Six of the best Chillwave bands in the Brighton Sauce magazine.

As The Brighton Sauce magazine only has a limited server, it only seems to archive the last few months of issues online. Thus my chillwave article is no longer available. I am remedying that with this post and a picture of the real world copy of the magazines article for you to click through and read. (Just click the picture to view big style!)

I managed to be the first person to write about Bye Bye Blackbird, now Blackbird Blackbird in a proper printed magazine and not just on a blog, I knew he was well worth including in any six of the best chillwave bands even though at the time he was almost unknown! (smiles smugly to himself!)

To be fair the inclusion of Best Coast was wrong in this list but I just wanted an excuse to put them in something..

I still stand by Pearl Harbour as being chillwave without the synths though!!

Witch House (or how to stop worrying and love the apocalypse)

The ever great Better Than Sex blog just did a post about where next for Witch House and why people who shove some random symbols together and slow down someone elses track isn't creative and it isnt even really remixing. And yeah its true, the best bands of the genre are better than that and make very original and creative pieces of music great songs and great remixs.

Remember re-using other peoples work isn't un-creative or stealing, great artists since the Renaissance have used other artists work as their own. In music it's happened in a direct form since the birth of hip hop and any one who wants to go toe to toe with that can just go hang with 50Cents twitter and get ripped the **** apart. Its collage, its sampling, remixing has evolved over the last few years to be a kind of open sauce way of getting your music heard over a wider genre base, its okay to drag chop and screw tracks, I mean lots of those drag remixes are good "because" they are funny, its like why Grindcore is good or Breakcore etc. A sense of humour is important in every aspect of life.

People seem to worry and buy into genres then sell them on when things seem to change or they get scared. Just don't worry, all these "witch house" bands that are one lonely dude in his bedroom jumping on the band wagon and making poor quality tunes with a triangle added have always been attached to genres, its always happened, like since the '60s! The great bands of this genre are going to still keep going, be noticed and make great stuff for everyone to hear. The Disaro label is doing showcase tours all through the rest of this year and lots of these bands will emerge or fall to the wayside when the live experience happens. We will see Mater Suspiria Vision, oOoOO, Fostercare, White Ring, and all the others who can really bring it when it needs must show everyone how it is done and other people outside of our little Witch House fan club will start totake up the rains.

And we have to be ok with that, we also have to be ok with people not liking a lot of these bands because when all is said and done a lot of Witch House falls under the wider genre of Noise and Drone.. and you know a lot of people don't like or get those genres! If someone like the amazing Ben Frost suddenly put a triangle in his name and changed all his artwork to include inverted crosses and smoke filled graveyards then I bet you a years supply of National Geographic magazines that tons of scene kids would be buying or downloading his stuff and pretending to like it. People who love a scene always create something to become part of it, I mean hey why else are we all blogging about it, I'm not getting paid are you? White Ring or Balam Acab or Salem cant help but inspire imitators just as Crystal Castles cant help being a very big influence on Witch House.

Witch House runs all the way from the wastelands and valleys of Noise all the way to the streets of Hip Hop, the clubs of Industrial Dance Music and the after parties of tripping out psychedelic Prog! Its broad and so will change and grow and diverge and falter.

Like all genres, the real trick is not to worry and enjoy the ride, if you got in early and are following the entire Witch House river then just let it take you, enjoy the drag remixes until they become boring or you don't laugh any more, take pleasure in listening to some kids dark and lo-fi noise tape he's emailed you, it doesn't mean that to like it will somehow be endorsing it and putting it on a level with Animal Collective or Health, no its just what it is, some fun along the way. The great bands of any genre emerge and diverge from their original nest, its a genre that was born on the internet so its going to act like a dance genre with many little contributors making only one or two EPs, doing remixes or mixtapes then going on to work in PR or run a label or have kids, let them be.

