This blog post is part of a series where I've been going into some of my thoughts and philosophies behind putting together thematic playlists.
Witch House, and Complimentary Genres
(click above for playlist)
This week's post is not about metal, but Witch House.
Witch House is essentially strange, darkened electronic music with an eclectic collection of influences (hip-hop chop tapes, dark house, shoegaze, synth/dream pop, etc, etc, etc). At times it seems widely defined. The most well-known bands that seem to sometimes fall under the Witch House umbrella are Purity Ring and Crystal Castles, but these artists are drawing from multiple distinguishable genres. Numerous smaller acts definitely seem to tap into the more "outright" witch house sound.
Overall, it's a very interesting genre, and one that I think stands out to me because of the way it parallels metal in many ways - both have heavily engineered sound, exaggerated vocals, and dark/sinister soundscapes. But, similarities also include a number of philosophical overlaps, such as embracing the occult, the way the genre allows for heavy musical experimentation, and a general sense that the scene is small and closely knit.
Expanding on that a bit, for example - much of the Witch House scene seems so deep into the idea of existing in an obscure and esoteric fringe culture that the artists and tracks can be pretty freaking tough to track down. A lot of the time, if you're lucky, a witch house artist will only have one strange symbol in their name, à la dark two-person outfit ∆AIMON. Other artists like †▼BF▼CK, ✝ DE△D VIRGIN ✝, and M△S▴C△RA are cramming so many symbols into their monikers that this is - presumably - an intentional attempt to conceal themselves to those without some type of pre-existing knowledge. Perform a google image search for "Witch House Music," and you're bombarded by a wall of mesmerizing occult images. There's again the reappearance of triangles, crosses, other symbols, and inverted colors. Most of the genre seems wrapped inside this mystifying persona.
To top it all off, many of the artists - which at times seem innumerable due to the aforementioned abstract and difficult nature of hunting them down - only publish on services like Soundcloud and Bandcamp, so you'll only get to listen by downloading their tunes and using some media player. As a general rule, good luck finding them on your favorite streaming music service (although, I did find some for you on Spotify). Yet another instance where exclusivity seems to be key, whether it's intentional or not.
All that said, I find it curious that such a seemingly scattered group of small, (mostly) solo artists who are trying to remain hidden have managed to create such a unified theme for themselves. And then, I also consider it strange that this is such a particularly enigmatic genre, but somehow my most popular playlist. It has about 15 random subscribers who have somehow just stumbled upon it, and I've never handed out this playlist on any type of public forum before now. And it's easily outdoing anything else I've ever put together.
Maybe this is just the type of stuff that, when a musical scene is coalescing, the internet now enables. Where previously, there was never such a tool in place, apparently, witch house participants - and fans - have just become exceedingly good at occupying and turning up random little bits of internet to get their fix. Seems to me that this has aided the realization of the cryptic theme and cult following Witch House has - something that could only be developed in some type of underground movement that's operating way under everyone's radar.
Recommended listening from this playlist:
