Welcome to Witch House....
Yes, I know that Tanner already brought attention to this new genre on the Pure Pop blog back in April. However, seeing as Witch House has kind of been exploding lately (or at least making the transition from the web underground to the fringe, just-at-ground-level mainstream), I thought it might be an appropriate time to do an overview for those not in the know. This part of the article will deal with the origins of Witch House, exploring the genres and artists that influenced it, and discussing the genre’s conflict relationship with the internet. In part two, we will explore some of the genre’s key artists and labels, as well as discuss some of the exciting new Witch House releases coming in the late summer & early fall.
As is true of many genres in their infancy, Witch House is still trying to define itself, on many different levels. There’s even a lot of disagreement as to what to call this style of music (which in itself is pretty schizophrenic, as we’ll discuss later). While it has been tagged as “drag”, “ghost drone” and several other names (some unpronounceable), the brand of “Witch House” has really stuck for some reason. Most likely, because it captures the dichotomy of the genre quite accurately and succinctly--dark, yet danceable.
So now that we’ve decided on a name (at least for the sake of this article), what is “Witch House”? That, my friends, is a very difficult question to answer. There’s a lot of disagreement as to what constitutes the “Witch House” sound, and you often find artists who label themselves as witch house being accused of not being appropriate for the genre, while several key figures and founders of the witch house “movement” have tried their best to distance themselves from the tag altogether.
A good reason for this is that a big part of the Witch House philosophy thrives on the being anti-genre specific, sometimes even anti-auteur. It’s one of the most post-modern popular music formats, in that its combines a wide variety of genres (ranging from coldwave to post-punk goth rock to dubstep to experimental hip hop to lo-fi noise to mainstream pop and beyond) into a grand pastiche of sounds. While the end result is usually always dark and beat heavy, releases by different Witch House artists seldom sound even remotely similar. Even tracks by the same artist on the same album can sound incredibly disparate and eclectic.
Further expanding this concept of anonymity and collaboration is Witch House’s penchant for remixes and unpronounceable band names. The remixes certainly show an allegiance to the long history of sampling and collaborative reinvention in hip-hop production. In particular, there seems to be an allegiance (seen most blatantly with acts like SALEM and Balam Acab) to the “chopped and screwed” style of DJ Screw, with samples and rhythms slowed to completely warp the source material into a narcotic acoustic fog.
Here’s the final installment of my picks for top reissued albums of 2009. Enjoy & have a great 2010!
3) Eliane Radigue “Vice Versa”/”Triptych”
I love drone. I love the complexity masquerading as simplicity. I love the physicality of a live drone performance, the ethereal purr of sine wave massaging my entire body. I love how the monotony becomes hypnotic and meditative, to the point that I can forget where I am or that I’m even listening to a piece of music. I love where the drone takes me.
Eliane Radigue, born in Paris in 1932, was a drone pioneer. A wife and mother of three, Radigue studied piano and composing at an early age, and became enraptured with minimalist music after hearing a radio broadcast of musique concrete by Pierre Schaeffer in the early 1950s, who later became her mentor. Despite her studies and studio work in the 1960s, she did not start her own career until the 1970’s, with minimalist explorations utilizing tape loops and Arp synthesizers.
Radigue’s work has influenced artists as diverse as Greg Davis and Stephen O’Malley of doom metal band Sunn O))), yet prior to the late 90s, she only had a handful of physical releases, most of which were in very limited runs. Her popularity amongst fans of experimental music grew quickly when the wonderful Table of the Elements record label released her Adnos trilogy, consisting of three long-form, perfect drone pieces, and soon her new fans were clamoring more.
It takes a special label to take on a major and important drone release. While fans of drone have increased exponentially over the past decade (possibly because post-rock and doom drone bands have made minimalism hip again), there is still not a large audience for such a release. At the same time, work like Radigue’s rivals some of the best of minimalist art, so it would be a shame to see one of her masterpieces released on CD-R with a poorly designed cover, while even the worst of Frank Stella’s paintings still hang on international gallery walls and command millions at auction.
The special label that took up the job was, quite fittingly, Important Records, a label known for quality control in all senses of the word. Important released two of Radigue’s masterworks this year, “Vice Versa, etc.” and “Triptych”, and presented the pieces with the utmost respect, including extensive liner notes and elegant, minimalist cover art befitting the music itself.
