// / WITCH-HOUSE.com \ \\

Its interesting to hear the observation of the OP. I haven't really noticed that here (Pittsburgh), but things evolve in
a notoriously slow way here at times. The last time I went to the goth night here, it was still mostly aggro trance,
with a few classics. The dancefloor didn't really get going until they played Skrillex, so who knows?

I think with everything, there's an ebb and flow. There have been a really good amount of new, dark artists emerging in the past 3-4 years, which has really pushed the desire for people to categorize and name that phenomenon as a movement. There have been less that have really blown me away lately - say in the past year. I don't think that really means anything though. There's still plenty of good music, and if there isn't a steady stream now, more will come with time.

Art school kids are super over it but my guess is that 100 people across the world hear it for the 1st time every day.

I also think it's far from done, yet what is happening now is the beginning of the second wave. At least, you could probably mark the 3 year point and/or official end of the first wave next month, that would be fitting. (for those familiar with thee creation story)

I think it's kind of weird how Drag has been the face of WH when they are two completely different genre's. I agree that, in a way, WH is like the dark side of Chill Wave. Make no mistake, Trap beats with dark trance synth, noise and droned out, spooky vox is most definitely Drag, not WH. here is where the division lies: Original WH bands: Pictureplane, Modern Witch, SHAMS, //TENSE//, Ritualz, Mascara, Gatekeeper, etc. Drag bands labeled as WH: SALEM, White Ring, oOoOO, MSV, etc

But there's a lot of outsider bands who are put in this category, but ambiguously. Like Chelsea Wolfe, Fever Ray, CROSSOVER, Ceremonial Dagger, ∆AIMON etc that are really just future dark electronic or even post dark wave, post industrial... whatever you want to call it.

So the magic is actually how these two completely different things became one simply because a dark, witchy aesthetic was involved. I don't think it's negative, it's just history. So now to most WH is everything in between, including Ghost Drone, Zombie Rave, etc.

The point here is that for the last 3 or 4 years there's been a big Dark Electronic Music revival that includes all of the ancient influences of the past, combined with cvrrent and future music. I like how MISHKA did a big piece on WH being sort of a subgenre of this revival, that they lovingly call Grave Wave. I kind of like that term too...

twinvessel wrote:

ghettoa55witch wrote:I think the Witch House Aesthetic is getting pretty big too.The fashion world is seeing inverted crosses, triangles ,and "witchy" inspired collections. The UK based shop Ivory Jar released headbands named after Mater Suspira, Modern Witch, and †No Virgin†. Miista released a collection called "Electric Witches." I think when anything starts becoming more mainstream some yokel always says "Ermagerd it's dead!" Punk is dead. Ebm is dead, etc/ I guess you can't be taken seriously unless your music style is dead.

Yeah, Odd Future and Kanye West have been using 2010 era WH aesthetics, as have shirts and stuff you find at Forever 21 and Urban Outfitters(hazy off colored shirts with triangles and inverted crosses) the whole drugged out hazy instagram
photo filter look with the witchy look is huge.

Im tired of all that, at least for stage shows and fashion shoots i been getting more into the fine art avant garde look

Those are some very lovely images! Indeed, the inverted crosses, triangles, and soft colors are becoming very kitsch. I like the idea of a very tight, clean, dark, and classy avant garde styles in association with Witch House music.
Everything has to evolve and progressively move forward for it's survival, if anything I think this genre is still in the stage of growing.

I think over-defining and subdividing everything into little genres will just kill it. We saw the same thing happen with electro-industrial. It does not really matter anymore how it started or what anyone intended. It does not really even matter what we call it. Just ride the wave.

Thanks art school kids and pitchfork blogs. But we don't need you anymore. "You will meet your fear, and see it is bigger, so much bigger than you feared".

√ƸΩﬣ wrote:

Nova Sol wrote:punk really IS dead, though, and EBM should be (why the fuck isn't it?). any artistic expression loses an important part ov itself when it goes mainstream.

Punk isnt dead, it evolved into skramz and power violence, the scene moves on, styles change, names change. This website could easily be new-breed.com and it wouldn't make any difference.

great example is "ritualzzz" as he likes to be called now. changed the title and changed his style, hypermotion isn't even WH any more but it's still the same deal. I personally thing the sound has matured and diversified, no two albums I listen to nowadays sound the same (2010 was not like this), even if they're from the same artist.

With the advent of TRAP into thee mainstream, im sure its not long til his cooler older brother Drag get dragged along to his ~lame~ partys, then drag realises he has fun and gets laid, so he comes back every other week.

A lot of the WH scene fans and promoters have moved or at least really been focusing on what one might call dark bass/retro future dance/90's rave techno throwback music. Gatekeeper, Nguzunguzu, Funerals, etc. Ritualz, even Fostercare have seemed to also be moving toward that...which merges of course with the rise of Drive soundtrack inspired Italio 80's nu-disco/Rossa acts and Minimal Wave/Neu EBM(white car, light asylum, //TENSE//, etc)

mmmmmmmm wrote:Art school kids are super over it but my guess is that 100 people across the world hear it for the 1st time every day.

