Byrds Of Paradise - Kids In The Hall video.

kids in the hall - byrds of paradise from Martin Anderson on Vimeo.

Byrds Of Paradise classic, unsigned, four piece garage punk from Brooklyn with extra band smarts (like street smarts but musical.)

This is an awesome video that starts with a reversed Altamont that makes everything happy with no deaths and then just goes partying! Stab that guy to life Hells Angels!

There is a 7" just out on Wild World Records (which I think is the Vivian Girls own label) and another on Don Giovanni Records.

Bat for Lashes/Beck collaboration.

This is probably the most commercial of my posts so far on this blog but here is the collaboration Bat For Lashes has done with Beck for the new Twilight, Eclipse film!

It kind of weirds me out looking through the soundtrack listings to these films that so many good artist would lend their music to this franchise but if it can create a track this good then whatever!

This is an epic disco chillout song in the tradition of stadium balladiers and at the same time is close and scuzzy enough to not make me wince! Those piano stabs feel like mountains collapsing into the sea.

Really awesome. When he first comes in Beck almost sounds like the Beta Band for some reason. A proper classic that I imagine will be overlooked because of it being part of this soundtrack. Would love to see this at number one in the singles chart!

Let's Get Lost by Bat for Lashes

Superheroes of BMX this Friday!

I'm Djing with Super Heroes Of BMX

This Friday 8pm till late.

Free entry.

@The Hydrant,

London Rd, Brighton.

▲

▲ pronounced "Black Pyramid", from Chicago. Not to be confused with stoner doom band Black Pyramid. ▲ is witch house, is soundscapes for soot stained deserts, is the howling wind from the landing mothership, black faces craning upwards to an unforgiving sky. If it had rained oil at the end of Dune not water.

Your cursor becomes a black pyramid when it goes over their Myspace, when you listen to them you pupils develop three corners.

Little Specks of Blood Lust Blood and Blindness.

Recently I've been loving so much of the Chicago EBM sound, bands like Valis, White Car and Houstons //Tense// that I've neglected to point out that we have two equally awesome female fronted bands in a similar vein over here on the south coast of England!

Blindness are an unsigned four piece, who create a great industrial, shoegaze, EBM sound that brings up elements of bands like Curve or Nine Inch Nails.

Live its drums, guitars, bass all fronted by an amazing singer Beth Rittig.

If //Tense// played over here this band would have to support them!

I still haven't caught them live but from seeing past projects from some of these guys I just know it cant fail!

Little Speck Of Blood Lust Blood are a duo that have a great livesound, part Zola Jesus part Jesus and Mary Chain and quite a bit of electronic beatery. I saw them play to an almost empty club a month ago but their performance was no less epic because of a lack of audience. Allen plays total shoegaze fuzzed out guitar while Helen projects a voice that can go from a whisper to a gunshot in seconds.

The tracks recorded below really don't do them justice to their live sound to be fair!

Check them at their Facebook. Twitter. Myspace.

Modern Witch. Witch House Post #12

Modern Witch creates a Witch House sound that is close, lo-fi and repetitive. Rubbing up against an Italiano disco feel but slinking away back to the woods. Drum machines and drones and low vocals. I also just wanted to post a few videos so take a look/listen.

There are two live dates coming up in San Paulo, Brazil in July which might be the first international Witch House gigs! Cool yeah!

There's also an eleven song cdr available through Disaro or info@modernwitchmusic.com.
Plus free mp3s via the BEKO digital single label as part of a three way split release with Mater Susprira Vision and madame o und ihre kopffilm bande.

Not The Only One // Modern Witch from mario zoots on Vimeo.

Ace links to total content.

Some cool links for you today!