“Vice Versa, etc.”, the earlier of the two works, was originally recorded in 1970 and was composed only of tape loop feedback. While the album was distributed upon its initial recording, only ten hand-numbered and signed magnetic tape copies were created, along with instructions to the listener on how to listen to the pieces. The options included one at a time, both at the same time, forwards or backwards and at various speeds. While the CD medium of the reissue makes such experimental listening difficult, Important did include two discs in this release: the first of the three tracks played forward, and the second with them in reverse. You can always rip the CDs to a digital format and experiment with speed variations as well. It is quite the interactive listening experience.
“Triptych” was recorded in 1978, when Radigue’s instrument of choice changed from the tape loop to the Arp 2500 analog synthesizer. A return to music after a brief immersion in Tibetan Buddhism and meditation, “Triptych” is truly a sonic meditation in itself, with an enhanced focus on subtlety and masterful patience. If you’re new to Radigue (or drone in general), I highly recommend “Triptych” as a jumping-off point.
2) Oneohtrix Point Never, “Betrayed in the Octagon”
I’m a firm believer in the connections between dualities. Not because I’m a New Age mystic/Eastern philosophies type (far from it actually), but because it’s just an incredibly obvious part of everyday life. Love and hate are connected simply by being a dichotomy of strong emotion– just ask the hands of Radio Raheem. How many times have you met somebody that just irritates you so much that you just can’t stop talking about them? And then soon the anger turns to intrigue, and then understanding, and soon they’re your best friend.
The same thing happened to me when I first heard Oneohtrix Point Never’s “Betrayed in the Octagon”. While I was immediately drawn to the darker ambient tracks on the album, I was immediately repelled by tracks like “Behind the Bank”. See, I was born in the 1980s, and all of the bad music and art that came out of that period. To me, “Behind the Bank” sounded like the generic keyboard kitsch that was used as background music on the Preview Guide channel. I had spent most of the 90s trying to surround myself with high art: Bergman films, Rothko paintings, and John Cage compositions. While I loved and respected pop artists like Warhol and, to a lesser degree, later post-modern artists, I never was able to believe that they actually liked the works that they were using in their pastiche. It was all ironic, tongue-in-cheek; there’s no way that this work could be paying homage, only putting up a mirror to reflect the ugliness of modern consumerist society.
What bothered me most about “Behind the Bank” was that the tongue was nowhere near the cheek. This seemed like a true love letter to the sounds of early 80s elevator muzak, the Quarter Pounder with Cheese of music. How could anyone want to pay tribute to such garbage and waste obvious talent by playing and recording it? Why would anyone want to listen to it?
Stewing in my distaste, I couldn’t get the song out of my head, with its clichéd synth tones and pitch bends. Sure there was a elegance to the composition, and an emotional pull. But that wasn’t what kept it coming back into my mind like déjà vu, a long forgotten collective memory. It was the fact that it was a collective memory, at least for those of us who grew up in the 80s. It was a reclaiming of the things that defined us as children, all of the things that we were taught were low and base and garbage and deserved only to be forgotten in a forced amnesia. John Carpenter movie soundtracks and public access TV shows on VHS and Atari 2600 and hot pink and synth pop. These were all supposed to be embarrassments, a blip in the timeline of technology and culture than needed to be forgotten and moved past.
“Behind the Bank” was quite simply a rebellion against such mindsets, and a reclamation of our shared cultural history. It was ok to admit that we had a soft spot for these sounds, because these were the sounds that raised us. They were a part of us, and saying that we hated them amounted in a way to saying that we hated ourselves. Once I accepted this fact, “Behind the Bank” became a revelation to me, an opportunity to look back on a time in my life that I thought I had lost and, for the first time, be proud of it.
1) The Beatles discography (stereo and mono)
Ok, I’ll admit it–I bought into the hype. I bought into it hard actually, listening to nearly nothing besides the Beatles reissues for the first month after they came out. Is it because I was a huge Beatles fan? No. Was it because I never heard the Beatles and this music was all fresh and new to me? No. Was it because I’m a sucker for a gimmick? Partly.