Now the real trick, the real under lying magic to all this is a harder and a more obscure thing to find, its in every Witch House band and not entirely in any one of them, its in pictures and symbols but they are only describing with images what can not be drawn, its in the music, the sounds and the wave forms but it alone is not IT.. next time you walk down the street just look about you and you will start to see its the ▲.. its on signs and trees and houses and in menus and in history books. Its in school books and on tv, its in windows and in childrens toys.. Witch House is spreading, damn its out of the computer now its in the actual real world, you think that you have always known the ▲ symbol that its always been there..? Well you're wrong it has only existed since January of this year and by December 20th, 2012 it will be the only thing you can see.

I must go now ▲ is coming I must look busy, ▲!!

Tickley Feather.

Tickley Feather is one Annie Sachs from Virginia. She makes music that is lo-fi, dark dischordant yet poppy, a kind of future folk. Her vocals are distorted laments, haunting and meloncholic. It reminds me a little of Butterclock or even How I Quit Crack.

Tickley Feather released an album in 2008 on Paw Tracks and a couple of split 7" as well. She has a new album called Hors d'oeuvres that is either out now with them or soon will be.

Live she is joined by a bunch of other musicians, check her out playing live in Cologne in this video filmed by Witch House video maker Cosmotropia De Xam more usually known for the visuals behind Mater Suspiria Vision.

Skweee pioneer Boss Kite.

I really don't know much about the genre of Skweee but if its all like Boss Kite then it seems pretty damn good.

Clean, precise, glitchy and funky, stabs of dubstep bass with computer game high end squeals and 8 bit samples, but its also got a groove to it, its what Prince should be making these days if he had a clue. Wow imagine that, a real Prince come back with Skweee and proper creepy lover lyrics like days of old!

Anyway Boss Kite is part of :Kinema: from my home town of Brighton and his Bandcamp profile has a 4 track EP to download for free, go get it!

ATR are back people!

Lazarus and the Plane Crash - King of the Village Fete.

Cough Cool make me feel underwater!

Cough Cool comes from New Hope, Pennsylvania and is the side project of Dan Sziseny from Nude Beach.

I'm going to lump this project in with chillwave a bit even though its just lo-fi fuzzy pop, its playing with all the same imagery and nostalgic retro sounds its nice and gives you the feeling of taking to many painkillers while also drinking during the day, the sort of band that only you will like or have heard of but that's the point, the kind of music to listen to on your own when its raining outside in mid summer!

Unouomedude -free EP.

Its August 26th, summer is drifting out of reach, soon it will be cold wave winds, bleak dance floors, nights in the witch house avoiding the rain. But while we have some time left lets cram in the last few chillwave bands we can before I notice a lot of the bad ones sound like elevator house music..

Unouomedude (pronounced: "you know you owe me dude") isnt one of these, he crosses the bridge between summer surf garage and chillwave, more Wavves than Washed Out but very much beach and hash brownies territory, its really nice and more dynamic than a lot of his contemporaries.

There is a 5 track EP called Marsh available to download for free from his Bandcamp page which is really good, go get it and listen to it this bank holiday weekend while you hit up the beach for some final surfs up times.

§ make a new video!

§ - TIMES 3 feat.☾∧† ◯ from § on Vimeo.

Wow, with some great tracks and a video making/saucing ability along the lines of Cosmotropia De Xam § are fast becoming a major Witch House player! This video is brilliant, I love the multi generation video rip off quality, the colours and fuzz are great! Look out for more to come I'm sure!

Check out my post about them on the Mishka bloglin here.

Blackbird Blackbird gets the ▲ fever.

Most exciting Twitter news for a while ever!

One of the most prolific Chillwave artist out there and also seemingly one of the nicest people Blackbird Blackbird collaborates with tons of other chillwave artists and is set to be big stuff one way or another. I follow him on Twitter where he usually links up to stuff he's just made or sent to blogs etc. This morning, blam! Look what he posts up! And then about half an hour later he deleted it, but it was too late, my Blackberry had already downloaded it onto the phone and I took a quick snap of it to prove it happened!

