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Witch house (genre)

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Witch house
Stylistic originsChopped and screwed, juke, dark ambient, industrial, noise, drone, trap, gothic rock, shoegaze, synthpop
Cultural originsLate-2000s, United States, Germany, Australia, Denmark, and United Kingdom
Typical instrumentsSynthesizer, drum machine, sequencer, sampler
Other topics

Witch house (also known as drag or haunted house) is an occult-themed dark electronic music genre and visual aesthetic that emerged in the late 2000s. The music is heavily influenced by chopped and screwed hip-hop, dark ambient soundscapes, and industrial and noise experimentation, and features use of synthesizers, drum machines, obscure samples, droning repetition and heavily altered, ethereal, indiscernible vocals.

The witch house visual aesthetic includes occult, witchcraft, shamanism and horror-inspired artworks, collages and photographs as well as significant use of typographic elements such as Unicode symbols.[1][2] Many works by witch house visual artists incorporate themes from obscure horror films,[3] the television series Twin Peaks,[4] and mainstream pop culture celebrities. Common typographic elements in artist and track names include triangles, crosses, and other Unicode symbols, which are seen by some as a method of keeping the scene underground and harder to search for on the Internet as well as references to the television series' Twin Peaks and Charmed.[5][6]

Influences and style

File:SALEMSXSW.jpeg
Cover art for "Frost"/"Legend" by the band Salem

Witch house applies techniques rooted in chopped and screwed hip-hop – drastically slowed tempos with skipping, stop-timed beats[7] – coupled with elements from genres such as noise, drone, and shoegaze.[8] Witch house is also influenced by hazy 1980s goth bands, including Cocteau Twins, The Cure, Christian Death and Dead Can Dance,[9] as well as being heavily influenced by certain industrial and experimental bands such as Psychic TV and Coil.[10][11] The use of hip-hop drum machines, noise atmospherics, creepy samples,[12] dark synthpop-influenced lead melodies, dense reverb, and heavily altered or distorted vocals are the primary attributes that characterize the genre's sound. The concept started out as a joke, with Travis Egedy (commonly known by the stage name Pictureplane) and his friends coining the term in 2009 to refer to their style of music.[13][14][15][16] Shortly after being mentioned to Pitchfork,[14] blogs and other mainstream music press began to use the term.

Many artists in the genre have released slowed-down remixes of pop and rap songs,[17] or long mixes of different songs that have been slowed down significantly.

Criticism of the term

The genre was at one point connected to the name "rape gaze", the use of which has since been publicly denounced by its coiners, who never expected it to be used to rename an actual genre,[18][19] but viewed it as simply a gimmick.[12] Witch house has also been said to be a false label for a micro-genre, constructed by certain publications in the music press (including The Guardian, Pitchfork and various music blogs). These claims have been made by some members of musical acts identified as being in the genre's current movement, as well as by music journalists.[20][21]

Egedy described witch house as follows:

It’s a joke.

Myself and my friend Shams—he makes house music, too— we were joking about the sort of house music we make, [and we were calling it] witch house because it’s, like, occult-based house music. It was 2009. And then I did this best-of-the-year thing with Pitchfork about witch house, and it was me and Shams and Modern Witch. I was saying that we were witch house bands, and 2010 was going to be the year of witch house, that it was going to get really witchy and stuff. It took off from there. Different people started posting about it on blogs, and it sort of became an internet meme. And someone attached the name witch house to the sounds that bands like Salem were making—the slowed down, spooky, Goth juke kind of stuff."

"...But, at the time, when I said witch house, it didn’t even really exist..."[14]

However, Flavorwire said that despite Egedy's insistence that witch house doesn't really exist, "the genre does exist now, for better or worse".[22]

In August 2011, Pitchfork described †††, a project involving Chino Moreno and Shaun Lopez, as "witch house".[23] However, Carson O'Shoney of Consequence of Sound and Daniel Brockman of the Boston Phoenix note that Crosses only shares a resemblance to witch house in aesthetics and imagery, and not the group's actual music.[24][25] The group's decision to use this imagery stems from Moreno's interest in the art and mystique around religion. Moreno, however, also said:

"I didn't want people to think we are a religious band, a satanic band or that we are a witch-house band. It's difficult using a religious symbol, but at the same time, I think in an artistic way, it can totally go somewhere else and I think we are kind of walking that line."[26]

Bands and artists

Some of the most influential bands and artists with music described as "witch house" include:

References

  1. ^ a b c d Necci (9 August 2010). "Witch House: Listen With The Lights On". RVA Magazine. Retrieved 11 December 2013.
  2. ^ "Witch House Esthetics". Synconation. 21 December 2010. Retrieved 20 July 2011.
  3. ^ a b "Murder Dog Magazine - Volume 17 #3 - Special Feature:Witch House (Page 87)". Murder Dog Magazine. Retrieved 6 October 2013.
  4. ^ "Witch House And Okkvlt Guide To Twin Peaks". Welcome to Twin Peaks. 14 April 2011. Retrieved 6 October 2013.
  5. ^ Baxter, Jason (20 December 2010). "What is the "Witch House Font?" | Line Out". Lineout.thestranger.com. Retrieved 20 July 2011.
  6. ^ "How To Be a Witch House Poser". Flavorwire. 19 January 2011. Retrieved 20 July 2011.
  7. ^ Lindsay, Cam. "The Translator - Witch House • Spark •". Exclaim.ca. Retrieved 20 July 2011.
  8. ^ Watson, William Cody (12 September 2010). "Slow Motion Music". Impose Magazine.
  9. ^ Wright, Scott (9 March 2010). "Scene and heard: Drag". London: Guardian. Retrieved 10 June 2010.
  10. ^ a b Marshalek, Russ (22 September 2010). "Haunted: A Witch House Primer". Flavorwire. Retrieved 17 June 2013.
  11. ^ Maness, Carter (25 August 2010). "Brooklyn's Vanishing Witch House: White Ring and CREEP burn your trends and have real music to show for it". Nypress.com. Retrieved 20 July 2011.
  12. ^ a b Sokol, Zach (1 February 2011). "The Witch House Debate: Is †he Music Genre Wor†h ∆ Lis†en? · NYU Local". Nyulocal.com. Retrieved 20 July 2011.
  13. ^ "This Is Witchhouse". Retrieved 12 July 2012.
  14. ^ a b c Nguyen, Tuyet (30 December 2010). "This is witch house | Music | The A.V. Club Denver/Boulder". Avclub.com. Retrieved 20 July 2011.
  15. ^ "Weird emergence | San Francisco Bay Guardian". Sfbg.com. Retrieved 20 July 2011.
  16. ^ By P.J. Nutting (30 December 2010). "Which house for witch house?". Boulderweekly.com. Retrieved 20 July 2011.
  17. ^ Caramanica, Jon (4 November 2010). "DJ Screw's Legacy: Seeping Out of Houston, Slowly". The New York Times.
  18. ^ "Salem - King Night". Pitchfork Media.
  19. ^ "Pitchfork Backtracks on 'Rape Gaze' Because Creep Said So". The Daily Swarm. 12 October 2010. Retrieved 20 July 2011.
  20. ^ "Brooklyn's Vanishing Witchhouse". New York Press. Retrieved 17 June 2012.
  21. ^ "The Horrifyingly Named Micro-Genre "Rape Gaze" Explained". Village Voice. Retrieved 17 June 2012.
  22. ^ Hawking, Tom (7 September 2011). "State of the Witch House: Predicting the Controversial Genre's Future". FlavorWire.
  23. ^ "Deftones Dude Has a Witch House Project". Pitchfork. 2 August 2011. Retrieved 20 September 2011.
  24. ^ "Album Review: ††† – EP †". Retrieved 11 July 2012.
  25. ^ "††† | EP 2". Retrieved 11 July 2012.
  26. ^ "Interview: Crosses' Chino Moreno and Shaun Lopez open up about their elusive band". Retrieved 11 July 2012.
  27. ^ Burkart, Gregory (4 December 2013). "'AIMON' – Album Review". FEARnet. Retrieved 11 December 2013.
  28. ^ Turgoose, Kate (17 October 2011). "∆AIMON: a new kind of noise". Connexion Bizarre. Retrieved 11 December 2013.
  29. ^ a b c Jonze, Tim (26 September 2010). "Witch house and the musicians taking us back to the future". The Guardian (UK). Retrieved 17 June 2013.
  30. ^ a b c d Friedman, Ian (30 January 2013). "What Is Witch House?". DJZ. Retrieved 11 December 2013.
  31. ^ Mashurova, Nina (25 October 2012). "To the Bathaus". The Boston Phoenix.
  32. ^ Sottile, Leah (9 November 2011). "Devil's Advocate". The Pacific Northwest Inlander. Retrieved 11 December 2013.
  33. ^ "Portand's Bewitching BRUXA release The Creep Show Victimeyez". Fact Mag. 4 September 2012.
  34. ^ a b Harris, Marcus (23 November 2010). "Drag On: Fostercare + Mater Suspiria Vision". Mint Magazine. Retrieved 11 December 2013.
  35. ^ Hawkins, Shane (25 June 2012). "New Noise: Glass Teeth". Wonderland Magazine. Retrieved 11 December 2013.
  36. ^ Currier, Alyce (1 August 2013). "Earmilk Interview: GLASS TEETH [Track Premiere]". Earmilk. Retrieved 11 December 2013.
  37. ^ a b c d e f Rodgers, D. Patrick (25 August 2010). "'New' 'Genre' Alert: Which House? Witch House". Nashville Scene. Retrieved 17 June 2013.
  38. ^ Ewing, Tom (19 August 2010). "Got any witch house? Why I'm on the genre-mongers' side". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 December 2013.
  39. ^ http://outforstardom.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/gvcci-hvcci.html
  40. ^ Latta, Ian. "Holy Other - With U [EP]". Tiny Mix Tapes. Retrieved 18 June 2013.
  41. ^ Segal, Dave (12 June 2013). "Mount Kimbie, Holy Other, Rob Garza, Nguzunguzu". The Stranger. Retrieved 18 June 2013.
  42. ^ a b "Trying to define 'witch house' can be a real drag". Expatriach. 24 May 2010. Retrieved 11 December 2013.
  43. ^ http://lakeradio.bandcamp.com/
  44. ^ Sottile, Leah (4 September 2012). "Dark Horse". The Pacific Northwest Inlander. Retrieved 11 December 2013.
  45. ^ http://www.connexionbizarre.net/interviews/%E2%88%86aimon-a-new-kind-of-noise/
  46. ^ Davies, Bree (12 November 2010). "Witch House: A explanation of the genre from the warped mouth of Mario Zoots". Denver Westword. Retrieved 11 December 2013.
  47. ^ "Albums of the Year List by: SubRosa". Retrieved 29 January 2014.
  48. ^ "Sidewalks and Skeletons - Future Ghosts". Retrieved 13 May 2014.
  49. ^ "Altsounds: UNISON". Retrieved 19 March 2014.

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