Recently it seems that horror aesthetics have gone mainstream and “spooky season” now lasts year-round. That said, few artists commit to the bit — or elevate it — quite like Hounds & Jackals. The multidisciplinary project, helmed by creator and clinician Bruce Ballon (a.k.a. J.O.A.T.), has always treated music not just as entertainment but as an extension of world-building: part narrative universe, part psychological mirror, part midnight séance. With Don’t Stiff the Ferryman, Ballon steps ever deeper into that occult speakeasy known as Club Styx, where the cocktails are cursed, the torch singers are doomed, and the house band — a wendigo on sax, a werewolf on drums, a Yuki-Onna at the piano — keeps time for the damned.
The result? A six-song EP of dark jazz noir that feels like stumbling upon a lost vault of supernatural standards — a collection of ghost-cabaret showpieces that channel Cat People, The Innocents, Lovecraft, Lynch, and more, all while threading through a surprisingly modern, emotionally incisive undercurrent. Hounds & Jackals aren’t just paying homage to horror history; they’re resurrecting it, glamorizing it, and letting its spirits waltz out into the present.
“Cross” (feat. Vimmy Nyx)
The EP opens with a smoky, carnivalesque strut — part haunted big-band, part back-alley revenge fantasy. Vimmy Nyx delivers a vocal that slinks and snaps in equal measure, somewhere between a late-night torch singer and a demoness settling old debts. The clarinet curls like ghost-fingers around an upright bass line, while the drums swing with the swagger of a Halloween burlesque revue. Nyx leans into the lyrics’ fury — “You’ll know what it’s like to cross a woman like me, baby…I will destroy you” — with a confidence that could peel paint off the club walls. It’s camp, it’s cabaret, it’s killer. Think of a Tim Burton Halloween special filtered through What We Do in the Shadows, then drag it into a jazz den and let it burn slow.
“O Willow Waly” (feat. Lorelai Lilac)
A ghost-lullaby turned fatalistic confession, this cover of Paul Dehn’s classic Innocents lament is rendered with exquisite restraint. Lorelai Lilac’s voice wavers like candlelight in a ruined manor, balancing modern singer-songwriter vulnerability with old-world gothic poise. The piano mourns, the bass sighs, the drums barely dare intrude. It’s simple, devastating, and possessed by the same tragic elegance as the film that inspired it.
“Welcome to My House” (feat. Demi Dusk)
If David Lynch curated a haunted waltz at The Roadhouse, it might sound like this. A harpsichord-like keyboard ticks like a cursed music box while Demi Dusk whispers a greeting that sounds more like a threat.“None have yet left alive.” It’s pure gothic hospitality — charming, deadly, irresistible. With nods to The Haunting, Hill House, and Rosemary’s Baby, the track plays like a séance staged by a master of ceremony who can’t decide whether to seduce you or swallow you.
“Not the Same” (feat. Nigella Kneale)
The most contemporary cut on the EP plunges into cosmic dread. Nigella Kneale’s voice hovers like vapor, breathy and disembodied, as if she’s singing from the far side of a rift in space-time. Echoes of The Thing, The X-Files, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and Morricone’s icy tension coil around the track. What begins as a slow, driven drift becomes a quiet paranoia panic — a transformation hymn for anyone who’s ever come back from something changed, haunted, or unrecognizable.
“Justice Drowned” (feat. Circe Salem)Imagine Jessica Rabbit performing for a barnacle-encrusted audience in Innsmouth — that’s the vibe. Circe Salem delivers smoky film-noir melancholy with ocean-floor gravitas. The lyrics are pure brine-soaked fatalism: “Justice drowned as truth was denied.” It’s a torch song for the wrongly accused, the condemned, and the forgotten — a courtroom drama swallowed whole by the sea and retold as a jazz requiem. Dark, elegant, and one of the EP’s standouts.
“Strange Love” (feat. Mina Midnight)
Closing with a cover from Lust for a Vampire, Hounds & Jackals lean fully into their vintage horror romance sensibilities. Mina Midnight croons with moonlit longing as piano and bass lay down a velvet-soft pulse and the sax drapes itself like a ghost across her shoulders.It’s a heartbreaker — fragile, forbidden, and lush — operating somewhere between Shape of Water romance and old Hammer Horror glamour. A perfect curtain call for Club Styx.
The Verdict
Don’t Stiff the Ferryman isn’t just an EP — it’s a spectral micro-musical, a ghost-jazz concept piece, and a love letter to horror cinema, all wrapped in the glimmer of vintage cabaret and modern dark-pop sensibility. Each track feels like a character stepping out of the shadows to tell their tale before retreating back into the mist. Hounds & Jackals are crafting something rare: a multimedia mythology that uses genre, camp, and macabre charm to explore mental health, trauma, and resilience — all without ever losing sight of entertainment. It’s horror with heart, jazz with teeth, and world-building with real soul.
Welcome to Club Styx. The candles are low, the spirits are restless, and the Bone Pickers are already warming up.
Just don’t forget to tip the ferryman.
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