I also think it's far from done, yet what is happening now is the beginning of the second wave. At least, you could probably mark the 3 year point and/or official end of the first wave next month, that would be fitting. (for those familiar with thee creation story)

I think it's kind of weird how Drag has been the face of WH when they are two completely different genre's. I agree that, in a way, WH is like the dark side of Chill Wave. Make no mistake, Trap beats with dark trance synth, noise and droned out, spooky vox is most definitely Drag, not WH. here is where the division lies: Original WH bands: Pictureplane, Modern Witch, SHAMS, //TENSE//, Ritualz, Mascara, Gatekeeper, etc. Drag bands labeled as WH: SALEM, White Ring, oOoOO, MSV, etc

But there's a lot of outsider bands who are put in this category, but ambiguously. Like Chelsea Wolfe, Fever Ray, CROSSOVER, Ceremonial Dagger, ∆AIMON etc that are really just future dark electronic or even post dark wave, post industrial... whatever you want to call it.

So the magic is actually how these two completely different things became one simply because a dark, witchy aesthetic was involved. I don't think it's negative, it's just history. So now to most WH is everything in between, including Ghost Drone, Zombie Rave, etc.

The point here is that for the last 3 or 4 years there's been a big Dark Electronic Music revival that includes all of the ancient influences of the past, combined with cvrrent and future music. I like how MISHKA did a big piece on WH being sort of a subgenre of this revival, that they lovingly call Grave Wave. I kind of like that term too...

Probably the act that has risen the fastest using the choppy beat/slowed vocal sound used in a lot of dreamgazey "WH" has been Purity Ring. To me I see it overall as a converging "dark indie" sound. Grimes(who released one of the first witch house albums but now does odd pop music), Chelsea Wolfe(who has risen way out of the WH label in terms of her audience), etc. Balam Acab sounds more like XXYYXX or less dark chillwave and trip hop acts lately. I seem to hear oOoOO at all sorts of parties, stores, etc so his name has definitely branched out of a sub-niche underground.

You also have acts like Light Asylum, Tearist, Soft Metals, White Car, Gatekeeper, etc. that get big alternative media press and are beloved by the "WH" scene. And of course, there's Crystal Castles, HEALTH and Die Antwoord who are greatly liked by a lot of our crowd. And let us not forget a lot of WH promoters and fans love Actrazer, Power Glove, Miami Nights, Com Truise, etc

As of August 2012, there still has been no umbrella label for all of this witch house(drag), experimental, drone/dream pop, retro EBM industrial, etc.

Mcll wrote:I think over-defining and subdividing everything into little genres will just kill it. We saw the same thing happen with electro-industrial. It does not really matter anymore how it started or what anyone intended. It does not really even matter what we call it. Just ride the wave.

Thanks art school kids and pitchfork blogs. But we don't need you anymore. "You will meet your fear, and see it is bigger, so much bigger than you feared".

At the same time, everything seems to be bleeding in together. So many "WH" acts now are going for a trancey/90's rave or r and b/trip hop sound, while some darker indie pop and electro is incorporating various WH production elements. And dovetailing all the WH is 90's rave/bass heavy, italio rossa/80's retro, dream pop, darker stream of conscious hip hop and new-old EBM sounds...all of which are featured in a number of regular traveling showcase events.

Perhaps witch house is the .net name for it, but i always thought of it as dark electronic music. This forum for example, is like a hub for musicians that combine many styles and influences which can appear quite disparate but somehow are intrinsically linked. Anyhow, i love goths... even mall goths (because i was one) so i am glad they are in on it.

Also to this:

As of August 2012, there still has been no umbrella label for all of this witch house(drag), experimental, drone/dream pop, retro EBM industrial, etc.

I think this is perhaps Bandcamp has become a major platform for self publishing. The middle man has been cut out.

I think this is perhaps Bandcamp has become a major platform for self publishing. The middle man has been cut out.[/quote]


Indeed! Well said.

twinvessel wrote:

mmmmmmmm wrote: As of August 2012, there still has been no umbrella label for all of this witch house(drag), experimental, drone/dream pop, retro EBM industrial, etc.

Dark electronica fits, no? But perhaps there's a need for more specificity.

Hey there..!! Thank you for sharing this great stuff with us..!!

has any genre really died e.g. people stoppped altogether making it/producing it/listening to it? not really. especially if you consider that a band or artist is influenced by said genres, it's in a way still alive. musique concrete isn't necessarily super popular anymore but its impact is undeniable, and that alone has kept it from being dead. maybe witch house in a vacuum is not necessarily quote-unquote "on the rise" anymore but surely there are many genres and people who still take cues from things from it, just as witch house itself took cues from other genres.

music, in a way, is immortal.

▲ post future ▲ progressive occult hipstercore▲ progressive occult ghost-wave ▲
That's the new sound
Witch-House is no more

frequencymonsters wrote: Its all electronic/industrial/trance to me

Yep, I've been listening to similar music for 20 years now. It's just witch house is a cute name for it. I still use the term all the time in real life when trying to describe what I listen to, to normies.

houseofwitch wrote:

twinvessel wrote:

mmmmmmmm wrote: As of August 2012, there still has been no umbrella label for all of this witch house(drag), experimental, drone/dream pop, retro EBM industrial, etc.

Dark electronica fits, no? But perhaps there's a need for more specificity.

I just, for now generically call it "dark indie". Because it's mostly the indie blogs and fans who seem to pay attention and interest in it, and is mostly ignored by the goth/industrial world strangely.

Be it White Ring, AIMON, Grimes, Purity Ring, TRUST, Crystal Castles, Tash Wilmore, Light Asylum, oOoOO, ARC, Crim3s, etc I just call it 'the new black'.