Music of the Moldering / If It Bleeds

by Matthew M. Bartlett

MUSIC OF THE MOLDERING: Strange things are afoot at the James S. Fresser Funeral Home. The new owner, Marcus Walther, has let things slip. Is it the exhaustion? The burden of responsibility? Or is it the old radio he found in the woods, the one that plays the strange, unsettling programming he remembers from his teenage years, preying on his vulnerabilities? His older sister Susie is flying in to help him get caught up. She thinks she’ll be balancing the books and paying the creditors. What she’ll discover there behind those silent walls, in those shadowed rooms that echo with grief, may be the end of her…and the beginning of a horror that will spread beyond Leeds to infect the world.

IF IT BLEEDS: A toe-tapping track from way back spreads like a virus through Leeds, Massachusetts, heralding a new era of unspeakable evil. WXXT - the slithering tongue in the ear of the Pioneer Valley. Are you ready to rock?

You’re listening to WXXT…the crooning from the tomb, the doom in the embalming room…the howl from the bowel of the Pioneer Valley.

Genres: Horror, Short Stories

121 pages, Paperback

Published July 17, 2021

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

[Janie · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Candles everywhere, flickering to the soundtrack of a scratchy record playing some old bouncy children's song, a high-pitched, kewpie doll voice, the needle skipping: ...inside me, where it's dark, *CLICK*, inside me, where it's dark, *CLICK*, inside me, where it's dark..."

[Milt Theo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an evil book. Diabolical. And demonic (sic). It made me see bugs dancing on walls. Two trippy stories spread the WXXT plague to the unwary. What a mind f*ck. Give me more.

[Lewis Housley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just love Bartlett's stories. Weird, hallucinatory, and interesting.

[Adrian Coombe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another absolute standout collection of two "tales from Leeds". I could read these into perpetuity. Nobody else does horror like this, the imagery is on another level. Part body horror, part folk horror, occult and weird town. Such a unique voice.

[Spencer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book brings us more unsettling tales from Bartlett’s town of Leeds where radio signals infect your ears, the insane rule and reality is just a suggestion.

[Chris Browning · Rating 3 out of 5]

The most frustrating thing about this book, other than it very blatantly wanting to be the Bewdley Mayhem, is that Bartlett is clearly a very good writer. He has striking images and writes good, tense prose and dialogue. But his ideas are frankly an overheated bunch of cliches and overdone tropes. Why Bewdley is so great is that it manages to disorient the reader by alluding to LOTS of horrible things, but leading the reader to imagine those horrors themselves. It’s far cleverer than just throwing gore and grue at you. It knows that the final shift to real, tangible panic inducing horror has to come from not so much suggestion as a kind of inevitability. This just falls short enough of that aim for it to be frustratingly banal in its horrors. It could have considerably more, but just can’t resist a cliche

[Claire · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can honestly say Bartlett is an original writer. His prose are well-written and the scenarios he presents to readers are compelling and extend beyond being weird. There isn't much in the way of a solid plot in these two works. They are a bunch of vignettes held together by their relationship to a sinister radio and its demonic broadcasts. I'll definitely check out more from Bartlett in the future.

[Alex Budris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another Greatest Hit from Bartlett.

[Curtis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I need to find and disable to hidden cameras Matthew Bartlett installed in my apartment so he stops being able to write about my daily life.