What really sold me on these reissues more than anything was simple opportunity. It was an opportunity to revisit albums that I hadn’t put on in years because they were simply too ubiquitous and familiar to even need to be played. The Beatles have long been one of those bands that I didn’t feel a need to actively listen to anymore, and I think that is true for a lot of people. Not only can you listen to them on the radio anytime you want to (try scanning the AM and FM dials for five minutes and NOT finding at least one Beatles tune), their lyrics are forever imprinted on our minds, their melodies encoded into the double-helix of our DNA. Why listen to the Beatles when we are eating, breathing, walking, talking and living the Beatles and the culture they created?
There’s a definite downside to this outlook though, and it’s that while we “know” the Beatles, not actively revisiting the albums in full from time to time causes their music to become a jumbled, ambiguous specter. You recall the best lyrics or the most catchy riff, but you pass by the forgotten gems or the rare throwaway track that served as a transition to a great song. Listening to the full albums are simply the best way to appreciate what the Beatles were all about.
In retrospect, maybe they weren’t. The original CD masters really were pretty poor and mono versions of many albums (arguably the way the Beatles were truly meant to be heard early in their career) were unavailable. This year’s stereo and mono reissues, with their top-notch remastering, were like a face-to-face reuniting with an old friend that we had only spoken to over the phone for the past decade. There was dimension, clarity and humanity again, and you’ve found a whole new respect and attraction to them.
Ok, we’re back with the second installment of “The Top 10 Reissues of 2009″. Seeing as all such lists are completely subjective and as such subject to the whims of their imperfect, ego-driven, sex-god authors (well, at least this list is), you can expect to see a few albums you may not agree with, or maybe never even heard of. Yes, I’m that cool—I listen to albums you’ve never even heard of. Sometimes albums that haven’t even been written yet. Albums that only exist in my own warped, feeble mind. MUWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Yes, I lead a sad life.
Anyhoo, I chose the albums that I did not in the hopes of being esoteric and cool (I’m thirty, work a corporate job and have a double chin and a bad haircut; I gave up on pursuing “cool” a while ago) but because I really, truly love these albums. They are my “desert island” albums, my shoulder to cry on when I’ve had a bad day, or a friend to dance with when I need to celebrate. I know I could find real people to fill these roles, but it’s easier to buy things. Plus most of the people I know don’t make very good music. Herb for example. (Just kidding Herb.)
So here’s #6-4 of my favorite reissues of the year. If you haven’t heard them, pick up a copy at Pure Pop (or have them order you a copy if it’s not in stock). If you end up loving the album, buy me a beer. If you hate it, kick me in nuts and demand your money back. Or just leave a comment in the field below. Enjoy!
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6) Marble Sky – “The Sad Return”
Underground cassette culture can be a curse or a blessing. While it can be truly amazing to discover the next great noise god on your coveted, handmade uber-limited release C-20, it can also be incredibly frustrating when (because you were too broke or not in the know enough to purchase it) the album everyone is talking about goes out-of-print.
This was the case with “The Sad Return”, the first album by Marble Sky (side project of Impregnable/Secret Abuse/Roman Torment/etc. etc.’s Jeff Witscher). Released originally in a run of only 15 cassette copies on Callow God in 2007, “The Sad Return” became one of the most talked about underground albums of that year. The lo-fi, blissful synthesizer drones on the album recalled everything from Brian Eno’s “Apollo…” to Eliane Radigue’s Arp works to New Age pioneers like Steven Halpern or Laraaji, yet had a unique, decayed beauty that was distinctly its own.
While low-quality mp3 rips of the album existed online, for the fans clamoring for a physical copy it seemed like a proper reissue would never come. Finally, nearly two years after the initial release, the wonderful Students of Decay label released a gorgeous, remastered version of “The Sad Return” on CD, with sophisticated and evocative artwork pro-printed on a standard digipak. This time, they did a run of 500 copies, so this one should stay in print for a little while….but I wouldn’t sit on it.
