🔮 IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER: PICTUREPLANE'S TOP MUSIC OF 2023

From his earliest artistic output Pictureplane, aka human person, artist and musician Travis Egedy, has always been at a crossroads of creative worlds. Coining the term witch house in 2010 to jokingly describe his music (even though the genre "didn’t even really exist" at the time), his early music fuzzed and glittered like a haunted rave. Tracks such as 'Day Glowwed' from 2008's Turquoise Trail and 'Goth Star', appearing on Dark Rift (2009), showed a fizzing versatile style, blending euphoric dance and commmanding drums in a digestible, otherworldly vehicle of earworming melodies. Remixes in this occult-tinged trance flavour for the likes of HEALTH – namely 'Die Slow' – spread his music to a wider audience; indeed, former HEALTH member Jupiter Keyes would go on to co-produce and engineer Egedy's standout 2011 release, Thee Physical.

Occupying not merely a niche of underground internet music but existing more as a touchstone for the alternative of the 21st-century music scene, Egedy's influence and network of creativity is subtle but easy to follow. The late Lil Peep's collaboration with Egedy's "subterranean streetwear" line Alien Body, to take one example (even Billie Eilish was seen sporting a c. 2018 Lil Peep × Alien Body shirt) and releasing his 2021 album DOPAMINE on label 100% Electronica, brainchild of George Clanton, a component of 2010s musical phenemenon vaporwave. All these delicious gossamer threads interweave in a goth-laden Venn diagram of digital-age DIY proportions, with Egedy nebuously in there somewhere.

On that note we are delighted to round up 2023 with a list of Egedy's favourite tracks of the year. From rap to dungeon synth, from black metal to house, it's a smorgasbord of sounds that indicate the continued ingenuity and incredible, singular talents for musicmaking that exist in various spaces in the world. Read on☟

Peso Pluma, Gabito Ballesteros, Junior H – LADY GAGA

Travis Egedy: I was in Mexico City a few times this year and Peso Pluma's name was everywhere. The guy is a superstar, and I'm all about it. I love this whole wave of young Mexican artists doing these "corridos tumbados", or "trap corridos". It's traditional regional music done in a totally new way. I fell in love with this song and have listened to it on repeat since I first heard it. It is Brilliant.

https://www.billboard.com/music/latin/corridos-tumbados-controversy-mexico-natanael-cano-1235370042/

Departure Chandelier – Accipitridae

TE: Departure Chandelier are definitely one of my favorite bands. Self-described "Napoleonic War Metal", They have a new album called Satan Soldier of Fortune dropping in 2024, but they put up a few preview tracks from the album on their bandcamp. The mix of melodic choral synths, raw and blackened guitar riffs and themes of French warfare from the early 1800s is really unparalleled. It is so fire.

Hole Dweller – Greener Pastures

TE: The king of Tolkien-based Comfy Synth. Hole Dweller's music is so inspiring to me. His melodies really can transport you to a distant land of hobbit holes, smoke rings, wizard hats and dragon wings. This is synth music that has left the dungeon and is basking out in the summer sun in a field of blooming flowers. His newest EP, Crossroads was created mostly with a mandolin, and he SHREDS. His records have provided the soundtrack for many Magic: The Gathering games for me and friends.

Westside Gunn, Stove God Cooks – Kitchen Lights

TE: I grew up as a deep underground hip-hop head. To me, what the Flygod and Griselda Records are doing is just hitting everything perfectly that is magical about east coast hip-hop right now. It is gold. This song is unreal. Its so visual. I can envision cooking up drugs on a stove, with piles of cash stacked up under the kitchen lights. Just raw romance, swagger and emotion.

$uicideboy$ – Not Even Ghosts Are This Empty

TE: I really admire SuicideBoys, they have insane work ethic, have amassed an incredibly loyal fanbase, are selling out stadiums, all making the artistic music they want to on their own terms, independently. And their music is fucking amazing. I listen to it a lot. This isn't really my favorite song by them, but it dropped this year and it is very good.