Now yes I know it says he will "never" but we all know that means he will or has already! Sweet! I will now spend the rest of my week (and here we are on Monday morning) searching for said project! It could be awesome!

Nike7UP are freaking awesome!

The Disaro label just linked this video up on Facebook and wow its good, pop culture détourned, chopped and screwed etc! Why have I not checked in with this before?

I dont really know anything about Nike7UP other than they are a Disaro band with a cdr coming out at some point soon.

They use tons of samples from all areas and eras of music and turn it into some great dance music, there are Witch House, screw house elements, sample heavy hiphop, modern R&B, droning 80s synth sounds, rave vocals, break beats, techno etc, think Pictureplane for someone doing vaguely similar stuff.

Wow sorry but it just got me really excited!!

Pyr▲mids of ▲▲ has a ▲ fetish.

Pyr▲mids of ▲▲ is an artist from Cananda who make music with a really nice orchestral sound, a bit like Sigur Rós doing a kind of ambient Witch beat shoe gaze. But with a name like that and song titles such as The Pyramids of Mulholland Drive, Witches and Bitches and The Pyramids of Titan its also got a bit of tongue in cheek irreverence about it.

I don't know whether I actually find these titles a bit annoying or not, because as I listen to Pyr▲mids of ▲▲ more I'm finding it sounds really good, why ruin it slightly with throw away names?

Anyway beyond having a triangle fetish Pyr▲mids of ▲▲ really does make great droning ambient atmospheres that drip with texture and interest. You can get all three of the EPs for free from Last.fm from the following links:

The first demo called Tri▲ngulum which features 10 tracks.

The first EP called Pyr▲mids which has 4 tracks on it.

And finally the most recent EP called simply Sp▲cedout which is also 4 tracks long.

Mushy videos.

Mushy is an Italian purveyor of dark droning blackened noir pop, its Witch House and miserablist prog and very beautiful.

Zola Jesus and her have been drinking at the same midnight pool of creativity but while Zola really pushes the vocal aspect Mushy is just as content to play with the sounds and drop a vocal out if need be.

She has a bunch of releases out already and a split release with Drugs for Drunks on Clan Destine Records coming soon!

In the mean time check out these two videos for her songs that drop her firmly into Witch House territory with one being made by § who are very much Housing a Witch in their music. I blogged about them for Mishka here.

Mushy - Adrift from § on Vimeo.

Mushy - Too Far from Mushy on Vimeo.

Miiillleeeyyy Ccyyyyrruussss........ dragged!

So with Witch House you get these Drag remixes where tracks are pretty much sloooooowed down loads, often its quite commercial stuff getting the illicit remix treatment -Mater Suspiria Vision do lots of these as well as a bunch of other people, its not exactly like its hard. Babe Rainbow just did a brilliant drag remix of Enigmas 'Return To Innocence' called Dragged 'To Innocence' which was on his blog for free, get it here.

But just recently there have been some tracks come out that have taken it to a whole new level, you may well know about the Justin Bieber track that comes in at roughly 35 minutes long! The Mishka Bloglin covered it and this trend just recently.

Well here's another awesome ultra dragged remix of none other than Miley (I'm Hannah Montana) Cyrus!! Its celestial and majestic and drifts in at just over 33 minutes long like a heavenly wave of sleep inducing ambient drone! Miley has never sounded so good!

Miley Cyrus - When I Look at You (Post Pussy Pop Remix)(8x slower) by MadDefHerb

Blogging for the Mishka Bloglin.

In case you hadn't noticed I'm also blogging once a week for the New York streetwear brand and all round lover of great new music Mishka. Seriously as well as making some awesome clothes they're also really pushing some great new music, from the whole Witch House scene to the chillwave surfer garage of bands like Puro Instinct.