5) Klaus Schulze – “X”/”Mirage”
2009 was a big year for reviving 70s progressive synth and Berlin School electronic music. While new artists like Oneohtrix Point Never paid homage with bliss riffage that owed heavily to the period, the nostalgia kick was also fueled by vinyl and CD reissues of some classic albums from two of the original masters, Klaus Schulze and Kraftwerk
Klaus Schulze started his career as a drummer for prog ambient legends Tangerine Dream and later was a founding member of Ash Ra Tempel. However, he is probably best remembered for his solo works, which constituted some of the first true “ambient” music. “Mirage” and “X” were two of his greatest works from what is arguable his greatest working period, the late 1970s.
“Mirage”, first released in 1977, is easily the darker of the two albums, with an abundance of minor keys and heavy, brooding oscillations. The album starts off with the haunting and lovely “Velvet Voyage” sounds just as its name implies, moving gentle from one theme to the next and blending lovely synthesized vocal and string choruses with sequenced rhythms and burning riffage. The simple chiming, xylophone-esque sequence that starts off the second track, “Crystal Lake”, could easily be mistaken for an early John Carpenter movie soundtrack. However, the track quickly moves along to introduce increasingly complex polyphony as sequence builds upon sequence, then fading out to a beautiful, droning New Age bliss-out. The final track, “In Cosa Crede Chi Non Crede?”, is the shortest piece on the album (it still has an epic 19-minute+ runtime) but provides a nice gentle, jingling comedown from the heaviness of the previous two 1/2 hour epics.
“X” was Schulze’s 1978 follow-up to “Mirage” and despite the short amount of time between releases, it shows a tremendous amount of growth. The compositions are more complex and allow for much less subtle displays of technical skill and mastery of dynamics. Compared to the relative sedateness of “Mirage”, “X” simply rocks out. From the proggy riffage of “Friedrich Nietzsche” that could put Rick Wakeman to shame through to driving motorik of “Frank Herbert”, “X” is in many ways a more confident and arguably more commercial Schulze release that foreshadows his work in the 1980s, while still retaining some of the Berlin School elements that make his 1970s work so powerful.
4) Kraftwerk, “The Catalog”
Everybody knows Kraftwerk. Even people who told listen to electronic music (hell, even your mom) will recognize the main riff from “Autobahn” or recognize a picture of the group from their heyday. Whether it’s the kitschy, commercial quality of their later work or the famous “man-machine” robotic quality of their stage presence/marketing persona, Kraftwerk somehow became an ubiquitous part of our modern cultural zeitgeist.
So Kraftwerk is the most famous German electronic group of the 1970s…..but how many people do you know who own their albums? They’re one of those bands that everyone has heard of, but not that many listen to. A big part of the reason is that their sound is frozen in time, encased in early electronic music kitschy-ness that can turn some people off. But a bigger reason is availability and quality of the existing recordings. The original vinyl releases have become increasingly rare and expensive for good quality copies, and the original CD releases suffered from poor mastering.
This year, all that changed when Kraftwerk reissued eight of their best-known albums individually and as a boxed set called “The Catalog” (the name is a bit misleading, as it doesn’t include Kraftwerk’s more experimental, krautrock inspired early work) on both CD and vinyl formats. Finally, you get to hear Kraftwerk as they were meant to be heard, and if there was ever a band whose albums demanded the ultimate in pristine quality, it is Kraftwerk. While they wrote some melodies and vocal harmonies that rival The Beatles and The Beach Boys (well, at least their lesser works….) the real star of the Kraftwerk show are the synthesizers. Hearing these albums remastered makes you realize just how powerful it must have been to hear these machines live for the first time, the completely inorganic zippering highs and gut-thumping low end.
An analog synthesizer is a beautiful thing, and Kraftwerk’s songs were nothing more than an ode to the machines they loved, just like a e.e. cummings love poem is as much an ode to the words themselves as to any human object. It’s no accident that Kraftwerk called one of their best albums “The Man-Machine”. They wanted to be robots; they wanted to be nothing more than passive operators of this wonderful equipment, the ultimate “gear heads”. As a result, it makes Kraftwerk’s rise to popular success even more impressive.
More than anything though, these are just fun songs that provide a nice historical look at the origins of modern electronic dance music. If you’re a Kraftwerk initiate, I recommend picking up “Computer World” or “The Man-Machine” and going from there. Just don’t be surprised if you develop an overwhelming desire to become a robot.
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Ok, that’s it for Part 2. Join us next week for Part 3, featuring the three best reissues of 2009!