Boys Noize & Skream – Trip

TE: Boys Noize is another artist I admire. He is just crazy talented and masterful of multiple genres of nasty dance music. And he is making some of the best music of his career right now. This track with Skream is hallucinogenic break beat dance floor euphoria. Very good.

DJ Boneyard – Flutter

TE: This year one of my musical obsessions was the Australian/London record label, Steel City Dance Discs. I played so much music released on that label in my DJ sets. Artists like Kettama, X Club, Nite Fleit, X-Coast, Clouds, Mall Grab, and Dagga were riding an insane wave of disgusting lo-fi electro, melodic trance and techno that I was really feeling. "Flutter" is a stone cold electro synth banger that is dark and mysterious. It is just sick as fuck. One for the ravers.

Arbor – Behold... The Age of Pagan Blood

TE: I dont know much about this one man black metal project, other than they go by the name Taurus, who is also the mastermind behind amazing projects like Gauntlet Ring and Fellwinter. This is their debut full-length record as Arbor, and it is masterful. Incredible melodic riffs that bring out melancholic emotions deep from within my inner spirit. It's powerful, introspective raw black metal music and it makes me feel happy to be alive. Sometimes I am blown away that music this good even exists, and is being made by some mysterious person by themselves in a room somewhere.

Trhä – lhum'ad'sejja

TE: An even more mysterious artist, Trhä, has created their own language that they write lyrics in. A crazy prolific artist making some of the most profound sounding, blown out, atmospheric, and beautiful underground melodic black metal right now. I love all of their records, and this one from 2023 is no different.

Twin Tribes – Monolith

TE: I listened to a lot of Twin Tribes this year, all of their records, like A LOT. This was a new single they dropped and its very good. they are masters of goth synth. I first saw them play at a festival I performed at in LA, and was instantly a fan. They are really good songwriters, like every song is a HIT.

Quest Master – Sword & Circuitry

TE: By far one of my favorite artists who is "dungeon synth" adjacent. Quest Master is a master of melody and beauty. The music has an old school '90s Final Fantasy vibe, perfect for role-playing games with your friends. They are just extremely talented and I love listening to their gorgeous records at home. This newest EP is no different, and a brilliant addition to their stunning catalogue.

Këkht Aräkh – Wanderer

TE: The newest track from romantic DIY black metal phenom, Këkht Aräkh, is so sick. Oozing sex appeal, and the music video sees him acting sort of like an underground rapper in the woods, which makes sense seeing as he collaborated with GothBoiClique legends, Lil Tracy, Nedarb Nagrom and Horsehead in the great 2023 track "Deadline". The track feels timeless, and represents a new wave. Fire.

Photography by Bedford Towers taken at Travis Egedy's Brooklyn studio

• 🔔 Keep up to date with the latest Pictureplane releases on Bandcamp.

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☟ Pictureplane Internet Presence ☟
facebook ⚘ soundcloud ⚘ bandcamp ⚘ official site ⚘ twitter ⚘ Alien Body

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SCINTII — TIMES NEW ROMAN (PALMISTRY REMIX)

⌾ LISTEN TO SCINTII, TIMES NEW ROMAN (PALMISTRY REMIX) ⌾

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Firstly an undulating wash of post-trance sound, the static sea of scathing synths and hiss that marks the start of this track feels panoramic, witch house-tinged, maybe, but less pentagrams, more amorphous futuristic mode of transport. This harsh, nebulous swirl becomes the backdrop for a restless scuttle of garage-tinged beats — the propulsion at the heart of Palmistry's remix treatment for 'Times New Roman' by Shanghai-based Scintii.

Leaving its electrified cosmic cloud behind, the track dives into a glimmering shuffle of percussion and gloopy bass, pitched clangs simultaneously rooting it somewhere physical while also darkly ringing in a metaphysical realm, a club night on another plane of existence.

While Scintii's original 'Times New Roman' sees her voice creep amid a lurching forest of synth, Palmistry's reworking fragments the vocal and scatters it like silly putty throughout, adding human — if warped — warmth to its cold, kinetic vessel. The change tempo towards the end is natural, satisfyingly so, like a train slowing for a station, further emphasising the propulsive power of the track as the track draws to a fizzy, ethereal close.