My column for them "Sounds From the Other Side" is out every Sunday on their blog (the Bloglin) and covers all the kind of stuff I blog about here but I make sure to write it in a bit more detail and don't rush it out as much as I can do here on the Fokkawolfe blog.

This is the link to all the posts I've done for them so far. Where I've written about The Present Moment, Butterclock, §, Drugs For Drunks, Teeth Of The Sea, Scout Klas and Maria Minerva.

(to get an idea of how great some of the Mishka t.shirts are click here!)

Valis remix Age Of Consent -wonders are born!

Valis are in my opinion one of the best bands to not only to come out of Chicago but also the whole of the United States in the last few years, and they have have a new track out, well two actually!!

So after that giant bigging up they better deliver hadnt they.. well they do with the song The Cant, a crooning stomper, all funk bass, vocal samples, swirling synths and beats that could only make you dance like an overly aggressive Columbian drug lord.

They have also remixed Age Of Consents track The Beach to great effect turning it from an understated 80s, Top Of The Pops appearance, slow down track into a the ultimate frenetic synth funk dance floor piece, filled with tense jaw grinding moments! The catalyst for this remix was Valis checking out my last post about them and then discovering Age Of Consent who I'd written about the week before, they got in touch and magic happened! Go to the Valis Soundcloud page to download both tracks.

The Cant by V A L I S

Age Of Consent - The Beach (VALIS remix) by V A L I S

Dre▲ms In †he Wi†ch Hous #2

Come down next Tuesday to The Penthouse in Brighton for Dre▲ms In †he Wi†ch House #2

An audio visual hex of Witch House/Ghost Drone/Zombie Rave/EBM/&Tech Noir.

Film projectors throwing Witch House videos against the walls with backup from David Lynch, Dario Argento and Alejandro Jodorowsky.

Sounds from the other side by:
Mater Suspiria Vision, Salem, Zola Jesus, oOoOO, Indian Jewelry, Pictureplane, Aids 3D, Zombi, White Ring,†‡†, //Tense//, BLΛCK RΛ!NB0VV, CROSSOVER, White Car, ℑ⊇≥◊≤⊆ℜ, Gatekeeper, Dream Boat, Pregnancy Pact, Vangelis, μnłıłĿΞΔ, ///▲▲▲\\\, Modern Witch, GR†LLGR†LL, xix, SLEEP∞OVER, Glasser, Balam Acab, V▲GINA WOLF, How I Quit Crack, ▲, The Present Moment, ✝ NO VIRGIN ✝, SURVIVE, ▼□■□■□■, Fostercare, H∆UNT3D HOUS3, fromrussiawithaids, twYlYZoNe, S.C.U.M, VALIS, Black Strobe, zxz, Onehtrix Point Never, Geneva Jacuzzi, John Carpenter.

With LIVE Witch House remixing of classic 90s rave tunes.
Come and join the KVLT!

Facebook event here.

†‡† releases new track!!

†‡† are a Witch House band that come closest to living up to the "house" part of the genres title, not that it matters its not actually a sub genre of house music, but if it did then this track would hit closest to the mark, even with its slowed down 63 bpm groove.

Its the soundtrack to the roof collapsing in at Amnesia during the end of the world, the Mediterranean rising up to swallow Ibiza whole. Slow and rattling beats that pound inevitably onwards, the footsteps of a giant striding in the dark, accompanied by the menacing howl and scything synths chords screaching in the night!
†‡† is pronounced 'Rrritualzzz' and this new track is available to download from its Soundcloud page, but hurry because it wont be for ever!
†‡† - SIMONA 6.40 RMX by rrritualzzz

Videos for Salems 'Asia' and Teeths 'Sea Spaces'

Just two awesome hype videos for you today from bands getting the blog mania treatment!!

Madame O und Ihre Kopffilm Bande eat the psychedelic cabbage!