First off, let me introduce myself. My name is Jay Blanchard, but some of you probably know me better as Spitting Out Teeth, the moniker I’ve used for my now-defunct music blog and radio show on 105.9 The Radiator. It’s also my nom de plume on the comments fields of various local music and culture blogs, including Aether Everywhere, The Contrarian and the very Pure Pop blog you’re reading right now. I’m also an experimental musician, recording and/or playing live with Solah, Yellowknife, the le duo and my solo project, VIKOMT.
But who cares about me….you’re here for music. Specifically, lists about music. Even more specifically, lists about good music that came out in 2009, which is what I promise to deliver. While I could easily write a top ten (or twenty….or fifty) list of my favorite CD, vinyl, cassette, reel-to-reel, wax cylinder, etc. releases from this glorious annus horribilis (didn’t this year suck? and doesn’t that phrase look like “horrible anus”? didn’t he steal that joke from “Saxondale“?), I’ve decided instead to focus on some of the amazing reissues that came out in 2009.
Why focus on reissues? Well, partly because in this post-modern age with ever-advancing technology, I believe in a work of art as a living document, and I’m amazed by how a great technician can improve on an already great album and introduce it anew to a modern generation. Or I’m just an old fogey who’s locked in the past. Tomayto, Tomahto.
Ok, less talky, more listy. Here ’tis.
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10) Warp20 box set
Like many of you, I came of age musically in the early-to-mid 1990′s, a epic time of musical innovation, especially in electronic music. While genres such as House and Jungle were finally starting to reach much broader audiences (did anyone over the age of 15 in 1995 not know at least one person with a set of turntables & a mixer?), more esoteric forms of electronica were starting to show up in the underground.
While most of the electronic music showing up in clubs had steady beats and easy ambient trance synthlines, more avant-garde explorers of the format were creating harsh digital glitches and cut-and-paste rhythms that were anything but danceable. While the music went under many different names, it was most commonly known as “IDM”, or Intelligent Dance Music. At the forefront were artists such as Autechre, Aphex Twin, Squarepusher, Plaid, Prefuse 73, Richard Devine and Jamie Lidell. While there music varied greatly, they all shared one thing in common—Warp.
“From MTV intros to movie soundtracks to television commercials, the sounds of Warp became a pervading part of the cultural landscape, almost subversively gaining mass appeal through its rapid appropriation.”
Warp Records (founded in 1989) was one of the first, and most definitely the most prominent, of IDM record labels. Starting in 1989, Warp blended cutting-edge album artwork with music that challenged both the mind and emotions. In many ways, Warp releases became the soundtrack of the mid-90s, a fractured timespace of pre-millennial chaos and exploding technological change. From MTV intros to movie soundtracks to television commercials, the sounds of Warp became a pervading part of the cultural landscape, almost subversively gaining mass appeal through its rapid appropriation. I certainly can’t think of another example where avant-garde music so quickly and completely became embraced by the mainstream media.
However, the hottest fires burn out the fastest, and as the confusion of the late 1990s led to post-millenial malaise, IDM quickly lost its fanbase. Taken out of its cultural context, the music failed to have the same appeal, and experimental audiences turned in droves to the sedate post-rock, ambient and drone sounds coming from labels such as Kompakt, Kranky and Constellation. However, Warp somehow soldiered on as a label, continuing their excellent taste in artists with releases by Boards of Canada, Grizzly Bear, Broadcast, Bibio and many others.
To celebrate its 20th birthday, Warp released the Warp20 box set this year, a massive 4xCD, 3xLP collection of some of the best tracks they ever released. This is one set that truly looks as good as it sounds as well, featuring Warp’s famous minimalist white-and-purple design style and abstract 3D imagery. My only complaint about the set would be the lack of a DVD of Warp’s highly influential music videos, but a great collection of Warp videos already exists and can be purchased separately. For anyone who wasn’t old enough to have heard this music at the time of its creation, or for those of you who want to relive your halcyon days, this is your time to get a true Warp experience.
9) King Crimson “In the Court of the Crimson King”/ “Red”
Ok, I’ll admit it—I’m not a big prog rock fan. As much as I appreciate the complex time signatures and love the analog synth riffage, it’s just a genre that appeals more to me in theory than in practice. That said, I was still pretty blown away by listening to these two reissues by the legendary King Crimson.
