Dead Air: Early Broadcasts

by Matthew M. Bartlett, Yves Tourigny (Illustrator), Tom Breen (Introduction)

Five years prior to the publication of "Gateways to Abomination", Matthew M. Bartlett put out a book called "Dead Air". That book is now extremely scarce. This volume contains most of the unpublished work from that book, a few dark poems, and stories and fragments that later appeared in "Gateways to Abomination" and "Creeping Waves". It also features magnificently creepy artwork by Yves Tourigny, as well as Tom Breen's original introduction. Witness the early days of dread magus Benjamin Stockton, and of his demonic radio station WXXT, with all its guts, worms, wriggling things, and voices from the dark.

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Weird Fiction

190 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Matthew M. Bartlett was born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1970. He writes dark and strange fiction at his home in Western Massachusetts, where he lives with his wife Katie and an unknown number of cats.

Reviews

[Karl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Most of Matthew Bartlett's stories take place in and around Leeds Massachusetts. In his first book, "Dead Air" Mr. Bartlett unfolds the history of and many of the characters involved with the radio station of the damned WXXT.

This book is quite disturbing. Not that pipe wrench in the face hardcore kind of disturbing, but the kind of unsettling notion that comes creeps upon a person when it's least expected. The Kind of disturbing that slowly drains the blood from your body as you realize there is a dead body in the next room, and that body is moving.

A clue should be that he book is suitably printed on Black Paper kind of like an undertakers suit. And Matthew Bartlett builds a nightmare reality that many others have tried to create, but few are as accomplished as this.

Highly Recommended.

[Bill · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been seeking out Matthew’s work in a semi-stalkery manner for the past few years because I don’t want to miss any of it. It’s consistently great. There’s something about the writing that floors me. It’s weird and addictive. So damn good.

The mythos revolving about the town of Leeds, Massachusetts and the WXXT radio station is endlessly fascinating to me and I could read about it for days on end. These are the earliest tales.

You’ve been listening to WXXT, the oozing lesions on the nodules of Leeds.

[Brian O'Connell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Intensely unnerving stories that show Bartlett's evolution as a writer and the way his WXXT Mythos has changed (e.g., Ben Stockton is a ghost in this, but in "Gateways to Abomination" &c. he's something far more sinister). Non-canonical, but still really effective, with some gorgeous Yves Tourigny illustrations and a very creepy Tom Breen intro.

[Spencer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've yet to read anything by Matthew Bartlett that has not immensely impressed me! Even a collection such as this, filled with concepts, earlier versions and unreleased material still manages to stand out as something special.
As a huge fan of Matthew it was really interesting to see how he started and how his work has evolved. I'd reccomend this book to new and old fans alike!

[Steven · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow.

[Lori · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collection of Bartlett's earliest stories about a fictionalized Leeds, Massachusetts and its diabolical radio station WXXT. Feels a bit rough compared to his later work but provides an interesting look at how his worldbuilding and character concepts evolved.

[Venatici · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enter the depraved world of Ben Stockton, mage, witch, demon of the airwaves, broadcasting mind melting worm fuelled gibberish from his illegal woods based WXXT radio station. Short chapters of perverse grotesquery, madness oozing from the pores and smelling of honey, horrors so vivid that wooden teeth splinter and woodworms whisper naughty lullaby's. I just love, love love the seriously messed up and unique imaginings of M. Bartlett, a visionary madman, delerious and laughing, who shares his horror with a steak knife.
Awesome work and one of the very best horror writers in the world.

[Joel Hacker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Are you a Bartlett fan, a fan of WXXT/Leeds? Do you want to see what birthed the crawling, mewling horror you've come to love, what viscous fluids were purged along with it? Then Dead Air is for you. A collection of some of the earliest short pieces, fragments, and ephemera that started everything. Accompanied, as always, by delightfully disturbing interior art depicting the bizarre and macabre inhabitants and events surrounding Leeds.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like most “early and unpublished works” this collection is more rewarding as a curiosity, an artifact, a rough blueprint for things to come. Although it lacks the focus and cohesion Bartlett’s masterpiece, Gateways to Abomination, it compensates—sometimes to a fault—with wide reaching and wild ideas. Very interesting to see these sketches, but a bit challenging for the casual reader (even a fan like me). For die-hards, for sure. 3.5 stars.

[Curtis · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of these are in his other collections, but it's still a cool volume to own. I bought this on Kindle but then a signed paperback mysteriously arrived in my mailbox so I mixed formats. Hopefully I didn't read someone else's copy but the box had my name and address on it lol.

[Brian O'Connell · Rating 5 out of 5]

One word description: fantastic.