Great Witch House connected Tumblr here, all remixs and layered videos and stuff (has a real life picture of Balam Acab, its like when Kiss took of the face paint and you could see who they were ..I imagine so anyway.) http://bonejam.tumblr.com/

Serotonin Sounds has a great interview with one of my favourite musical artists at the moment, †‡†, who talks about the whole Witch House scene, how Pictureplane invented the name, the other artists he likes etc. http://serotoninsounds.blogspot.com/2010/06/interview.html

The Flickr account of Alison Scarpulla has some awesome photos that rock a whole Witch House in the day/chillwave at night feel! http://www.flickr.com/photos/aliscarpulla/

Finally if you're a fan of Witch House and modern industrial sounds too then check out the Darkwave Tumblr.

Estacy and a band that Blogspot wont allow in the title.

Two unsigned bands for you today working in the Witch House "culture".

I'm starting to feel its not just a music genre, its just as much a scene and culture. It has a strong visual as well as audio presence, social networks like Tumblr have seen to that. Plus its less connected to the normal music business formula than other groups.)

Anyway first up is <•>YΔY<•> (pronounced EYE-YAY-EYE) who professes to being from Greenland on the myspace, and were formed to deal with expressing some pretty bad nightmares!

The name is pretty much un-searchable because of its use of <>!!

There is an album out called ◭☼◮ which sounds pretty cool, its dark and experimental and it has some wonderfully creative track listings:

1. ▲▲ΔGE

2. ((◎)><(◎))

3. ✘IU✘IU▲HYNHYZ▲THΣMΣ▲RM✘

4. Oo<(▲)>oO

5. iced d▲rk

6. S◭☼◮E

7. p♥wer

Deal with that Last.fm Scrobbler!!

Thing is I cant find the project anywhere to download or listen to, other than Myspace.

Next up is Estasy who (again according to the always reliable Myspace!) comes from Yemen.

An artist or group that more likely comes from Italy, this is all beautiful, haunting drones, high pitched vocals, percussion and echo. Quiet, precise and mystical. More than a touch of the Pocahaunted in fact.

My favourite track is "Wild Wants" which almost gets a bit Icelandic in its evocation. Googling them does no good as its one letter from ecstasy! But they do have two gigs in London coming up on the 25th June and 2nd July! Details on their Myspace.

There is also a blog which has lots of great masks and seriously good collages!

Pearl Harbor now Puro Instinct!

So the ultimate Californian Surf garage/chillwave band Pearl Harbor have changed their name to Puro Instinct complete with soviet style font and eastern block faded photos. ..and its awesome!

They have a new EP out too, buy and download it from their Bandcamp, or wait and get it on vinyl soonish!

The sound is similar to their last releases but now seems to have a faded 80s soviet magic to it, like this is the one record to make it through the iron curtain a few years before the wall came down.

Velvet Underground tracks heard through tinny Russian speakers turned down quiet so as not too be overheard by the authorities.

The unashamed Californian joy has given way to a haunting beautiful meloncholia.

I guess to celebrate the new name they also have a bunch of really cool dates booked across the States, all up on their myspace. See them if you can!

Their blog also links to all their internet presence so go check it.

Teams, Catch Pool EP.

Teams is an unsigned artist who, like Cool Runnings, is also from Knoxville Tennesse.

This is a wild concoction of drums, dancing, echoes and Chillwave, choral incantations into experimental fogs, tropicalia to samples!

Teams five song Catch Pool EP is available to download for free from his Bandcamp page.

Or you can have a quick listen first below:

Dre▲ms In †he Wi†ch House. 20th July. Brighton.

Coming soon:

Dre▲ms In †he Wi†ch House.

An audio visual hex of Witch House/Zombie Rave/EBM/Tech Noir & Ghost Drone.
With LIVE Witch House remixing of classic 90s rave tunes

and a small smattering of classic goth for those who need to mourn the past.

20th July @The Penthouse.

Above the world famous Freebutt,

Brighton.

+
Three film projectors throwing Witch House videos against the walls with backup from

David Lynch, Dario Argento and Alejandro Jodorowsky.

Free.

(Facebook Group)

COOL RUNNINGS, 2 Free EPs!

