Connan Mockasin – Forever Dolphin Love (Erol Alkan rework) 2011
The dolphins swam below and along with the boat, the pod churning the waters with their graceful movements. I attempted to photograph them but I was so mesmerized by the way they moved, by the little newly born dolphin swimming alongside it’s parents and by the grace of the water creatures, that I abandoned my attempts for a perfect photo and became transfixed by the experience. The next day I heard this song, Forever Dolphin Love. It was a week of coincidences.
Newport Harbor, California – March 2011 (I am one of the shadows)
The above version of Forever Dolphin Love is a reworking by British DJ Erol Alkan. The original song by New Zealand dreamy psych artist Connan Mockasin is below. His full length album has just been released.
Connan Mocaksin-Forever Dolphin Love (original) 2010
The surprise of last week’s Salem show was this band, Light Asylum. What an awesome performance and such fantastic energy! They almost made me forget the awkward crowd around me: rude supermodels, fascist bristling musclemen, Gucci Goths and other posers from the alienated suburbs. Not to say, it was all bad. I just happen to notice the creepy elements because I pay attention and also because this whole Witch House scene seems rather made-up. For that reason, I gave the crowd more scrutiny than I would otherwise.
I did a brief poll of those around me and asked “Do you know what Witch House is?” I was trying to find out if it really is a “scene” or something being pushed on bands that have that dragging beat drone. Some people chuckled when I asked but became more serious when I said I’m asking for my blog and then they were like “Which blog???” Don’t get excited pretties, I can’t make you famous. Most had heard of Witch House and when I asked if it was something they felt part of, one girl answered “I only have five other friends who like it.” That seems like a lot, right?
But back to Light Asylum, they were my favorite of the night and a tough act for Salem to follow. Light Asylum actually got the crowd dancing, uninhibited kinda dancing too. They were fun to watch and the music was excellent. An electronic band that knows how to put on a live show. Cheers to Shannon Funchess and Bruno Coviello of Light Asylum for making my night and helping me to forget the drippy Echoplex crowd!
Here’s a real show review because I’m not cut out for this kinda thing.
Have you ever seen a more amazing sci-fi inspired disco video than this?* I think not. La Bionda were known for being some of the originators of Italo-Disco and for that I tip my beer to them because as you know, this blog is littered with references and videos paying homage to this gem of a genre.
Sally Shapiro-Spacer Woman from Mars (1980s)
*I thought Spacer Woman from Mars was pretty awesome especially after it was matched with these clips from Xanadu.
When I first heard the term Witch House I thought it was a joke, like I knew it was a real genre but I thought the term was used tongue-in-cheek. I was wrong. There’s a real scene out there associated with it, it started in New York but has since spread out all over the country. It’s home in Los Angeles is the tiny storefront club called Show Cave in Glassell Park. (It’s right across the street from a house where I bought my first communal living dining room table in 1995 from a family of junkie white folks. The dad yelled at his wife for selling us the chairs with the table and flicked his arm at us as we were loading the vintage chairs in our car, fucken take ’em, damn! he yelled). I wrote about the Show Cave scene in my review of Tearist. I like the place, it isn’t obnoxious like so many other clubs are, folks seemed downright relaxed, almost friendly and comfortable in their skins. I’m not expecting the same for tonight’s show at The Echoplex where I will see the above band, considered the torch holders of the Witch House scene, Salem.
Salem-King Knight
Salem is notorious for being one of those bands that doesn’t give a fuck but who cares if they space out on interviews when they make such badass music. I have a particular fondness for their early stuff which is like hip hop slowed down PCP style until it sounds like some wicked gnome spewing mush from a broken jaw. I’ve read the older songs were influenced by Houston based DJ Screw who is known for his “screwed and chopped” beats. However, the sound goes back even further, check out Hell Interface Project I posted about a couple of weeks ago. In any case, all the music is right up my electro alley and I’m looking forward to hearing how it all sounds live. Also, gonna do my fair share of scenster watching and gonna count up all those upside down crosses and triangles the audience is sure to be sporting in true Witch House style. Psychic TV, anyone?
