Whitechapel - Witch House

Witch House

2010-07-13T07:27:07-07:00

Witch House: A floating point between glo-fi, goth, post-punk, library music hauntology, drone, doom ambient and a spooky pouch of other things. And bad Italian horror movies, apparently.

Ghost Trance, maybe. Heh. Have a listen. I must admit, I’m liking some of this, in a troubling reminiscent-of-youth way:

I picked up the White Ring/oOoOO split 7? as a download the other month. They’ve been ringfenced by some commentators as part of this whole thing. As have a band evidently called †‡†, who I may rename “Twats” as it turns out “†‡†” is unsearchable nonsense on the internet. Several of these bands are big on using symbols as part or all of their names, which seems to just confuse the fuck out of Google.

These people like their crosses. Like Gr†ll Gr†ll.

†‡† appear to live at this MySpace page -- because †‡† is of course unsearchable and generally not terribly handy for this internet lark, they use the ID "rrritualzzz" on MySpace.

It occurred to me last night that having a name that Google can’t process well might actually be entirely deliberate. On the internet, there is no real underground anymore. So if you wanted to create an underground for yourself, the first thing you might do is generate a sort of lexical darknet by using keyterms search engines can’t parse.

Which is actually pretty clever.

"Witch House," however, will throw up lots of stuff on Google. Give it a try. (The witch house group at last.fm is locked, by the way, you have to request to join)

Witch House

2010-07-13T07:43:18-07:00

there are a few blogs that you can find things on, however, after much listening, my main gripe is the lack of quality control.
some tracks do sound like they've been composed, recorded and uploaded within a 20 minute time frame.
wading deep, there are many gems to be found

Witch House

2010-07-13T07:47:30-07:00

Well, it's basically the new iteration of bedroom pop, I think, and so some "bands" are throwing pieces on YouTube as soon as they're done.

There aren't yet that many bands in the form like Salem, for instance:

Witch House

2010-07-13T08:12:51-07:00

The once great blog known as ButterXGirls which is now WWWIDOWWWWS (and still great) had an excellent post a while back about it and I did appreciate some small charms from Salem and Balam Acab as being interesting...

We'll see...

Witch House

2010-07-13T12:15:16-07:00

I would say that †‡† and Salem are probably the best of the ones around at the moment.....

Witch House

2010-07-13T14:29:17-07:00

It occurred to me last night that having a name that Google can’t process well might actually be entirely deliberate. On the internet, there is no real underground anymore. So if you wanted to create an underground for yourself, the first thing you might do is generate a sort of lexical darknet by using keyterms search engines can’t parse.

For me this ties in neatly with Oddcult's Where's the weird gone? thread.

But by deliberately excluding themselves from Google, they're creating an artificial scarcity of information, which could be a little contrived (along with the fact that the last.fm group is locked/invite only).

It'll be interesting to see whether this approach is in order to prevent (or at least delay) absorption by the monoculture, or just a canny marketing campaign (like Google's invite-only beta versions, where a scarcity is artificially manufactured in order to create a buzz). Or maybe they just like weird symbols - quite possible when there's a generation of kids with MySpace names like ~<~caos~heart~>~

Witch House

2010-07-13T16:21:08-07:00

I'm not sure why, but when something about this came up on the web site the other day, my first thought was "Witch house needs an in-house photographer." Every movement needs good propaganda, even if it's secret propaganda.

deliberately excluding themselves from Google, they're creating an artificial scarcity of information, which could be a little contrived (along with the fact that the last.fm group is locked/invite only)

This will, I feel, be immediately familiar to anyone who's had dealings with any informal group composed of teenage girls.

Witch House

2010-07-16T06:54:54-07:00

listened to the mix warren linked to on tumblr last night, really enjoying this at the moment.
it really does remind me of some kind of murky-proto industrial, strange ambiguous bands who released on tapes and CD-Rs and you were lucky to be able to get your hands on 1 of their 100 edition print runs.

Witch House

2010-07-16T09:37:34-07:00

Suicide Witch House is wild. Love the strange dark electro. Inspired me to listen to some Suicide again and to seek out further atrocities. (also some of those bad Italian horror films are awesome, in Phenomena the female protagonist communicates telepathically with insects to track dead bodies and the music is evil heavy)

Witch House

2010-08-04T01:06:39-07:00

can't type triangles or squiggles ? try here

Witch House

2010-08-12T15:57:39-07:00

well the mainstream media have finally caught onto it... if only because of MiA titling her album /\/\/\Y/\.

the Guardian: Meet the bands whose /\/ /\ /\/\ € $ are made out of $¥ /\/\ ß 0 \ $

It starts off speaking to the likes of /\ but then mislabels Mater Suspiria Vision as Mater Suspiria Cult. Oh well...