COOL RUNNINGS hail from Knocksville Tennesse (a five piece so far as I can tell) and rock that surf garage sound but with added drum machines and synths, its jerky and poppy almost a little anthemic! They're signed to Arcade Sound Ltd, home to Kiss Kiss Fantastic, Blackbird Blackbird and Memory House. So there are elements of that blissed out chillwave sound in there at points, but generally this band have their own sound and are wearing it very well!

They have two great EPs to download for free from their Bandcamp page, Babes Forever and Buffalo, that's eleven songs in total and they're well worth getting!

This band, just like Young Mammals before them, are definitely restoring my faith in guitars!

Facebook. Last.FM. Tumblr.

This is the video for the Buffalo EP:

Mater Susperia Vision, Zombie Rave 1+2 Collected.

It speeding up! First Mater Suspiria Vision (only in existence since the begining of this year!) would put out a video every 3 weeks then every week and now it seems like it every day!! How do they do it!! And more importantly is it a countdown to something? Having moved from YouTube to Vimeo for better quality they have released two new videos in as many days to accompany the July release of their Zombie Rave 1 + 2 Collected. A release limited to only 50 copies!

More releases are coming as well; ON TV II, which fans on Facebook could vote as to which cover would be used, comes out at the end of the month and the equally mysterious Vogue Witch, again in only an edition of 50! All releases are so small that its all about messaging them on myspace!

ℑ⊇≥◊≤⊆ℜ (of Mater Suspiria Vision) - Zombie (Zombie Rave Mix) from Mater Suspiria Vision on Vimeo.

Sash - Ecuador (ℑ⊇≥◊≤⊆ℜ Sandokan VS the Zombies Mix) from Mater Suspiria Vision on Vimeo.

Sash, Ecuador! Amazing choice!!

Young Mammals, Carrots album released 22nd June

Its been a while but finally there are some bands that give me faith in a guitar based indie future!
Here's one: Young Mammals are a four piece from Houston and have a guitar sound that reminds me of the good album tracks from the Libertines first album that no-body liked, its got bits of that garage sound from the Black Lips but isnt looking back at the 60s. Songs that have hooks, sound different to each other but also create a very well rounded album! No way! This band is dinning at the same table has nourished some of the greats in American indie, The Pixies, The Strokes, Broken Social Scene, Mercury Rev to name a few.Their self released album Carrots is out on the 22nd of June and is worth getting if you need to re-affirm some love for guitar bands!
In the meantime download a track from the album from their Bandcamp page! which is a bit Animal Collective sounding. Listen below.

Young Mammals - Confetti by AsBuiltPR

Tirra Lirra, another Chicago creation!

Tirra Lirra are another Chicago band running in the synth based world of 80s goth sounds, original shoegaze guitars, classic new wave vocals and a very mellow feel. This two piece haven't the same frenetic dance beats of fellow Chicago bands Valis or White Car, this is more the quiet introspection and blissfulness of a faded love affair or the soundtrack to the comedown after a night listening to Gatekeeper.

Chicago just keeps producing these bands!

Download these two tracks and a few more from their SoundCloud page or check out their website.
Sudden Wave by Tirra Lirra
Desire Will Leave You by Tirra Lirra

Yoga, Megafauna LP and Cosmotropia de Xam video!

Yoga describe themselves as psychedelic black metal and have a sound which is very much a world of noise-scapes and film scores for imagined trippy yet classy horror.

They have incredibly listenable tracks with titles such as; "Treeman""The Necromancers Goblin Ha" and"Flying Witch" which should give you an idea of the mood of this band. Forests, mountains and David Lynch!

Megafauna, their LP, is available via Holy Mountain records (home to OM, Wooden Shjips and Country Teasers amongst a ton of others.)

Regular readers of my blog or fellow Witch House fans will notice that the video above for the Yoga song "Reptoids" is by Cosmotropia de Xam, the visualiser in chief for Witch House, so as you might tell Yoga also can slot into that genre too!

Cosmotropia de Xam whoever they are is an amazing editor and (I dont want to use the awful word VJ so..) visual artist and filmaker. You can check out the rest of their work including lots and lots of live footage of bands on their Blog or directly at their YouTube Channel!

P For Persia, Mount Muffin Top album!

P for Persia, like me, hail from Brighton and are starting to really sound good!
They just recorded a debut album called Mount Muffin Top and were kind enough to give me a physical copy of it when I saw them support Wolf Eyes the other week!
These guys are awesome live, sweating buckets, telephone mikes, Ataris dripping static and guitars bouncing off the floor!
Noisy and crunchy, yet tight and with a definite direction to the sound the album is available to download form their Bandcamp page. (Cost is 'name your price'!)

The mini documentary about them below is excellent and well worth watching too!

P for Persia - A Rockumentary from Illness on Vimeo.

CSS on The Creators Project.

I was in a CSS video once, It was part of a competition to make them a video and I played the role of a shopkeeper selling booze to some under age girls! It didn't win.

It seems like a lot of bands are talking about the the future or lack of one for the music business at the moment, (I'm thinking of Radiohead for example.)

The Creators Project from Vice has an interview with CSS that touches on some of this, how they got started and their opinions on record labels! It's an interesting interview because it also covers the equipment they use in the studio and out live, something often dismissed/forgotten about by most interviewers. Check it out here.

GL▲SS †33†H. Upbeat Witch House post #7

Doubled up sounds in phasing synths, computer hand claps and feelings of impending doom!

GL▲SS †33†H make a Witch House sound that moves fast and gets your head pumping.

The product of two, dj soapzcum and dj slugdixxx, this is dancefloor Witch House, no drone but plenty of post 8-bit occultism!

girlz by GL▲SS †33†H

white knives by GL▲SS †33†H

Missions to other worlds now!

Austin Texas is a melting pot for dark synthy EBM based wonder and Missions are a great example of this!

A three piece of Josh Mills, Markus Diffee, & Amber Zook they roam a night of anguished love and redemption dance floors, in a mysterious countdown to the end of time! Really, just look at their myspace or website and you'll see an apocalyptic star clock counting down the seconds till our end time, 20th January 2012!!

Rocking the kind of spacey direction that disco can go in there are elements of Glass Candy at points but then also the dark dance floor vibes of Gatekeeper!

They have a free mixtape to download from their website and an album to buy (cost is 'name your price') from their Bandcamp!

They seem to do a lot of pretty good remixs as well!

Missions Facebook and Twitter.

Have a listen to them first below!

Missions "Movements" by missionsinspace

L.A.X "Fakin It (Missions Slowjack Remix)" by missionsinspace

Health, USA Boys video!

HEALTH - USA BOYS from City Slang on Vimeo.

I swear I wont post up "every" Health music video but this is the new one for the song USA Boys which I've been playing to death! Its an awesome song and equally huge video with like sex and stuff in it at the end, (just so you're warned!)

Blackbird Blackbird is really busy!

So Bye Bye Blackbird has had a name change to Blackbird Blackbird, it doesnt matter but it confuses your Last.fm scrobbling a bit.

I love that this artist is releasing music so quickly and is realeasing it for free! Its music business 2.0 but mostly its just great chillwave music!

He's so busy, first there's a new EP fittingly called "Let's Move On Together" which is free to download from the Blackbird Blackbird Bandcamp.

There's also a Blackbird Blackbird/Treasures split coming out on Double Denim records over here in the UK on 23rd July. A collaboration with someone from Mathemagic (another great chillwave artist) and a future collaboration with Foxes In Fiction. Plus there's supposedly still the Atlantic at Pacific and Blackbird Blackbird musical cross pollination as well.

There's a track out called "Twin Flames" with Kiss Kiss Fantastic too and a new solo track out called "Hawaii" both of which you can download for free from the Blackbird Blackbird Tumblr.

..And if you're so inclined you can follow him on Twitter.

SO MUCH!!

How I quit Crack and ___N___. Witch House post #6

Two artists for you here, the first you'll probably have heard mention of but I'd bet money that you haven't heard of the second.