First off, I’ve been doing a lot of production lately so I’m becoming more and more of a tech geek by the day. As a result, I’m always in awe of a really good remix or remastering of an album. It’s amazing how some fader tweaks & a bit of EQ and compression in the right hands can make a dull album shine like a diamond (or vice versa in the wrong hands–think Metallica’s latest). For “In the Court of the Crimson King” and “Red”, the great Robert Fripp teamed up with Steven Wilson to create a new (and MUCH better) stereo mix of each album, as well as a 5.1 surround sound version. Each album also features a bonus disc of alternate takes or mixes of album tracks.
Another reason to love these albums—King Crimson isn’t your standard sterile virtuoso prog band. There are some absolutely beautiful moments on these albums, full of true emotion. And did I mention these guys can rock a metal riff? Some very Sabbath-like moments on here. So whether you’re a prog fan or not, these albums are worth picking up.
8 ) The Rolling Stones – “Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out” (40th Anniversary box set)
Ah, The Rolling Stones. Say what you will about their laughable entries into psychedelia in the mid-60s….or their even more laughable forays into reggae in the 70s….or their just plain piss-poor attempts at a return to blues-rock form in the 80s. One thing you can’t deny however is that from 1968′s “Beggar’s Banquet” until 1972′s “Exile on Main Street”, these guys were untouchable. And while their albums from this period are masterpieces of down-and-dirty rock and roll, many who lived through the period would argue that the studio tapes just didn’t capture their best work, which was happening on stage during their raunchy and drug-fueled live performances.
“Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out” is the Stones’ sole official live release from this era, capturing what is arguably their greatest performance ever, a November 1969 show at NYC’s Madison Square Garden (along with a few songs from a Maryland show on the same tour). Some of you may know this show from the Maysles’ brothers’ documentary “Gimme Shelter”. While the film helps give the performance context, you don’t need images to release that this show was pure electric magic. With Mick’s vocals ranging from seductive purr to brutal lion howl and Keith’s guitar licks cutting like a razorblade, it’s no surprise that the great Lester Bangs said ” I have no doubt that it’s the best rock concert ever put on record.”
This year, to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of the performances, the album was reissued in box set form to include previously unreleased bonus tracks from the concerts, as well as tracks by show openers B.B. King and Ike & Tina Turner. Long live rock and roll.
7) The Stone Roses, “The Stone Roses”
I will always remember the first time I heard The Stone Roses. It was 1997 and I just couldn’t shut up about Radiohead. My friend Mike, who was a few years older than me, was getting pretty sick of it & decided it was a good time to try to turn me onto something else. He asked me “Have you ever listened to The Stone Roses? No? Then borrow this. But it’s my favorite album, so I want it back.”
Skeptical that I could appreciate anything other than OK Computer entering my earholes at that moment in time, I reluctantly took the album. Half just to humor Mike, and the other half because I was intrigued by the Jackson Pollock-esque cover art (which I later discovered was created by the band’s guitarist, John Squire). I went back to my apartment and popped the CD into my stereo. About 30 seconds into “I Wanna Be Adored” I was completely sold.
While the Ian Brown‘s ethereal siren song vocals and the lush production is enough to make this album a classic, it’s really the tremendous variety of sounds encompassed during its 11 tracks. From the post-punk overtones of “I Wanna Be Adored” to the jangle-pop of “She Bangs the Drums” to the abstract looping beauty of “Don’t Stop” to Irish folk song on “Elizabeth My Dear”. I can hear echoes of everyone from The Beatles to The Kinks to Syd Barrett to Joy Division to Happy Mondays to…..you name it. This is truly a postmodern pop album, completely unafraid of genre-hopping and paying homage to influences. NME’s claim that this is “the greatest debut album ever” is more than arguable, but it’s definitely a contender.
This year, on the 20th anniversary of the album’s release, “The Stone Roses” was reissued as either a single CD, a single LP, a 2xCD & 1xDVD deluxe set, and a massive “collector’s edition” 3xCD, 3xLP, 1xDVD set for the true obsessives. No matter what version you pick up, you’re in for a treat.
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