It’s officially October, which means it’s time to break let the anxiety begin of deciding which party you’re going to attend at the end of the month and settle on exactly how clever your costume is going to be. It also means it’s socially acceptable to finally break out that neglected playlist of Halloween music you’ve been curating for the past 11 months.

One addition you should take into serious consideration is this Ghostbusters EP from Black Market, a Nashville mashup artist known for taking popular entities and reworking them into surprisingly pleasing Dub versions. Truth be told, there’s much in his discography that would work for this particular holiday season – Stranger Things Dub, “Thriller” Dub, Twin Peaks Dub or The Twilight Zone – but if there can only be one selection to emerge from the pile, let it be Ghostbusters.

The EP is just four tracks but he manages to squeeze in Ray Parker Jr, tons of clips from the entire Ghostbusters crew, just enough Zuul and the right balance of creepy crawly instrumentation. Plus, it’s Dub so it’s inherently laid back and chill; not an overly doom-and-gloom undertaking. It’s Halloween for those that like to kick back, open up a bag of miscellaneous bulk candy and have a relaxed good time.

The Mad Gear is an instrumental rock band that is largely known for creating songs done in the vein of videogame music. Their last full-length record, Super Mad Gear: Symphony of the Fight dove into familiar works from Megaman X, Super Metroid, Bad Dudes, Donkey Kong Country and the less familiar Gremlins 2 and Sonic Spinball. If you follow them on any social network, their passion for these songs clearly comes from a non-kitschy place.

That being said, they do create their own original music. 2017’s Go Right and Fight OST was all original compositions that served as the actual soundtrack to a beat-em-up game of the same name. 2014’s The Mad Gear Must Pay was also original composition, recorded live with very few edits. All that is to give context to the fact that “Nebuli” is an original composition that feels like live videogame music but it’s not chiptune and it’s much better produced than their previous live offering.

The shredding guitar, the prominent bass, the big drum fills and the swirling keyboards all feel like familiar videogame elements but it’s the saxophone that really sets The Mad Gear apart. At first glance you’d assume it would stick out like a sore thumb in this environment but it gives the music a noir vibe that would be harder to come by otherwise. It instantly feels like there’s a story of some sort unfolding because of that wailing. Maybe I’m just being overly partial to usage of the instrument but it works and it works well.

All and all, it’s great to see the band dipping back into the world of originals as that usually means there’s some impressive project that goes to accompany it.

We spent a good deal of time covering the impending release of Twen’s debut full-length, Awestruck. We were overjoyed at the news back in March of 2019 that they’d signed to Frenchkiss and would be releasing the album via them. We were equally as pleased when the band released four singles from the record and two incredibly great videos for “Holy River” and “Damsel.” So, with all that pre-release coverage in place, it only makes sense to actually tackle the record itself.

With four singles leading into the album it was a fairly safe bet on where to place expectations; a delicate balance of indie pop informed by some shoegaze elements and the occasional off-kilter vocal lilt. What’s surprising is the places the album goes that is only barely hinted at within the singles. “Baptism” gives a glimpse at the more chaotic places the album is willing to go but it isn’t until you dive into album tracks “Awestruck”, “Long Time” and closer “Horseblood” that it really clicks that the band isn’t just writing shoegaze pop songs, they’re willing to infuse some soaring cacophony when the occasion calls for it.

All things considered, Twen’s story is relatively short. They released a Live EP back in 2016 and now find themselves with a major indie release and a robust tour schedule behind it. That’s not to underplay their hard work; the opposite in fact. The band’s unique blend of elements and willingness to embrace a bit of dramatic presentation with a massive wall of sound is a brilliant and infectious accomplishment. When the time comes for Best Of Lists to crawl out of the woodwork, Awestruck should be considered in the short list.