I'm With The Genremongers →
New Guardian column! It’s not really about witch house though it’s “about” witch house. I wanted to do a column about the problems of genre which was written without the comfort blanket of an in-the-know tone. Whether I succeeded or not I dunno (especially as I’ve not checked the edit yet). This has something tangentially to do with Nitsuhs “whither underground?” link/conversation from earlier, too, I think.
A few quick thoughts:
- I love following new music genres. This is one of the reasons I latched onto electronic music in the ’90s. Watching strains of electronic music split, mutate, and evolve is like one of the software tools that lets researches observe several generations of a life-form in a matter of minutes. It’s fascinating, even when you don’t like the musical results.
- Music (or any art, really) completely free of context is a complete bore. And I’m not even sure it’s possible. You’re going to end up constructing a faux-context in your head, absent any real-world context.
- Is this new Balam Acab ep considered “witch house?” Either way it’s great. But when I heard it, it immediately reminded me of Seefeel, Cranes, a bit of Burial, and maybe some Disco Inferno. So instead of the post-dubstep/with house context it was being placed in, it just sounded like ’90s dubby, shoegazey, post-rock to me. What I mean is, does every generation need to come up with their own genre name for the same basic idea, so they can feel ownership, like they “discovered” something?
