Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Check Out Some Witch House Via Vice Magazine

I don't really care if it makes me a hipster or not, but I've kind of been enjoying some of the bands I've been hearing coming out of the Witch House movement (probably the most inappropriate genre names since Intelligent Dance Music). If you haven't heard it, Witch House is a type of lofi electronic music that draws heavy inspiration on the soundtracks from late 80's horror films. Many of the bands record to tape, or even VHS to achieve an authentic lofi found, often purposely overdriving the tape for a grittier sound. Definitely not for everyone, but if you'd like to check some out absolutely free, the excellent Vice Magazine has compiled a Witch House "mix tape" you can download here.

5 comments:

Alan said...

But is there a better name?

Horror House? Spooky House? House That Dripped Blood?

(I like that last one... Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Jon Pertwee, 1971...)

Anonymous said...

thanks for the link Tom!

Tom said...

There's just nothing particularly housey about it. A lot of this stuff reminds me of old My Bloody Valentine if it was electronic.

Alan said...

Yeah, I know, not much "House" about it. But it made a nice set up for a joke.

There seems to be a strong tendency to try to "define" new genres by naming them based on some previous genre (the vast number of things with "hop" or "funk" in the name).

nulldevice said...

Now, I'm a fan of all the old shoegaze/MBV stuff, but MAN I cannot stand "Witch House." It sounds like a bunch of people spending a lot of effort to try to sound like they didn't spend any effort on it.