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• 🔔 This track is out now via Houndstooth. You can stream it and purchase it as your heart desires from this list of services.
• 🔔 The original 'Times New Roman' was the result of a recording session with Danny L. Harle. "The main melody came to me while wandering round a shopping mall," Scintii says of the track "but I wasn’t sure what to do with it. Then I had the session with Danny and it just worked with the beat he was making. It really started to become about me feeling sure of myself as a musician and producer, going in a new direction and really being able to maximise my own voice."

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☟ Scintii Internet Presence ☟
facebook ⚘ soundcloud ⚘ twitter ⚘ instagram

☟ Palmistry Internet Presence ☟
facebook ⚘ soundcloud ⚘ bandcamp ⚘ official site ⚘ twitter ⚘ youtube ⚘ instagram ⚘ spotify

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🐣 LIL PEEP — BENZ TRUCK (ГЕЛИК)

The menace of the crunching bass and the downtrodden guitar, the slapdash strumming leading into a graveyard of sound that looms like something poised to pounce but never does—it's that ever-present threat of sound, melancholy on the edge of negative action, which gives 'Benz Truck (гелик)' its brooding atmosphere, a gothic gloom that is charged with potential energy yet which seems to shrink and wallow in grief. It does both. Producer smokeasac attaches a disjointed drum machine the dirge, thin gasping snares crack whilst kicks gloop and thud, subtle hi-hats ticking slow and sometimes tripling up like origami assault rifles takata-takata-takata just adding to the hype of the track, the electricity of it that you'd swear didn't exist here if it weren't as palpable and downright tangible as it is.

Slurring mumbling darkly with downcast confidence is Lil Peep, whose laid-back rap flows slow like spilled apple sauce, delivered with laissez-faire aplomb and a mellow fierceness. He casually delineates his situation whereby he has obtained money and success, enough for "iced out teeth on an iced out whip / with the limousine tints, you can suck my dick." He goes on to pre-empt accusations of sell-out that seem to come with the attainment of fame – "who you wanna hate now? pretty soon you gonna hate me" – as well as boldly stating: "all the money that I make now / I'll never let it change me." His tone, something like a drugged Jesse Lacey would sing over the top of something Brand New might play if they injected beats into their hard emo sound, is soaked with reverb, and conjures a persona at once calm and collected, less emo crying and commiserations, more stoic control of life.

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• 🔔 The track is taken from Lil Peep's album Come Over When You're Sober, set to drop at some point soon I guess. You can purchase, stream and/or download 'Benz Truck (гелик)' via this lil link here.
• 🔔 The Russian word гелик in the title refers to the exact type of Benz truck he's talking about: G-Class—the word, read as something like "gelik" in English, and let's assume it's a slang term, throws up images of black boxy cars on Google.
• 🔔 The video for the track was directed by Get Mezzy (also editor), SUS BOY, and Wiggy. It was animated by Chadwickmak and Connor Moy.

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📠
☟ smokeasac Internet Presence ☟
soundcloud ⚘ twitter ⚘ instagram

☟ Lil Peep Internet Presence ☟
facebook ⚘ soundcloud ⚘ bandcamp ⚘ official site ⚘ twitter ⚘ youtube ⚘ instagram ⚘ wikipedia

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🐣 ISSERLEY — ADVENT

Do you remember the music for the Big Boo's Haunt from Super Mario 64? It's this that literally sets the scene for the level being as frightening as it was and is. This cold synth sound like a freezing gale gives a sense of abandonment and isolation, of adverse weather conditions that go hand-in-hand with things like haunted houses. And it's also how 'Advent' by 22-year-old Australian musicmaker Isserley begins, along with a handful of sub-bass kicks that drag us into this dark pool of lust and self-doubt.