Madame O und Ihre Kopffilm Bande are a band "founded on 21st december 2012 as a result of eating too much LSD influenced Sauerkraut. Madame O who had a vision of living backwards into the future called her drummer Peter Paukenschlag in September 2034 to control the people of STEINZEIT.
Zeitgeist was crushing into this event of highest laserbeams letting in high intelligence of robotermania producing Sauerkraut. Henriette Krötenschwanzz saw that and spoke let there be light and there was light as god has told them."

A side project of by Cosmotropia de Xam and XH of Mater Susperia Vision they have a free digital 7" single out on the Beko Digital single Label a three way split release between Modern Witch, Mater Susperia and Madame O und Ihre Kopffilm Bande. All those tracks by all three bands are great and well worth getting.

So for now enjoy the surrealist stylings of Madame O und Ihre Kopffilm Bande in the video by Cosmotropia de Xam for the song HEXKRAUT I.

Bitch House.. Yes Bitch House!

Bitch House say they are from are from Bermuda (you know, triangles, get it?) but I'm pretty sure they're from Russia seeing as their Last.fm page is the Russian version.

Its kind of joke Witch House, I mean the name says it all. Their Myspace page is colourful and a features a bunch of great photos that just manage to stay this side of silly. They've done a sweet remix of Snoops Drop It Like Its Hot but hasn't everyone!

The thing is, despite the name and imagery being a bit tongue in cheek the music is actually pretty good and its all available to download for free from their Last.fm page. Its got a flow to it and some nice sounds and goes from those slowed down drag mixes to more upbeat dynamic tracks along the lines of ///▲▲▲\\\ or μnłıłĿΞΔ.

Low Sea cover The Velvet Undergrounds Sweet Jane.

I heard this cover Low Sea did of The Velvet Undergrounds Sweet Jane and almost prefered it to the original, and like you know the original kills!!

An Irish boy/girl duo signed to Lefse Records in the U.S they have a few a releases out already.

They kind of run around in the new shoe gaze playground that exists at the moment while also

dipping their feet for extended periods in a moody euro synth pop river. Spacey and dark with female vocals that paste themselves onto reverb rich synths riffs it's music for dark nights and red light bedrooms.

Raindeer, free self titled EP!

Lo-fi dance band Raindeer are from Baltimore and are as yet unsigned. They make quirky sugar covered noises, part chillwave part prog influenced pop. Think MGMT through a casio keyboard, or even a bit of Arcade Fire drifting into the influences.

Its dancey and poignant and irreverent.

Like all good unsigned bands they have an EP for free available on their Bandcamp page, its six tracks long and is actually really good. First listen I was a bit dubious but second time round I though it was ace! Especially the tracks Juanita and This Is My Last Transmission.

Other than that I don't know anything about this band, I'm thinking its a bedroom project rather than a gigging band, there are male and female vocals so maybe its a duo like the Myspace says, though I doubt that their names are really John Merrick and Rocky Dennis.

Newclear Waves.

Newclear Waves are from Rome, they play great depressing, minimal, cold-wave synth stuff that sounds pretty retro but also kinda up to date in some ways. Synths like buzzing wasps and popping drum machines its dark but not a traumer to listen to, they have song titles like Blood Moon and The Shore Of Time, its a bit "Ambient Black Metal fans do Cold Wave" though dont get too over excited by that description. They have various split 7" and split tape releases with Opus Finis out via Mannequin. And have also collaborated on a track with Mushy who is more Witch House than anything else!

Newclear Waves feat. Mushy - No More by Newclear Waves

A6 Newclear Waves - God Of War by Newclear Waves

Bermuda Bonnie, Invisible video.

This is the first music video from the debut, self-titled album by Brooklyns Bermuda Bonnie.

You can get a free download video remix of the song on their Bandcamp here. Plus you can buy the album for only $8 here.

Brooklyn hipster summer music for kooky punk chicks and geeky writer types, enjoy.

