) – Automatic
17// ‘Superfreak (Jet Boot Jack Remix)’ – Rick James
18// ‘The ‘X’ Files’ (Toolkit: Halloween) – Mark Snow
19// ‘Nightmare (Mastermix Horror Version)’ (Toolkit: Halloween) – Brainbug
20// ‘Zombie’ (Essential Hits: Halloween 2) – Jamie T
The full review can be found in Pro Mobile Issue 133, Pages 68-69.
