The Caretaker - Selected Memories from the Haunted Ballroom (1999)

The Caretaker, aka English musician Leyland Kirby, is an experimental/dark ambient/noise project inspired by the ballroom scene in The Shining (hence, the "Caretaker" moniker, the album title Selected Memories from the Haunted Ballroom, yup yup.) Essentially, Kirby takes samples from old, scratchy big band jazz records, stretches and EQs the shit out of them, buries them in reverb and delay, and overlays bits of harsh static and glitchy electronics, creating a distinct sense of queazy, decayed joy -- a ghost of happiness generating sounds of unsettling beauty from an almost completely forgotten past.

Track listing:
1. The Haunted Ballroom
2. By the Seaside
3. One Thousand Memories
4. Haunting Me
5. A Summer Romance
6. Den of Iniquity
7. Dream Waltz
8. A Handful of Stars
9. Request Dance
10. In the Dark
11. Reckless Night
12. Thronged with Ghosts
13. From Out of Nowhere
14. Friends Past Reunited
15. You and the Night
16. Moonlight Serenade
17. Disillusioned
18. The Revolving Bandstand
19. Garden of Weeds
20. "Excuse Me" for Ladies
21. In Days of Old
22. September 1939
23. Thanks
24. The Haunted Ballroom
25. Untitled

Midnight, the stars, and you