Witch House

2010-08-17T15:20:36-07:00

Someone has tagged their old tape experiments as Witch House on archive.org. Worth a listen.

Witch House

2010-08-18T03:47:07-07:00

Wow. This was the first I heard of this stuff. Love it like an addict now. Thanks.

Witch House

2010-08-20T18:18:59-07:00

Just listened to the first Mater Suspiria Vision track that The Big W posted again, this time with Misty Mountain Hop (not one of my favourite Led Zep tracks) playing at the same time at ~50% volume. A very odd & affecting experience - although admittedly possibly related to a number of other factors.

It's one way to spend your Friday night, anyway.

Witch House

2010-08-21T13:50:34-07:00

The embedding for the following Salem track has been disabled, so I'll post the link below. This is one of the creepiest videos I've ever seen. The video itself seems to have strange properties. I first found it probably two years ago. I forgot about it, then when I went to find it again it was gone. Then it came back. Then it was gone. And I mean, nowhere. For a while I couldn't even find Salem on youtube, all references to the band name going straight to another band with the same name, a black metal somethingorother from, I think, Israel, whose video was removed because apparently it contained real footage of death. Not wanting to go anywhere near that I again forgot the band, and now here it is. It's probably just my youtube ineptitude, but the mulder in me says maybe this is more forced scarcity.

Witch House is pretty damn cool.
Link:

Salem: dirt

Witch House

2010-08-21T14:46:11-07:00

@ Shawn -Dirt is creepy wicked, long time fan of evil synthesizers ( and bad italian horror) but just discovered this stuff here and have since become felt a crawling obsession and possession with the WitchHouse.

Witch House

2010-09-30T02:19:10-07:00

Witch House lands in Russia

Witch House

2011-01-16T08:47:03-08:00

I made a Witch House mix, not sure if I got the genre *exactly* right but there's some nice stuff in there by oOoOO, Story of Isaac, RAW MOANS and a classic by Glass Candy. Enjoy.

Witch House

2011-01-16T23:04:31-08:00

Latest from ENSEMBLE ECONOMIQUE. Pretty damn good:

Witch House

2011-01-17T09:36:32-08:00

I'm 2 mins in, and this isn't remotely witch housey, Nigredo -- but it's very nice...

Witch House

2011-01-17T09:38:42-08:00

V‡S kULt : ST?RLETS

Witch House

2011-01-17T10:18:59-08:00

st?nd by I†† Soundcloud. This one has a nice dark ambient industrial feel to it. Definitely classed as "spooky".

there are also a couple of Witch House Groups on Soundcloud. Both titled (ahem) Witch House and ¢|-|Ao§ /\/\aG‡¢K.

It definitely seems that a lot of the Witch House activity is starting to gravitate away from places like MySpace to the likes of SoundCloud. Also i notice that the best visuals/videos are on Vimeo as well...

Witch House

2011-01-17T10:27:43-08:00

Mater Suspiria Vision's video guy, whose name escapes me at the moment, colonised Vimeo very early on.

I††, aka eyecrosscross, aka Chris Hopper, has done some really interesting stuff. His wife, Tammy, used to hang out on my previous message board. This is Tammy witching it up in their backyard for the video for "lofi my i":

Witch House

2011-01-17T11:31:08-08:00

lofi my i - looc s'taht, tihs

Witch House

2011-01-17T23:02:56-08:00

@ Warren

Don't judge Ensemble Economique by that sole track. You should check out Psychical. Definitely Witch Housey. A sample:

Witch House

2011-01-19T13:08:35-08:00

A nice tongue in cheek article about Witch House on Flavourwire

Witch House

2011-01-22T06:44:07-08:00

http://soundcloud.com/vaginavangi

Witch House

2011-02-05T07:48:12-08:00

M?S?C?RA - CLOCHI (VIDEO BY STORY OF ISAAC)

Their SoundCloud

Witch House

2011-02-05T07:57:18-08:00

A lot of this stuff reminds me of Dark Ambient.

LARGE SURPRISE: Eno did that too.

Edit: Try listening to more than one of these at once. This works for a lot of different music, but it's easier to find compatible songs with dissonant ambient like this.

Witch House

2011-02-05T08:57:52-08:00

I dunno that even Eno would characterise ON LAND as dark ambient...?

I'm finding myself replaying this a lot, again, this past week:

Witch House

2011-02-05T09:11:02-08:00

I'd say it was part of it's formation, at least.

Witch House

2011-02-08T03:17:32-08:00

I've made another Witch Haus mix:

////////†3x†UR3 – sØ...sp3c†R?L/////////
[ wi†cH H?uS / dr?g / ElEc†RØ mix ]

Still not sure if I'm missing the point, but enjoying playing with all these spooky noises and ghostly electro riffs.

Witch House

2011-02-21T01:52:29-08:00

Cross-post from the weekly listening thread. I think Wise Blood are probably the most commercial-sounding band you could place in the axis of ///witchhaus\\\... Mainstream crossover potential?

Witch House

2011-02-28T08:36:13-08:00

†‡†, or ritualz, have their 2nd EP out now on Bandcamp!

GHETTO ASS WITCH BY RITUALZ

Witch House

2011-02-28T13:56:10-08:00

This is a VERY superior piece of Witch House IMHO

?AIMON - amen from Tundra Dubs.

Witch House

2011-02-28T18:11:56-08:00

Not a fan of Salem, but oOoOO and †‡† have been working their way to the top of my last.fm chart.
Would Demdike Stare count or is that considered something else?

Witch House

2011-03-09T07:13:19-08:00

New track by Master Suspiria Vision and How I Quit Crack, part of a compilation based around Twin Peaks. It's Vimeo, so click through to watch.

MASTER SUSPIRIA VISION feat. HOW I QUIT CRACK - (These are the last 7 days in the life of) Laura Palmer

Witch House

2011-03-09T17:36:37-08:00

@icelandbob- yeah that is a good piece of dead

Witch House

2011-03-10T07:03:17-08:00

@icelandbob @HEY APATHY! The whole EP, on Tundra Dubs, is lush. Really recommend purchasing.

Witch House

2011-03-10T12:29:25-08:00

†‡†'s new album is awesome. Currently loving White Ring

Everything Nattymari has ever mixed

Stalker's mix skyllz

GuMMy†Be?R!

????? ???i?? (iJESUS KHRIST)

and ummm.... ?

... Yeah I've been kinda obsessed lately. 'specially since I invested in the vinyl version of King Night.

Edited because I forgot to embed.

Witch House

2011-03-12T01:24:57-08:00

Post needed to be edited. None of the previous bands I had posted here had synthesized snare drums as their primary percussion.

Which, after listening to everything I could get my hands on by oOoOO, White Ring and †‡†, seems to be the "heart" of witch house.

Witch House

2011-03-15T13:37:28-07:00

@Ninewhilenine: Thanks for the headsup on ? and iJESUS KHRIST, great stuff.

Witch House

2011-03-16T13:35:37-07:00

@ †3X†UR3 Anytime. I'll post more on as I wade through it all...

Witch House

2011-03-31T08:09:04-07:00

New Witch Haus mix by myself on Radio Magnetic. LOts of stuff from this thread included - Ritualz, Wise Blood etc.

Enjoy.

Witch House

2011-03-31T12:47:28-07:00

Some new Witch House from ~?††?~

~?††?~

but if you want something for Free, then you can get this 3 track single from ??? (YES that IS the bands name...)

Demo (2011)

Witch House

2011-03-31T15:01:34-07:00

Stuff I've found/buzzed off recently...

M?S?C?RA : Shadow of Tonight

Mater Suspiria Vision : Der Haus Die Hexe (and various remixes on Soundcloud)

MATER SUSPIRIA VISION - Das Haus der Hexe (2011) from Mater Suspiria Vision on Vimeo.

OMFG NEU MSV. Seriously though. And it's on vinyl too.

M¥rr? Ka Ba : G666 (ì?díca?d??per edit) - just an excellent drag/edit.

M??? M????? : ??iL P?gâ§u§ (new version)
Unusual, but awesome.

????? ???i?? : ?????? (new set) - Usually brilliant, always a mindfvck.

Frank Alpine : Dark Places
This one is very much like a newer version of Bauhaus' "Dark Entries"...

zxz : pyr?mid th?ry
zxz it turns out, it is a really awesome guy. Also check out his tribute to The Danse Society.

Unison : Blood Blood Blood
AWESOME. The black metal influences creeping in a bit.

And last but certainly not least, the very awesome Story of Isaac. Their screwed Witchy Crystal Castles remixes are available via the CC facebook site for nowt, and they are recommended, but this is awesome on another level (Technically Zombie Rave but what the hey - WH is a melting-pot genre anyways):
Story of Isaac : /\LL †H? †H!N6$ $H? $/\!D - Z0/V\8!? ?^V? ?D!†

That should be enough to be going on with. Sorry if it seems a little spammy.

Witch House

2011-03-31T16:26:30-07:00

@Ninewhilenine83

Wow UNISON have changed their sound a bit! I remember their first track "outside" back in 2009. That stuff they did with ritualzzz must have put the hex on them a bit....

Witch House

2011-03-31T16:38:23-07:00

@ Icelandbob

I thinking working with Ritualzzz would damn most to writing runes in the soil, let alone still being able to produce music.

Honestly though, a lot of electronic musicians seem to be abandoning whatever they were doing (hip hop, noize, electro etc) and just kind of following the WH scene. I've heard enough stories that pretty much follow that path to convince me it's becoming a legit movement, no matter what anyone else says. That Unison track blew me away though. And to hear the earlier stuff is kinda more amazing to see how much they've changed.

All hail the new ? sound.

Witch House

2011-04-04T16:43:36-07:00

Tonights Band for you is MELLOW GRAVE. From New Zealand, they're producing music that is witch house inspired, but along with the likes of Modern Witch and Tearist, have heavy gothic and post punk elements in there as well as the overloading synths and beat box rhythms....

Witch House

2011-04-05T02:36:59-07:00

My new favourites:

Particularly the SkeletonKids Theme. My particular interest is where WH crosses over with hip-hop. There's lots of potential there, I feel.

Witch House

2011-04-05T04:43:22-07:00

@ †3X†UR3 - agreed. SkeletonKids are next gen shit. Also SkeletonKids Theme is the best track of theirs.

@ icelandbob. I love Mellow Grave.

I found a few more things in the time of my last post. For a start, the Mater Suspiria Vision track "Das Haus Der Hexe" has about 9 remixes, all of Witch are awesome and can be found here:
cosmotropia-de-xam

The best by a country mile is Modern S†alking's Hexensabbat vocal mix.

iJesus Khrist (????? ???i??) has a newly uploaded track witch comes highly recommended.

And I found something terrifying and awesome this morn that may well fuck up the rest of my day, although sadly not much hip-hop influence. Truly 0KKVLT, though. Zehl Ian Valk's "As Food for Kraken" and "Atlantean Invocation of C'thulhu" both of witch are as fvcked up as they seem. This guy must shit nightmares.

Witch House

2011-04-05T05:24:58-07:00

Holy shee-it I forgot about the new Gvcci Hvcci stuff!

She worked with Ritualzzz on Ghetto Ass Witch, but she's been putting out a few tracks since then, appropriately subgenre'd "Witch Hop"...

Ham & Eggs
Crack the whip (cut the rope)

Witch House

2011-04-05T17:40:37-07:00

this band was brought to my attention as being witch house before witch house was witch house. dunno if i agree, but they've got some elements in common, and i dig the track.

Witch House

2011-04-06T06:58:56-07:00

Good mixes of witch haus / drag up here by SpiriT and High Park, presented by LOVE CULT:

Witch House

2011-04-12T04:21:39-07:00

We released some witch house on Black Lantern today:

Features a drag remix of 'Bucky Done Gun' which should appeal to the more hip-hop oriented witch. Enjoy.

EDIT to say - click the image to download.

Witch House

2011-04-12T16:30:29-07:00

The latest EP from I††, "The Greater Keys" released on Tundra Dubs came out last week....

Listen to it HERE. It's actually very spectral in it's sound. No really heavy synths, but lots of post industrial noises and echoes. It's actually pretty scary!

And a video for "Azaroth" can be seen HERE

Looks like Tundra Dub is fast becoming the new main playa in town for this type of music.

Witch House

2011-04-12T18:20:28-07:00

Tonight's listening has been - ??uxmu?ica - †?† ?nord †?†
1st impression: excellent.
http://nfrblog.blogspot.com/2011/04/download-uxmuica-nord.html

Witch House

2011-04-15T10:38:11-07:00

Thank you guys for your interest into our music, it's awesome :)

THe old tracks Outside & Brothers and Sisters will be on our LP that will be released in september 2011.
You will see that they perfectly match with the new tracks.
The whole thing is really logical and natural.

But it's really true that we LOVE Salem and we are undeniably influenced by their sound :)

Oh, we have a brand new video out today :http://vimeo.com/22435536
This is a really good piece of art directed by our homie REPAZE777 :)
I hope you will like it :)

xxx
Julien Unison

Witch House

2011-04-15T10:50:34-07:00

WOOHOO! Julien is here! See you in ?WI?CHBØØK?...

I'm not a stalker, honest.

Might as well post music while I'm here. A new find, another Northerner (Sheffield, no less) into Witch Haus... and he makes the most of it.

WIK?N. It's really good stuff.

Witch House

2011-04-15T13:42:47-07:00

Hiyah Julien!

cheers for some lovely music. Get your arse over to Iceland for a gig ASAP!

On a lighter note, This fan video, § - A Blue Rose: an Audio/Visual tribute to TWIN??PEAKS has been doing the rounds over the past couple of weeks.

It's rather fucked in the head....

Witch House

2011-04-15T16:23:20-07:00

God damn I love this stuff.

I find it works incredibly well as a mixtape. It gives me the same feeling I used to get listening to John Peel when I was 11.

Witch House

2011-04-16T14:02:33-07:00

Found this and got all excited...

† GOSTS † free EP. It excites the my "Disintegration" gland a bit furiously. GO GET IT NOW.

Witch House

2011-04-18T02:40:07-07:00

This is very good, don't think its a repost:

Vagina Vangi / Benighted United

Costs 1 euro - worth more.

Witch House

2011-04-20T06:25:49-07:00

This is really good - 11 track album from Party Trash.

For fans of Raw Moans and oOoOO. Their Soundcloud page has some good stuff too.

Witch House

2011-04-24T15:26:12-07:00

Zombie rave 5:
http://soundcloud.com/o-i-r-o/i-r-zombie-rave-5-mixtape

100 downloads, 20 left now GO GO GO!

ETA: Sorry, it's all gone... Until the inevitable Mediafire upload and dissection of each track on Youtube. It is a godly thing though. 100 downloads in 30 minutes - impressive.

Witch House

2011-04-24T15:44:23-07:00

"Silver Knight Gothic", The latest RP from M?S?C?RA Has now been released

You can listen to a couple of their tracks on SOUNDCLOUD

Witch House

2011-04-24T16:53:36-07:00

Mater Suspiria VIsion's Zombie Rave Mixtape 5

Yeah... I sorta stuck it up there ASAP. Go listen.

ALSO... Gonna pimp out my soundcloud account - I'm a novice in the field (like a weeks worth of fucking around before those tracks went up)... Lemme know whatcha think ;)

Witch House

2011-04-26T03:43:02-07:00

@Ninewhilenine: I like your stuff mate, gonna have a properlisten tonight!

Witch House

2011-04-26T05:54:05-07:00

@Ninewhilenine: This is interesting. CR3D17 1's got kind of a "draaaag-THUMP" feel to it, like something cyclopean and gibbous stalking its way through the woods surrounding a town.

Witch House

2011-04-26T11:09:30-07:00

@ Texture & Alan Tyson,

Thanks so much for the kind words, and encouragement. Terrifying and thumping was what I was going for, I think the ritualistic chanting before and after pretty much gives it a "Summoning giant fucking monster" feel to it...

Witch House

2011-05-02T16:48:23-07:00

another thing that could be pre-witch house....

Witch House

2011-05-03T09:06:13-07:00

This is really good.

Free download - chopped / screwed dead pop stars.

Witch House

2011-05-03T11:33:07-07:00

Bram you legend that's beautiful.

Story of Isaac's new summer mix... Definitely the more house side of WH but still undeniably awesome.

New E?RTHRISE track which I really love right now.

Witch House

2011-05-03T12:27:48-07:00

Excellent Find Bram!!

Tundra Dubs have gone and done it again....

?NGST - 984 EP by Tundra Dubs

I'M finding that As Witch House expands, metastasizes and matures, acts are now starting to career off into different trajectories as they become more comfortable in their sound. Some are going down the Hip Hop sample route like Skeletonkids, some are moving down the electro pop route, some are becoming more techno/house orientated like ?NGST, and some are moving towards the ambient /noise area, such as I†† .

Witch House

2011-05-04T04:11:48-07:00

@icelandbob: I like how diverse the genre is becoming too. My tastes are pretty broad - I like all the bands you mentioned, although I lean towards Skeleton Kids / GVCCI HVCCI / AAIMON.

The scale of my interest in WH has grown incredibly fast.... I think I have about 10gigs of Witch House now DL'd from Soundcloud, Bandcamp and various other places. I started listening about a year ago. By comparison, I only reached the 10gig mark with dubstep after a couple of years. Most significant for me personally is the fact that this shift in my tastes has also heralded the end of my vinyl-buying days... I feel no need to own beautifully crafted 12" vinyl discs of these witch house tunes, I am perfectly happy with them being disembodied electronic entities. It is a liberation.

EDIT:

Trancey loveliness from zxz

Witch House

2011-05-06T04:54:18-07:00

New track by Ritualz (versus Fostercare). Excited to here more Ritualz stuff! Out July...

