Fantasmario – Fantasmas
Similar artists: Motorama, Molchat Doma, New Order, Joy Division
Genre: Post-Punk, Gothic / Dark Wave
There are arguably more people waiting with faded breath for Halloween than they are awaiting Christmas. They’ll likely have more fun during Halloween. And, most likely, the people fascinated with this made-up holiday of spooky thrills are more interesting folks than the ones dreaming about hanging mistletoe in the living room.
But what kind of music do you need during the spooky Halloween season? Certainly, there are numerous styles of music constructed with the purpose of scaring you out of your wits. But the likes of black metal or which house simply do not offer the thrills to go along with the fright. What is needed are ghoulishly fun songs.
Fantasmario’s “Fantasmas” is an excellent Halloween jingle because of just how memorable they manage to make a post-punk sound. The keyboard riff is truly one that will be hard to push out of your brain. The Mexican group does great, completely unexpected things with the resonant post-punk format in which they loosely operate. Mark this down and consider it for your Halloween party.
Super Passive – Wasteland
Similar artists: ACTORS, EKKSTACY, Pink Turns Blue, Light Asylum
Genre: Post-Punk, Gothic / Dark Wave
True musical crossovers are very rare. And the folks promoting the songs are helping very much. Walk into a store and see all the records stacked up according to strict genre delimitations. Scroll through your Spotify playlists and notice the same thing but in digital form.
In terms of emotion, at least, Super Passive aims to create a musical hybrid meant to confuse those willing to judge only by using very strict parameters. But it’s a natural and human approach. When it the last time that you only felt sad? When was the last time that your joy wasn’t closely followed by dark clouds of sadness and dread?
Super Passive’s “Wasteland” is a memorable, jolly goth song. There’s darkness here that you can almost hear crashing against the walls of a prison cell. But it’s also a lo-fi song built over a great, danceable beat and featuring the kind of vocal melodies that even The Cure’s Robert Smith might pine over. This is one, clearly, for the goth discos, establishments that are running dangerously low on new songs of these types and of this quality.
