21 July 2023

Which House?

Does anyone remember Witch house music?



Witch house is a microgenre of electronic music whose central tenet was dark occult themes. It's heyday was the late 00s /early 10s. The style was influenced by chopped hip hop, industrial music, ethereal wave, & dream pop. Witch house usually features synths & drum machines combined with obscure samples, droning repetition, & heavily altered manipulated vocals.

I used to listen to bands like oOoOO, White Ring, LAKE R▲DIO, Mater Suspiria Vision, Gr†LLGR†LL...

Bands like GuMMy†Be▲R!, Gr†LLGR†LL, Bl▲ck † Ceiling, LAKE R▲DIO used various typographic elements including triangles, crosses, & other Unicode symbols. I appreciated the concept of attempting to keeping the scene underground, making it harder to search for on Google, etc.

Witch house imagery tended toward horror films such as The Blair Witch Project or the television series Twin Peaks.

In a related post about Vaporwave (another microgenre of electronic music closely aligned with Witch house that emerged in the early 2010s using an appropriation of 80s / 90s mood music styles such as smooth jazz, elevator music, R&B, & lounge music) I shared the band blacclodge which is also inspired by Twin Peaks.

Here's a Witch house / Twin Peaks / Black Lodge related release... 

 

Pwin ▲▲ Teaks – Inside the Black Lodge, Phantasma Disques PD-002, 2011.
decryption codes in comments

Inside the Black Lodge
Outside the Black Lodge
Beach Bubble
 
 
 
& here's a newer one, In Dub... 
Pwin Teaks - The Return: Pwin Teaks in Dub, Discoteca Diabolo, 2022.

The Mirror Sea Diorama Extended Dub
Beyond yhe Black Lodge Radio Dub
B.O.B. State Slowcore Dub
The Olsen Twins Dream Massacre Dub
Beach Bubble Dub

Enjoy,

3 comments:

  1. Inside the Black Lodge
    Kmmb8p-yEHbnCitld8zyR_HJJbwXh2PKuNMRfPVf6m8
    TheReturn: PwinTeaks in Dub Vol. 1
    Cejrin0vXCgvJvrSbhqDk9nHCD8BDp-IbeAucKUHCJg

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  2. I listened to some witch house records and this one is ok.
    But the WH tag is probably a graphic style or image suggestion since it could be any other "experimental" kind of music.
    Early Psychic TV had probably more pagan power intentions (magick) than anything within this "genre"
    That's why it stays in some kind of limbo.
    Hard to scare old crooks like us, he,he...
    Diego

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