How I Quit Crack the musical project of Tina F out of Austin Texas is a beautiful lo-fi experiment in doing quite literally what the name suggests. Read a great interview with her on Viceland.

This is haunted meloncholia, dark foggy echoes of dreams, buzzing thoughts played through doomy synths phasing in and out over drums that crunch slowly along.

She has just done a collaboration with Mater Suspiria Vision the outcome being the track "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" which came with the usual amazing video by Cosmotropia de Xam.
child in time by how i quit crack

old age by how i quit crack

___N___ is the grinding crack-hop noise side of Witch House all modern horror noises and evil no sleep, insomnia and Ice straight out of Birmingham Alabama.

Claustrophobic and weed soaked and similar in feel to ✝ NO VIRGIN ✝ but only more oppressive.

Listen away here or click through to his Soundcloud page to download some other of ___N___s tracks and remixs!

From Russia With Aids.

A connecting current slinking like a shred of fog across the underbelly of Witch House, apart from the witch cult imagery, the female influence, the love of 90s dance, is the undeniable disconnection with the old status quo of how to be a success. From band names made of symbols that cant be Googled (even though this is a world wide internet formed genre!) to the music videos made from copyrighted films, from the strong and very important visual element that often goes "adult" thus negating TV airing, to the intentional mystery and its total lo-fi approach when it come to some recording (Mater Suspiria Vision "We dont do hi-fi -we live in woods!" *Facebook) And yet these bands are hopelessly awesome!

fromrussiawithaids does have a searchable name but is quite evasive in all other areas. The musical project of one Надежда)) -Russia via Oslo, according to her myspace, she has only been around musically for a couple of months but recently featured in a Mater Susperia Vision release by video by Cosmotropia de Xam as seen below (I dare you to phone the number on the screen!)

Check her tracks out 0n the myspace. I just wish they were available to buy.

She also has a Tumblr which is full of great images and videos.

ℑ⊇≥◊≤⊆ℜ zombie raver! Witch House post #4

One of the great things about these Witch House/Grave Wave bands for me is that they can go from the fog of chaotic echoing synth graveyards to doomy dancefloors all in one track.

There is a real pre-occupation with sloooooowed down 90s dance tracks and that makes me hilariously happy.

ℑ⊇≥◊≤⊆ℜ is superb at this, a "member of the Mater Suspiria Vision Cult" the tunes that come from this band are awesome, take for example the remix of 'No Limit' by 2 Unlimited that takes it into a apocalyptic world of unending drum echoes and a k.hole bass voice vocals! You can get that track for free from the myspace or follow the direct link here:

Below is the Zombie Rave 2 Mixtape that was put together a few weeks ago, it hopefully gives a bit off an insight into the ideas and feel behind this genres direction. It was part of a limited edition download and was downloaded out in only a few hours!!

ZOMBIE RAVE 2 MIXTAPE by user7941646

Also this is the video to accompany part of the above mixtape, a remix of Send Me An Angel by 80s Australian band Real Life. The video is made by chief Witch House visualiser Cosmotropia de Xam.

ℑ⊇≥◊≤⊆ℜ (of Mater Suspiria Vision) - Send me an Angel (Zombie Rave Mix) - R-Rated Version from Mater Suspiria Vision on Vimeo.

Do not believe in everything you see - the owls are not what they seem.

Doomstar, Rainbow Bloodsucker EP.

Doomstar are an unsigned three piece garage punk band from Cambridge, Massachusetts.

They make a really harmonious racket that you can listen to more than once which isn't always true of a lot of 60s psych inspired bands these days! Its varied in tone and trashyness, sometimes pounding and rocky at other points hyper, poppy and dumb!

They have a free track called Rainbow Bloodsucker that you can download here which comes off of their latest EP of the same name which is 8 tracks strong and available along with their past EP Colours for $5 each! Bargain!!

Rainbow Bloodsucker link:

Colours link: