Halloween music with a local twist? Orlando's Madd Illz and C.B. Carlyle have got you covered

This ain't your daddy's Monster Mash

By Bao Le-Huu on Wed, Oct 25, 2023 at 9:53 am

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Courtesy photo

Orlando rapper Madd Illz goes all-in on Halloween

Whether it’s “Thriller” (OK, classic), “Ghostbusters” (stop already) or, now, “Goo Goo Muck” (bless you, Wednesday), options abound for your Halloween playlist. But if you’re looking for homegrown chills, there’s no better source this year than the area’s most haunted band: C.B. Carlyle & the Desert Angels.

To provide the season’s creepings, the deliciously dark gothic country act recently released the single “Evil Dead, 1923.” It’s a special remix of their song “Gloaming, 1938” from last year’s Where Bones Glow EP. While “Gloaming, 1938” is a faded, ghostly meditation, the new version is an eerie midnight hex made even more sinister with audio from Evil Dead Rise. “Evil Dead, 1923” now streams everywhere and is on This Little Underground’s Spotify playlist.

But possibly this year’s biggest Halloween music campaign in Orlando comes from a surprising corner. None other than local battle-rap beast Madd Illz has spent the last month rolling out a flurry of Halloween singles.

Though the topics are dark, the trick and treat of this remarkable eight-track series is that the music within shows a stunning rainbow of range. Illz has been gradually diversifying his palette recently, but nothing embodies that development quite like this suite of singles. The style topography spans Gorillaz-esque jams (“Silver Bullet,” “Blow”), stomping cabaret (“Spooky Queen”), moody tango (“Dangerous”), jazzy swagger (“Automatic”), introspective trap (“Reset”) and indie rock (“That’s Not You”).

Maybe even more notable is that the lifelong MC actually wields the mic far more here as a singer than a rapper, crooning on all the songs but dropping bars on only two.
Besides a motley and fascinating kaleidoscope of an ever-evolving musician, Madd Illz’s Halloween singles also feature some of his most striking album art to date, all done by himself. The songs are available only on Bandcamp.

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