Raspy hi-hats cut in, a sparse two-note piano melody plinks with hefty reverb before turning into something more horrorfully cyclical with more notes, creeping, inescapable. All the while, Isserley talks in aching absent monotone, quiet and breathy against the bass, effusing an ominous atmosphere. And then it hits: a moment of buzzing intensity saws through this, dense synths droning and crashing towards the end, the beat turning busier and rattling sharply like gunfire. The contrast between this heavy blast of brash sound and the small voice of the artist herself is stark, and enough to prove frankly mesmerising. Similarly it's an illustration of surface-level brooding calm and inner turmoil, stillness and the storm beneath.

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• 🔔 Check out Isserley's 2016 album Messes, where you'll find tracks like the sludgy 'Daddy' and 'Deep Throat', which has a decidedly more industrial feel than 'Advent', with its ticking percussion, atonal synths crushed and grinding, simmering with its chopped and decaying vocal samples.
• 🔔 Aside from producing her own music, it turns out she's been utilising her sound for other projects. "I've been doing scoring for horror movies lately too," Isserley told YES/NO, "I'm scoring some of the new Silent Hill movie!"
• 🔔 Isserley is the second project of Roxxi Wallace, who is formerly of formerly existing duo, Girlflesh.

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☟ Isserley Internet Presence ☟
Facebook • SoundCloud • Bandcamp

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PALE – SILENCE (EYEDRESS REMIX)

The shifting & shuffling night-drive R&B of London-based Pale's recent track 'Silence' is beautiful; synth chords drenched in chorus seem to laser through ur mind with pulsar hypnotism riding the plasma length of each resounding blast; minimalist guitar reverbs with cold sharp twangs of introverted sound; vocals, smooth and wracked with heartfelt longing — for what? Silence? Who knows.

This has now been acquired by Filipino musicmaker Eyedress for a suitably hazy remix. This guy, whose alias is a phonetic rendition for all those who would mispronounce his actual name: Idris (Vicuña), is well known for his powerful, ghost-flavoured originals and remixes alike. And in the same vein as his past efforts, 'Silence' becomes a different beast.

Soaked with off-kilter sweeps of wobbling, grinding synth, the track is set adrift a turbulent undercurrent of clap collections, urgent hi-hats and syncopated snares, beset with an occasional near-supersonic scream whirling about like some nightmare flying insect that's like a horrifically sized cranefly but with a death-coloured human head and long flowing greasy hair. The vocals are now stretched from their original pitch, wrenched through the nocturnal sludge of Eyedress's witchy sound for an unsettling decoration atop this subtly stormy sound.

• The original 'Silence' is taken from Pale's recent The Comeback EP, a four-song showcase of downtempo beauty seasoned with R&B lilts. You'll like it, probably.

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☟ Pale Social Media Presence ☟
Facebook • SoundCloud • Twitter

☟ EyedressSocial Media Presence ☟
Facebook • SoundCloud • Twitter • Vimeo

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RITUALZ †‡† RHYTHMIC RELEASE

Whilst Ritualz (pictured right) seemed to begin life on the music scene as a herald of strange gothic dance music, distorted out of all recognition and even slightly frightening to even listen to, it seems these days, a few years after his inception (not like that convoluted film), to have calmed down, expressing a desire to move in more conventional patterns. That's how it seems. Or sounds.

There's a peculiar kind synth he uses that seems to not only carry distortion in its movement, but also a sense of buffeting winds and unreal hollowness; for this new song, 'Rhythmic Release', it's no different. Except his inner, perhaps more meditative side has come out and allowed him to turn up the chill on this track, especially in the little quiet bit after the halfway mark. Then we hear another kind of synth that Ritualz likes to use: very high pitched, screeching, trance-style notes. However the regular bass is something new, as are the more meaty-sounding drums. The general sense of dread is gradually slipping away from his songs. In the menacingly authoritative vocal sample he uses in this song is the most 'fear'.


We first saw this kind of change in his experimental veer from the path of gothic dance music, Outworld Music I, which I wrote about in May, and it marked an exciting potential. Perhaps he will break into more mainstream dance circles.

Who knows. All that I know is that this song, though not his strongest ever, has elements within that have the potential to make his music more attractive for a more amount of people.

But is that really what he wants?

