Witch house, gravewave, haunted house, cave crunk, screwgaze, ghost juke, crimsonwave, horrorgaze, drag.
Genres. Apparently, they're bullshit.
"Sometimes genre's they're good", you say; "for categorization and classification. If you say Progressive-Reggae Noise-Pop, I might, maybe, know what you mean." But sometimes, I counter, we take them too far.
Witch House music evolved backward, in some sort of aging middle finger to post-modernism, from an internet joke and a couple songs in 2007, to a full-fledged, growing, movement with it's own pallet of sound, ideologies and record labels by 2010. In the age of the internet, genres are dying almost as fast as their created, like those artificially synthesized elements at the bottom of the periodic table. Christopher Dexter Greenspan, the mind behind witch house act oOoOO (pronounced like you're a kid pretending to be a ghost with a white sheet over you) said that "so much of music development happens online now. Local scenes aren't as important." This is what we're looking at here, with post-Internet culture. It isn't self-contained anymore, which means it's waxing and waning much faster. But this seemed ridiculous.
That ridiculousness is saved by the legitimacy and consistency of Witch House artists' influences and aesthetic. The beats and hooks of Swishahouse rap and Houston's DJ Screw, the haze and blistered vocals of shoegaze and dreampop, the mentality and energy of mid-80s goth/industrial bands, those decidedly weird and undecipherable names, and an intense obsession with the occult filtered through technology. If you're not creeped out at some point in the song, or at least a little paranoid, then you're not listening right. It can seem a little silly, sure, but these artists are serious, whether they're joking or not. And what difference does it make, if you like the music? You can't argue that's it's not unique. Yes, the influences are obvious, but 5 years ago did you ever think anyone would be combining southern hip-hop with shoegaze? No, you didn't.
The ironic thing is that many of the best bands categorized as Witch House do not self-identify under the label and decry it as merely a marketing gimmick. Maybe, but the same could be said for any "genre". Up until maybe the mid-50s there were enough genres in the popular music landscape to count on maybe one and a half hands. 60 years have given us enough time to become so bored and self-referential that we not only have hundreds but dozens of sub-genres. I'm sure a group of kids are splitting hairs over who's post-whatever and who's progressive-whatever right this very second.
I'm writing this post-hype, so this compilation may seem a little late to some, but I disagree. What better time to hold a retrospective? This mix is meant to be a personal favorite/best of collection because, as with anything as prolific as this movement has been, it's incredibly hit or miss and there's a lot of awful awful stuff out there.
The tracklist is below. Sample a few of the songs before downloading if you'd like.
Tracklist:
1. Salem - King Night
If you're interested, here are some other Witch House tracks to check out:
2. Crim3s - Fade
3. CVL†SH‡† - ßƟD¥ ßΔGƵ
4. Gvcci Hvcci - Blowin' Up
5. White Ring - IxC999
6. †‡† - Ritualz
7. M∆DE IN HEIGHTS - Wildflowers (Exhale Efreet)
8. Holy Other - Touch
9. oOoOO - Burnout Eyess
12. Balam Acab - See Birds
13. ///▲▲▲\\\ - Beta Tape Warp
If you're interested, here are some other Witch House tracks to check out:
These mixes are compiled by myself to promote good music only, NOT to take money away from these artists. Please support the artists you like. And to make it fair, I ask you to delete these files within 24 hours.
btw, We're always curious to hear your feedback on mixes. Let us know what you think about this one, past mixes, or the site in general by leavin a comment. Please?
No comments:
Post a Comment