Invisible - Bermuda Bonnie from Kim Huston on Vimeo.

Ceremonial Dagger free downloads.

I felt like I should just share a bunch of downloads with you and not enthuse in an over excited way about it!

Needless to say this stuff is great:

Ceremonial Dagger from Pasadena. This is the Myspace which looks weird and awful (whats with Myspace now looking like a bad blog covered in ads?)and this is their website. The website seems to cover a lot of stuff, art project stylee.

Click through here to download lots of tracks from the Soundcloud page.

♀∧gℜ∀あ ß∀あ ♍∀♄l∀あ♀ by Ç⋵ℜ⋻♏ð♑ℷa⇂ ╀
I put a spell on you-Diamanda Galas vs Ç€r€mðnìäl † by Ç⋵ℜ⋻♏ð♑ℷa⇂ ╀

Ðł$$Ø₡łλŦłVE ŦƦλ₦₡E Ðł$ØƦÐEƦ$ by Ç⋵ℜ⋻♏ð♑ℷa⇂ ╀

Pregnancy Pact cover Ace Of Bass!

In the Witch House stakes I keep forgetting to write about Pregnancy Pact and so Better Than Sex beat me to it. Their blog on it is pretty awesome and I urge you to check it out. (link at the bottom of this post.)

Being a Witch House band Pregnancy Pact say they come from Sierra Leone.. and that's about all the info they share. They just got remixed by the scenes hub Mater Susperia Vision for a track called Mata Hari. Musically they roam a psychedelic nether world of glo-fi dreams and trippy ambience, slowed and screwed and generally detourned sounds. With this video though they are running for the same Zombie Rave Hills as ℑ⊇≥◊≤⊆ℜ with a remix of the Ace Of Bass song Dancer In a Daydream!

Here also is a mixtape of theirs which goes all over the place but is pretty fun. Just right click and save.

Better Than Sex Blog (also has the download of Pregnancy Pact - Dream Dancer.)

Sweet Bulbs make arty guitar punk.

Sweet Bulbs are an unsigned three/four piece from Brooklyn who make some great lo-fi garage songs a bit like Girlfriends or Colleen Greene who I wrote about last week.

Its melodic and discordant, guitar driven with catchy female vocals but more Sonic Youth in its sound rather than straight out scuzzy punk. They have a few gigs this August in New York and though no record yet one is coming soon.

Blood Red Shoes Documentary.

Blood Red Shoes 'Heartsink' Documentary from Steve Glashier on Vimeo.

This is the Blood Red Shoes "making of" Documentary that I helped produce for their Heartsink video. Lotsa fun!!

Mickey Mickey Rourke and a world of wonder..

Mickey Mickey Rourke creates that chillwave sound, part psychedelic soul part ambient soundscapes, all warm and lovely. Its the soundtrack to dream epiphanies, adventures in the lucid unconscious, voiceless and floating, the world of words replaced by imagery through sound and back in time for dinner.

His Bandcamp hosts two albums, MMR and Festive Bummer as well as his Inner Gazing EP. Go get 'em! Check out what I'm talking about below.

The Girls At Dawn: Call The Doctor LP out soon.

Brooklyn trio The Girls at Dawn make great modern psyche garage stuff, girl band rock 'n jangle. Dum Dum Girls crossed with The Black Lips, with a touch of Best Coast.. you know.

They've had a few great 7" singles out already, but coming soon is their debut album 'Call The Doctor' out on Norton Records in September.

At the moment they're touring the album across the States, dates here.

Go see them if you can.

Dream Boat, Your Beaches video.

Your Beaches from Dream Boat on Vimeo.

So everyone blogwise is posting this video, pretty much for two reasons: 1, the video kicks ass and 2, Dream Boat kick ass!

So here I am doing it as well. Go grab the Dream Boat Fevers EP for free from Amdisks here.