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• Check Ritualz on SoundCloud for more music
• Ritualz official site
• Here's the Facebook page for Ritualz
• And Follow Ritualz on Twitter
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UNISON BROTHERS & SISTERS

If you want dark and innocuously modest music in the mornings, or actually at any time of day (it depends when you're reading this), then I'd get to know Unison if I were you. It's an old song but whatever.

The above song is an example of their pitch-black, echoing electronica, 'Brothers & Sisters'. Starting off pretty unassuming, but, like a night torn asunder by cicadas and frogs and crickets (if they stay awake at night), high-pitched noises and - eventually - the frenetic beat come in. The bass is a constantly transistory, in that it's not just one sustained note, but a series of low, wobbling notes - picture a jelly sitting on a power plate. Now imagine that this jelly is filled with, not mandarin segments, but faded polaroids of hoax ghosts and some piece of ancient, worn floorboard with some esoteric symbols carved into it.

What a picture. Sorry about that. But you know what I mean.

Like a mantra, the vocals come in with a 'Brothers and sisters something-something-something...' with their breathy echo - a wondrous female voice that sounds a bit like the singer from Portishead. The entrance of the clean-yet-slightly-distorted, repetitious guitar arpeggio is something special too, coming in after the night-noises stop and the kick is already strongly thumping. But from these humble origins the song builds into this crescendo, a wave of sound that constantly washes over you until its end, crashing with synth and fuzz and noise.

Darkly wonderful, wonderfully dark. Brilliant, too. Listen up. They call it 'death-gaze' and 'death-trance', but it's much more like deep-dark-electro-witch-house-ambient. Has a better ring to it.

The video is also great, you should watch it FULL SCREEN by clicking here.

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• Official site for Unison
• It's Unison on Myspace
• Unison's SoundCloud
• FOLLOW UNISON ON TWITTER
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RITUALZ (†‡†) OUTWORLD MUSIC I

I love Ritualz. Naturally, I also love when Ritualz himself posts a tweet that advertises some of his new music before anybody else gets their hands on it. It's the way music is going. Or at least, it's the way music should be going. It's probably not heading exactly in that direction because there are still a lot of record labels out there, but there are people who are promoting this DIY ethic, artists like Ritualz, enough people that it is taking root just deep enough to warrant calling it a movement.

Maybe. Maybe it is. It's certainly moving and its definitely progressive, so why say otherwise? Well, say what you want, but that's what I've just written, so there. (Pictureplane did the same thing a while ago with his track, 'Post Physical'. It's not completely unfounded music blog tripe).

I love Ritualz. He is typically associated with the Witch House genre - or nonre (non-genre, come on) as many naysayers will tell you - which is a bone of contention for many people, mainly because: "it's been around for ages" or "it's basically just drone". Go on any YouTube video for Ritualz, Mater Suspiria Vision, oOoOO, White Ring, Modern Witch (least favourite) etc. etc. and you will see these pointless arguments and pretentious vox pops for yourself.

Anyway, to the music.



It's dark, impressive, atmospheric Ritualz stuff, though without the noisy, apocalyptic darkness that pervaded his previous work. He created the tracks for Outworld Music I as "A WAY TO EXPLORE NEW SOUNDS BEING 90S TRANCE, WORLD AND NEW AGE MUSIC THE MAIN INFLUENCES BEHIND THESE FIRST 4 TRACKS." Has he succeeded?

I wonder if he might have heard John Talabot's new album (which for me is a very good example of how house music can be amazing at the same time as it can be dark and odd). 'Atmosphere' is a kind of sunny rave when the lights have gone off, Ritualz employing some jungle-themed bongos and/or xylophones and scintillating, dappled synth to give it a rainforest-in-mourning kind of feel.

Second song, 'Spiritual' sounds like a twisted version of something you'd find on an Ibiza chill-out album. Whilst it's very Baleric in that sense, it's also Ritualz: expect the muffled screeches of synth and a many series of handclaps. This one is very trance indeed. Then we move underwater for third track, 'Resurfacing'. I didn't even look at the song title before I decided it was water-themed - always a good thing. Drum and Bass!?