†‡† vs. Fostercare - III

Witch House

2011-05-06T13:09:10-07:00

Ah shit Bram, i've only got 3 Gigs of the stuff! i'M letting the side down aren't i?

EDIT - And i'M SO buying that White Horse album....

Witch House

2011-05-11T06:18:54-07:00

You probably wanna grab this before it goes:

WHITE RING / MIX 4 HAM

Witch House

2011-05-13T04:38:39-07:00

New mix from me, exploring the more hip-hop / electro side of WH.There's a tracklist on soundcloud and in the DJ thread.

///////†3X†UR3 \\\\\\\..?__?C‡D-†R?NQ VØL. 1___?

Witch House

2011-05-15T16:34:12-07:00

Some new albums and EP have surfaced...

WIK?N have released their EP "MODUL?R WITCHCR?FT". they're a Witch house act from the UK who make some nice ambient based Dead sounds. They're on the Pale Noir label which is another hub for a lot fo the Wtich House acts such as Story of Isaac and I††. they also have their own Soundcloud.

Next up is the "Dusk House EP" from SPIDER?WEBS. Not as heavy as most witch House and is slightly more Disco and electronic based. I imagine it would be what Witch House would sound like if it was more into Kraftwerk instead of 80's Hip Hop.

Next up is some real hollow sounding dead music with ? L??????? ?? , the debut album from LoveÐieÐ. This is a full on mix dark Ambient and death doom witch house that contains both organic and electronic sounds. I will probably be using this in an up and coming mix. It just sounds so full of despair. I love it!

Witch House

2011-05-16T01:48:11-07:00

Cheers for the link to the new WIKAN bob - their debut ILLEGAL GRAVE MUSIC is also awesome, although I think the mediafire link it was stored at is inactive now :(

I'm really enjoying LOVEDIED as well - there's one of their tracks in the mix above. LOVEDIED is the other guy behind Immaculate Collective, along with G O S T S. Their Nate Dogg RIP tribute EP is really good.

Myself, I'm gorging on Haruki Tamesue. Psychedelic, fat as fuck and very experimental. Love it.

Witch House

2011-05-16T09:22:45-07:00

WIK?N are the shit. I knew it was due out soon, but it passed me by. It's damn tasty.

Haruki is a fucking legend. Don't tell him I said that - it'll go to his head. He's been making this shit for YEARS. I heard an IDM DJ set from him from 2000. It was still psychedelic, fat as fuck and very experimental back then.

My two bits: Modern Witch are doing a 7-inch crowdsource-thing that I like, and will contribute to when I get paid.

Some made the witch house version of Lady Gaga's "Judas" that we've all been waiting for. No-one guessed Goldfrapp would be the ones to do it...

And here we have -ghst- who is more awesome than anyone usually thinks. Their zombie edit of Frgma's "Toca's Miracle" is excellent.

DOSE's member Jonny Teardrop is awesome too. Dragged deep vocals and haunted bedroom music.

And erm... "World Goth Day"... just gonna leave that there.

Witch House

2011-05-16T19:18:08-07:00

hello,

as you may have read in the Musicians thread, i just got my old band's mp3s uploaded to the Free Music Archive.

in the process, i suggested to the managing director that he create a new section just for witch house. during this conversation i became the Free Music Archive's "volunteer curator" for the genre. that's what happens when you come up with good ideas.

anyways, if any witch house artists would like to get a little more exposure for their music (quelle horreurs!), please get in touch with me and i will help you get your music on the Free Music Archive. don't worry about your "artistic cred," the Archive is run by American freeform FM radio station WFMU and they can perform a cred transfusion if necessary.

the only requirement that the FMA has is that you put your music under the Creative Commons license. and if you throw your music around on the Internet, putting it under CC is a pretty damn good idea anyways.

for the curious, you can:

1) contact me and i can provide more information about the FMA

2) check out the following links so you know that i am serious as a heart attack:

http://www.wfmu.org/

http://freemusicarchive.org/

http://creativecommons.org/

Witch House

2011-05-17T06:41:51-07:00

Bravo monboddo! We have all the Black Lantern releases up on FMA too, and they are very good at promoting new / underground music. We've had over 1000 downloads of a few of thelabel's EPs from there, so I can confirm it is a great place to get exposure for your music and find new listeners. I look forward to seeing the stuff you curate for them!

Witch House

2011-05-25T07:02:04-07:00

This is interesting… Godlfrapp remix of Lady Gaga's Judas track, definitely Witch House tinged.
http://open.spotify.com/track/1qozbvbP2VDO3Yk05Ettob

EDIT: Never mind, I should learn to read threads.

Witch House

2011-05-25T08:30:33-07:00

This is really, really good electro-tinged whisssssssh hauuuuussss

Church / Church.

Witch House

2011-06-02T20:01:11-07:00

So my wife is watchind a dance competition show and I was thinking how interesting it would be to see a dance choreographed to a witch house track.

Witch House

2011-06-03T03:38:01-07:00

NOT NOW, SILENT SINGER!

Witch House

2011-06-08T06:37:05-07:00

New mix! Tranquilised hip-hop / drag / electro.

Witch House

2011-06-10T15:36:21-07:00

The Latest Video for V‡S kULt : SMALL IN NUMBER BUT GREATER IN MIND>>>

See if you can guess the films he used...

The Cut and paste visual were done by DAZ?D GAZE

Witch House

2011-07-29T10:48:06-07:00

†3X†UR3 did us proud. I think this should be the new "go to" document in Witch Haus...

http://www.dangerousminds.net/comments/guest_editorial_enter_the_witch_house/

Witch House

2011-07-29T10:58:56-07:00

my friends from Aaimon just posted that on there fb this morning. It's a great read, and incredibly well written. Awesome job, †3X†UR3!
(I say Aaimon because I forget what the mac command is for a delta symbol >.>)

Witch House

2011-07-31T16:03:03-07:00

Thanks guys! Had some comment-flak about the fact it is somewhat shallow as a piece, but it was intended as a primer rather than an analysis. Hope I'll be able to write some more about the individual bands for DM, as I have offers of interviews from eyedoublecross, Aaimon, skeletonkids and a few others...

Witch House

2011-08-04T01:52:15-07:00

^ Comment flak was by n00bs. The highest criticism you got was from Cosmotropia de Xam (Mater allfather) for not including Phantasma Disques (his brainchild of a label). Which just sounded WHINY.

Also by brethren and I collaborated with a soon-to-be magazine called Dior Nights. 17 tracks of sheer awesomeness and one by me for free.

"AURAL SECTS: A Mix for Dior Nights, selected by Ectoplasm & spf50."

Feel free to pick up a free copy.

Witch House

2011-08-04T03:25:05-07:00

Fuck the haters Bram

i remember when the Guardian did a piece on Witch House and hoo, boy was there a lot of bitterness in the comments section as well.

Even if it's not a massive genre in itself, you can't deny the fact is that it's a gamechanger in lo-fo electronics/ hip hop/noise

Witch House

2011-08-04T06:18:42-07:00

Also, there's the fact that it's a non-genre in many ways, a joke which most of the people who maake it are in on, hence they make up new labels every few seconds, unlike musicians from other camps / genres, who in my experience just tend to avoid labels completely. There's a self-awareness about folks like Ritualz and Mater Suspiria that I really admire - an embracing of cliche (rave synths, 808 drum patterns) that is reinvigorating rather than annoying. Thanks for reading anyway guys!

Witch House

2011-08-04T06:40:19-07:00

Funny thing about Witch House on my end - when I first heard about it all the WH threads in WC hadn't been very active, so I never saw them until they came up again recently. I'd heard my boyfriend and his friends talking about it a lot, but I never went out and actively got into it, and then kind of purposely didn't get into it because I felt like I would just be jumping on some bandwagon because it was the thing to do, or like I was only listening to it because this guy I started dating did. But now, with the Whitechapel Witch House threads being so active again, and my boyfriend's band mate and his girlfriend having made Aaimon, there's so much Witch House talk going on around me, and I know so much about it know from hearing/reading all the discussion about it, that I almost feel obligated to listen to it, haha. Just kind of a funny turn around from "Oh no no it's too late if I started now I'd just be doing it to be cool," to "Welp...I can't not listen to it now, I know too much about it."

Thanks Whitechapel, thanks. :P

Witch House

2011-08-04T06:53:07-07:00

The first time I had heard of Witch House was Warren's article in Wired. I had been around here for a bit but never paid much attention now I listen to it quite often and most of it was pointed out by Bram, so I owe you a great debt of gratitude.

Witch House

2011-08-04T07:18:29-07:00

Warren also pointed out WH to me... and now I'm running a netlabel for it. In less than six months. GET ON THE BANDWAGON NOW BEFORE IT LEAVES!

Bram's right. Lots of the hispter types are so self-aware that they forcibly create new sub-genres. Zombelle, Myrrh Ka Ba and the rest are credited with the new term "Seapunk". And then there's the post-rave lot. The list goes on. But like Bob said, Witch House IS a game changer... The name seems to have stuck but I can't help but think that this is some kind of nodal point that in 5 years time will be called something slightly more appropriate.

Also, Argos... OMG U KNO ?AIMON?!!! fanboooooooi here :D

Witch House

2011-08-04T07:55:23-07:00

:P I like how i failed to put two and two together about who you were when you posted Bram's article on here even though we'd already chatted on their FB post, heh. I totally skipped over who the poster was and just went "Oh hey I just read that!"

Witch House

2011-08-04T08:04:21-07:00

'Witch house' isn't that bad a name, other than the fact not all of it's witchy and only a small amount house-y. But hey, genres should never be taken seriously. I remember not that long ago when people were distancing themselves from dubstep by saying they made 'funky house' or just 'funky' - listen to that, it is the same as old UK Garage / 2 step, which is what dubstep grew out of... shit like this is cyclical, as far as I'm concerned 'witch house' covers all doom, drone, lo-fi electronics, darkwave, etc etc.... being made now. Just be thankful it isn't all grouped under 'terror banana' (a real genre!!)

Witch House

2011-08-04T19:13:45-07:00

Witch house is a decent genre name actually. Better than Nu-Rave.

Ghost Dub is better though...

Witch House

2011-08-06T13:16:19-07:00

Tell your friends and family. Invite any bugger you know might be interested.

Witch House

2011-08-14T14:14:48-07:00

Have any of you thought about using the original Planet of the Apes soundtrack for samples? I just watched it again this weekend and it sounded like it would work well.

Witch House

2011-08-14T15:20:28-07:00

:O :O :O :O

Thanks! I'm on it...

Witch House

2011-08-14T17:14:46-07:00

Excellent

Witch House

2011-08-20T13:59:52-07:00

The next gen in Witch House video. Couldn't get it embed, sorry folks, I'm a numpty.

Witch House

2011-08-21T00:59:47-07:00

Great.

Witch House

2011-09-01T12:53:46-07:00

My name's Ben and, on top of being a life-long comic book/pen-and-paper RPG nerd, I'm also a massive music geek. I run a label called Tundra Dubs that's often times thrown in with the term "witch house," which is by no means a problem.

I'd like to say thanks to Mr. Ellis for posting about a couple of artists I've released (I†† and ?AIMON as far as I know) and would like to invite anyone on this board/in this thread to check out my label's Bandcamp page at: http://tundradub.bandcamp.com

Please do not dismiss this music as a gimmick, etc. The symbols involved are typically very tongue-in-cheek and not meant to be taken literally. That being said, please check out other labels like Pale Noir, Phantasma Disques, Robot Elephant Records, etc.

Witch House

2011-09-02T04:44:17-07:00

Tundra for the win. Welcome to Whitechapel Ben!

Witch House

2011-09-02T18:09:16-07:00

Hooray Tundra! I was at the recent SD show playing a flutophone in the audience :P I somehow missed meeting you in the course of that night.

Witch House

2011-09-03T03:20:25-07:00

... Other labels like Aural Sects too.

Hello Ben, und wilkommen. Needless to say I ? TUNDRA DUBS.

Witch House

2011-09-03T06:53:53-07:00

Hi Ben! tundra dubs is a rocking label! Keep up the good work!

Meanwhile, a sign that the WH aesthetic is breaking though to more mainstream records?

Witch House

2011-09-03T09:44:27-07:00

@icelandbob - Wow. First sign of the drumbeat is pretty telling, and then comes that lo-fi bass and the intercut cell shit. Yeah. Our influence is spreading. None are safe. Even if it does sound like a less intense Mater Suspiria Vision release... Although the arp'ed synths are a real nice touch.

STORY OF ISAAC changed their name to CRIM3S and if I'm not mistaken this is their first track under the new name.

CRIM3S - Breed

Moreover, they kill it, as usual. I love this stuff.

Witch House

2011-09-06T04:45:22-07:00

New witch-flavoured mix from me here, featuring CRIM3S, Noah23, Fostercare, spf50, Blackbird Blackbird, Myrrh Ka Ba and Daterape.

Witch House

2011-09-08T13:44:58-07:00

Yes †3X†UR3

That is straight on the playlist.

Witch House

2011-09-09T04:15:02-07:00

Nice one man, glad to be ov service!

Witch House

2011-09-09T16:54:47-07:00

OK, so the netlabel I co-founded have started doing podcasts... partly just for own stuff at the minute, but will eventually expand to more stuff on witch house. At the moment it's pretty much an audio blog for the label though...

AURAL SECTS SPELLCAST

If anyone wants to be interviewed or has something they want to share or has an idea for a feature etc, just drop an e-mail at auralsects1@gmail.com cheeeers :D