Music and its effect on perception of the Backrooms

Marked as Spoiler just in case due to discussion of a broad variety of topics in this post

Hello all,

Having been a fond fan of the Backrooms concept, Kane’s iteration of the original picture and story, as well as a fan of many different genres of music, but especially Boards of Canada and other ambient works, I decided to test a tried and true scientific approach to listening to music while watching movies or short stories.

Much in the same way that we have found that Pink Floyd’s Dark side of the Moon and Wizard of Oz play into each other quite well, and knowing already how much of Kane’s own music and inspirations (additional shout out to the Caretaker) have shaped his version of the Backrooms, I set out to see if my emotions and perception of the Backrooms would change while listening to various musical artists, then record my experiences here in this post.

Could be a bit of a long one.

I was first inspired to try this out after knowing my own experience with “The Word Becomes Flesh” (the Boards of Canada song that plays as the credits) was noticeably shifted after watching the movie. I’d been at a listening party for Inferno just the night before I saw the movie, and had very different reactions each time I’d heard the song. (Try as I might I can’t get back to the way I felt hearing it with no context except the album itself.)

Before you read further I should add, for context, as the movie wasn’t available for streaming I solely used the found footage videos, and a few of the ASYNC research clips to only get the Backrooms itself. The goal was to see if I could replace the dread and the tension, the uncanniness I felt going in with the ideas of curiosity, wonder, and peace.

Here are my results.

Let’s start with Boards of Canada.
Geogaddi and Inferno were in my experience no go’s, their concepts and soundscapes were too grating as they were to remove any sense of the fear and uncanny of the scope of the Rooms.
Music has the Right, Campfire Headphase, & Tomorrows Harvest (arguably) made for the most calming effect of making it more like a place I’d like to explore.
There were some tracks from Geogaddi and Inferno that were outliers, namely “You retreat in time and space”, “Beware the friendly stranger”, “Into the Magic Land” to name a few.
In the same way the other three had some that brought the fear right back. “Jacquard Causeway”, “One very important thought”, and “Slow this Bird Down”

Stars of the Lid
Stars of the Lid did a fantastic job at providing a sonically safe space to be when listening to them and watching the backrooms unfold. The way they distort time effortlessly made for an easy idea of exploration and getting lost that made the Backrooms very comfortable as a concept. Their refinement of the decline, and the Tired Sounds Of… made for fantastic sonic scapes to drift away in.

Brian Eno
Music For Airports 1 & 2 were just repetitive enough to allow for the meditation necessary to detach from the megalithic scope of the Backrooms. Notable outlier was 1/2, the slight chanting made it a bit less grounding.

Aphex Twin
50/50. Looked mainly at SAW 1 & 2, tried the latest Blackbox Recorder and honestly? Kinda felt like playing a Tony Hawk game. So yeah it worked, but I didn’t think it was quite the same feeling. Which, is fine, that’s what the tests were for. Anyway SAW 1 & 2 themselves are usually pretty ambient and comfortable. “Schottkey 7th Key”, “Pholemy” to name SAW 1 were my outliers, while on SAW 2, I’d recently read House of Leaves to this album, and so it felt very reminiscent to the ideas posed within that book. However for the most part I felt pretty at ease while listening to that record. Notable times I didn’t were “2 (Radiator)”, “7 (Curtains)”, “5 (Grass)”, and “18 (Windowsill)”.

Nurse with Wound
All I have to say here is No. There was not really a time I felt comfortable with the idea of the Backrooms while listening to Nurse with Wound. It was a bad idea and the entirety of A Sucked Orange was made worse by having the Backrooms in the background.

Swans
“Soundtrack for the Blind” actually made for a really great Backrooms pairing album. The tracks I thought would scare me deeper really… didn’t. Of course the grating sounds from “How They Suffer” and “Her Mouth is Filled with Honey” really killed the mood

We Lost the Sea
The concepts of Loss and Grief were felt very prominently on their record “Departure Songs”
In fact their latest three showings each were merely echoed in their approach to how they played with the Backrooms. It made them feel less uncanny but the haplessness was in its stead. It wasn’t the positivity I wanted going in.

Hammock
Where to even begin? Hammock as a project are just so massive in scope, and their identity is found in calming and finding you where you are. Not a single outlier, they filled the space with a warming comfort for certain.

Genres
After trying each of the above bands for their more ambient and instrumental approaches, I gave a couple of straight genres a try. I didn’t dwell too long on this however, as I’d started to form a bias of genres and what I thought they’d do, as lyrics also drove a bit of the feelings in as well.

Grunge? Fine. Angrier, emotional, didn’t really pay attention to their coexistence moreso their presence.

Metal? Alright, once it started getting into more death metal space I was just more unnerved by metal just being there. Gnaw Their Tongues, Ouroboros, Death, Testament, Black Sabbath (especially their first album), Necrophagist,

Comedy? Sure it made me happier but then I started reflecting on the concept of not making it out and finding temporary peace in one last laugh. Bo Burnham, Tom Lehrer, John Lithgow (he did have a music career too!), Tally Hall,

Alternative Rock? Felt the most calming of all. Little bit of Alternative, Emo, Tiny bits of country and Americana, bands like Pinegrove, Pinback, American Analog Set, Death Cab for Cutie, Kings of Convenience. They had the nice added effect of adding memories you may favor to one side or bias your own way, so it felt like misremembering and coexisting with the Backrooms in a symbiotic way.

So what’s the point of all this? What should you take away from what I’ve done?
It makes me think that perspective, individuals, and mindset are huge factors for the Backrooms. Depending on the genre I was playing I could start to rationalize with characters we’ve seen enter the Backrooms. The curiosity they display when mapping it out, in adventuring before entities appear, just wanting to grasp the place they’ve found themselves in. How Ravi can cope with the end of it all and still smile as he passes away. How Clark can find his way and say it’s right where he was meant to be even after finding the Still Life’s and Entities.
I thought about how I would feel both if I knew of the concept of the Backrooms and if I didn’t, how now if I found it I would be absolutely terrified and checking every wall to escape; and if I didn’t, I would feel an immense natural sense of exploration and way-finding.

If Kane’s own music selection isn’t enough for your perception of the Backrooms, start with Stars of the Lid, Boards of Canada, or Brian Eno. You may come to see the rooms in a very different light, and find yourself comforted by your memories you’ve super imposed on to the spaces within. Cherish your memories, especially as they appear. You won’t have them forever the way they always were. Music is a very powerful tool.