Yes, Ritualz goes Drum and Bass. It's a fluid number that utilises the trademark Ritualz synth distortion, running all all the way through is this ambient sun of synth that is like some cosmic blanket, cut through with piercing beadlets of high pitched squeals. Short, sweet and packed full of energy.

'Melancholia' ends the EP with orchestral richness and cool breakbeat-esque drum track that sounds raw and real. It's a warm track, euphoric and trancey - the last third of this song, also, is pure house gold. I am far, far, far from disappointed in his 'break' from the regular sound. This marks a new step for Ritualz as a artist; his foray into something other than the darkness of the genre he's been associated with for a few years now; an exploration of other kinds of music that will only make his sound stronger and more accessible.

Because everyone should be listening to and appreciating an artist like Ritualz.

Outworld Music I is out TOMORROW, 15th May, on Ritualz Bandcamp

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• Ritualz is on SoundCloud.
• And Ritualz is also on Twitter.
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BLISSED OUT MIDNIGHT WITH †‡† RITUALZ

A quick one. Ritualz (or in the proper lexicon, †‡†) has teamed up with Blissed Out to produce the track 'Midnight'. I've written about Ritualz before - bizarre to some, terrible to others, amazing to a few - and this won't be the last time I do, either.



Typified by its dark ambience, the track pummels you with that 16th note hi-hat a little too much perhaps, but then again it's part of it. The thin snare is washed out and understated. The synth is distorted, pulled apart, and fed back into the air like the constant noise it is. I like Ritualz in general, but I don't know much by Blissed Out (and I now probably will get to know). Hopefully this is the start of a beautiful partnership. It's strange music, but what's the world without it?

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• Blissed Out on SoundCloud
• Ritualz is on SoundCloud
• (He does not use Myspace, but has an account)
• Blissed Out on Twitter
• Ritualz on Twitter
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GHOSTING SEASON FAR END OF THE GRAVEYARD

Morphing organically from previous electronica project, Worredaboutsatan, the Leeds duo who now steer the fate of current undead-themed Ghosting Season. But is their first EP under this new moniker, 'Far End Of The Graveyard', halfway between this world and the next, one foot in heaven and one on the earth - is it in limbo?

Super dance make-a-stand here-I-am darkly anti-anthemic dirge title-track 'Far End Of The Graveyard' busts on the scene first and is a fantastic opener. This really brings to the forefront Gavin Miller's and Tom Ragsdale's talents in creating an atmosphere by slowly introducing you to different sounds and themes, both geniuses in patience and certainly not exposing you to everything all at once. The intricate weave of perfect jigsaw sounds comes to a head around two-thirds of the way through this one when a simple brutally modulated two-note synth bridge disturbs the drums so much that they disappear for half a bar each time it repeats itself. Wonderful stuff, something I've written about before here (also the post-post-modern video is on the past post too).

Second track 'Exercise Us' opens with a hugely desertificated slow symphony of strings and horns, like a dark Lawrence of Arabia on ketamine. It's chilled pseudo-dubstep with an auxilliary beat that sounds like the beat played to the music inside the pyramid of Mario 64's Shifting Sand Land, and for this the soundscape is automatically tied to sand, pyramids, and spirits guiding you through it all (that's Zelda - sorry).

However this is far from soundtrack music, and would do just as well in a misty club at 3:00 in the morning with 12,000 units down you, dancing as if your legs don't exist - i.e. swaying. There's a wonderful breakdown in this song, displaying some attitudinal wobble and providing some bassy breathing space as the strings come back to take centre stage before we are back into the groove.

So when 'Washed Ashore' surfaces it's a welcome break. What you notice about Ghosting Season is their subtle intensity; after the first two tracks you are kind of reeling from their sound. Totally not in a bad way, but it's in their progressive build-ups that you suddenly find yourself miles away from the start of the song - the elements are still there, but so much more has risen out of the speakers that you almost find yourself looking down on the idea of a song whilst you float above it all watching its original concepts swirl around.

Thus 'Washed Ashore' - with its ambience, swooping synths, and gentle wave-crashing imitations - comes perfectly positioned; after the brooding storm of 'Far End Of The Graveyard', the lost-at-sea hallucinations of 'Excercise Us', it's nice to be washed ashore with 'Washed Ashore'.

Then we travel inland for 'Dead Man's Switch' - to some dark place, who knows where. It's a hearty chunk of progressive trance house, once again showing the skill and effort put into their songs. Sounding much more like electronica than its counterpart 'Far End Of The Graveyard', the distorted sounds bubble up after a moment of silence - this is the dead man's switch being activated (yeah I just learned what this was too). Though strangely more than any other song there's some kind of hope in there, a totally major theme running throughout the duration of the track, meaning you end on a high. Albeit a strange high, as the claps that erupt in the second half of the track add a witch house quality to it, though we all know this is far more progressive electro house with a dark twist than anything inherently dark. For me, anything that takes the focus from clinical dance music with a conceited euphoria is on the light side, ironically.

So are we in limbo? No. We've been taken on a wonderful journey filled with highs and lows, astonishing attention to detail in creating atmospheric soundscapes that you can positively get lost in, and a wholly deep, organic sound that is a joy to listen to. We're in heaven.

Listen below. I recommend it:



• Check out their SoundCloud for extra remixes
• Their official website
• Their Vimeo for the supercool 'Far End Of The Graveyard' video
• Their Bandcamp to download the EP (minimum payment £1.50)
• And follow them on Twitter

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†‡† RITUALZ LIVE @ CAMP LONDON

I think perhaps my favourite witch house artist, Ritualz (†‡†), is playing live tomorrow (Monday 20th June) at the CAMP Basement, London. I have a ticket already, but I am feeling so ill today that I might not be able to make it tomorrow, which would suck big time. I would miss the first time he's playing in London and that would be a shame. There are still tickets available, so if you'd like to go and see this amazing artist alongside Design A Wave, The Church Of Synth, Story Of Isaac (DJ) and BITE DJ, get on it. If you need an idea of what this fantastically unique gangster-cum-conjurer might be like live, here he is playing his song 'Ghetto Ass Witch' live in Bucharest on 9th June:

I'm sure the colour effects were added post-production, but despite that, it fits the song perfectly. This is the kind of thing you'd be anticipating if you fancied going along tomorrow. As you can hear, Ritualz creates music that is kind of like trance put in a blender, heavily reliant on fat kick drum and sharp claps to make up the beat. Generally, the music is hypnotic in all its distorted synth glory, rent with twisted rave horns and high pitch, screaming synth rocketing up and down - as best demonstrated by the widely-loved song below, 'Goth Bb'.

The lo-fi, brutally intense beat makes this song, whilst ear-splitting synths battle above it, dive-bombing your brain every now and again. There's a distinctly videogame soundtrack vibe around this, mixed of course with the dark, shadowy overtones to create something utterly unique, and borderline anthemic. Listen:


What do you think? Just a lot of noise, or something closer to genius?

Don't forget: CAMP Basement, London - tomorrow, 20th June.
He doesn't use Myspace anymore.
He does use SoundCloud.
And he is on Twitter.

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MOSCOW YOUTH CULT LIVE @ THE LOCK TAVERN

Yeah, that's right, Moscow Youth Cult. They're an electro duo from Leicester, who play something a cross between Joy Division and a lo-fi Simian Mobile Disco. Their live shows are augmented by a magic, cathode ray tube TV which projects grainy B-movie footage onto a screen behind them as they rock your world, pushing sliders and turning knobs; an interesting quirk. They will be playing live at The Lock Tavern tomorrow night, Thursday 16th June (they're on at 10pm, I'm told), and it's free - so do pop along if you're in the area.

Their EP, Hive Mind, has been released for free download (see below) and it's most definitely worth a listen. 'Girls of Boredom' is a perfect single, combining a hard and fast drum track with a dark, engulfing bass synth for a backing with attitude; add to this cutesy chip-tune and distorted, catchy vocals and you have yourself a song that's 2 parts in-your-face, 1 part pop. There's a similar feel to 'Sakura Sakura', though the strange J-pop style is completely different in execution here. Beginning with a cut up mess of distorted, compressed synth that wouldn't sound out of place on a Justice song, the song quickly moves into a fast paced world of synth distortion and chip-tune again, with female vocal samples - Japanese, of course.

Moscow Youth Cult - Hive Glow EP by Moscow Youth Cult

The last song, 'La Casa (MYC Mia MYC Tua)', features a floating bass that seems to croak with the heavy distortion placed upon it, sounding a little witch house to begin with, gradually turning into an odd, modulating house track. This wordless song is a great example of the talented production that goes into these songs.

If you liked that, you can actually get the whole of their Hive Mind EP sent to you for download. Find this below (although you can download from the above SoundCloud player too). It's a pretty wonderful way to get new music - and an EP, unless it's from a very well known band, should be free (I think) as it's kind of just a taster. Like free samples on a Sainsbury's deli counter.

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TEARIST - BREAK BONE, LIVE

This is TEARIST. Hailing from LA, they're in the same league as artists like HEALTH, Clipd Beaks, Pictureplane and Zola Jesus - some key players in the drag / noise / witch house (post-goth basically) resurgence that seems to be happening all around us; perhaps thanks to a dark and daring Lady Gaga leading the way, perhaps not.
Their dark, DIY sound throws back to early Joy Division, with William Stangeland Menchaca engineering weird and wonderful synth sounds whilst Yasmine Kittles sings fiercely half-yelling - a style utilised by Zola Jesus. You can also see from the video that her erratic, quirky nature of performing songs is reminiscent to that of Alice Glass of Crystal Castles; something that fits the sound of the music perfectly.
Their album 'Living: 2009-Present' was released mid-May this year received a mixed reception, thanks to the lo-fi quality of the recordings; the Los Angeles Times described them as "gothy electro-noise".

The video is TEARIST performing a song, 'Break Bone', live on radio (KXLU 88.9 FM Los Angeles) in July of last year.


TEARIST on Myspace
TEARIST on Bandcamp
TEARIST on Twitter

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A FUNERALS SONG

Not a funeral's song, a FUNERALS song.

FUNERALS - AITU (LQD LIVE EDIT) by FUNERALS

A great little tune. Ambient but persuasive, like something that gets you dancing before you've even realised that you're moving.

These guys are two producers, Casey Immel-Brown and Mollie Wells, a married couple from Ohio, and it must be a great marriage because there's nothing out of place here. Everything about this is well-polished, without it sounding well-polished, if you know what I mean. It sounds dirgey, whilst at the same time sounding pretty disco, dark and light, both at the same time. It's wonderful - from the high, hollow flute to the unrelenting house beat.

On a sidenote, they've also remixed some pretty good artists on their SoundCloud, including the wonderful Ritualz. God I love Ritualz.

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NEW GHOSTING SEASON VIDEO

This is Ghosting Season's video for 'Far End of the Graveyard' - the lead track to be taken from upcoming EP of the same name.

It's a mix of dreamy, euphoric synths and dark, rumbling bass that is an undercurrent throughout the song. It's nearly like Witch House, a really interesting genre of music - the band name definitely fits the bill (former name, worriedaboutsatan, even more so). They're new to 2011 in this format, but have been touring for half a decade under their previous, more anxious moniker.

Check their SoundCloud if you'd like to listen to this song over and over again: soundcloud.com/ghostingseason.

The duo, Gavin Miller and Thomas Ragsdale, will be playing a number of dates over the next couple of months:

May 18th The Star and Garter, Manchester w/ Cloud Boat (more TBA)
May 19th Liverpool Sound City Festival @ The Kazimier, Liverpool w/ The Whip, Yuck, Chad Valley, and others
May 20th Ice Father Nation, London w/ Teeth!!
June 17th The Lexington, London w/ Demdike Stare and others
August 12th Beacons Festival @ Heslaker Farm, Skipton w/ Jamie XX, Mount Kimbie, Factory Floor, and others

Ghosting Season's 'Far End of the Graveyard' EP is out Monday 30th May
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