Interesting take on the Witch House phenomenon here. Grave Wave, hehe.
“No vento que lança areia nos vidros,
na água que canta no fogo mortiço,
no calor do leito dos bancos vazios,
dentro do meu peito estás sempre comigo”
This 7 inch was a surprise to me, I found it my vinyl collection yesterday. How long I’ve had it, I don’t know. Where I bought it, I can’t remember. I do know I haven’t heard anything so beautiful in awhile. A perfect song for a dark and cloudy day.
I just don’t have the time to give this band the words they deserve. I saw them play last Saturday and it was one of the best shows I’ve been to in ages. They are the real thing. The music seems to consume them when they are on stage. I was up front for the most of the show and I looked in Yasmine Kittles‘s eyes. She was was in an almost trance. I’ve never quite seen anything like it. If she’s faking it and it looks authentic, does that make it real?
While they are being lumped into the witch house genre (yes, fourth post on this page to mention this genre), I don’t think the label is totally appropriate. The scene at Show Cave where they played, definitely has an aura of witchiness about it and is known as the Los Angeles location for bands of this multi-named genre (the others being rape gaze, haunted house, drag).
I must admit, while I’m not much for scensterism, I actually felt quite comfortable there, lots of black clothes, asymmetrical haircuts, a sorta a urban gothic mixed crowd, gay and straight, White/Latino/Asian, young and old and people dancing. Yes, I said dancing and for real, like moving more than a few inches back and forth. Not even those crazy dubstep beats get the crowd moving all that much at Low End Theory (another Northeast LA club I frequent). There were dudes going crazy like apocalyptic dancing, in their black leather jackets and their dark hair flopping about. After awhile though, I stopped noticing what was going around me and got lost in the beats and Yasmine’s on stage acrobatics. And then out came the pieces of metal percussion she is becoming known for, her signature metal pipes that she bangs together in the most brutal and rhythmic ways.
At one point, she and the pipes come tumbling off the stage and land at my feet. She’s rolling around the floor with her mike, the sound coming out of her just as deep and vibrant as before. Then she jumps up and whacks the metal pillar I’m holding onto. Whoosh, the air rushes across my face and I jump back and smile. What a way to go, I think to myself, death by percussion. After, the song finishes, the circle of audience doesn’t move and looks at her metal percussion instruments strewn across the floor. She’s sitting on the stage. And there’s this weird moment where we all wonder if we should pick them up and hand them to her. It seems as if she’s waiting for this but none of us move. It’s almost like they are sacred objects not worthy of our pedestrian touch. After a minute she picks them up and the show is done. My friend says “Geesh, someone could’ve helped her out!” She doesn’t need our help.
Carol and Snowy Red-Breakdown (1981 original, this remixed version is from the late 80s)
More music! I never intended this blog to be all about music but it has for now.
I came across this song while listening to French New Wave bands on Youtube and was blown away by the tight beat in those first thirty seconds. I can totally imagine lots of bands now wholly using this sound for their own. Just give Carol and Snowy Red some credit. Even back then they had names for all the tiny subgenres and this was called “New Beat.”
Yeah, I know. I’ll never get over it. Go ahead and say it, I’m the shoegazer that never looked up.
I can’t help but like new music that sounds like old music but the old music that at one time sounded new. You know what I mean? Think Cocteau Twins.
Red Moon are two sisters from Göteborg, Sweden. Until recently, they were unsigned and probably not really famous anywhere. They should be though. Their sound is ephemeral, beautiful, moody and yes…just a tad witchy. Throw them on a mix with Fever Ray or Austra for a nice melancholy afternoon of music.
Their new album, I Am Here has just been released, listen to sound clips here.
Everyday I fall in love…with music and if you only knew what I desire to do with this song.
Next time someone asks me what kinda music I listen to, I’m gonna answer “beat and pulse” solely based on this song which makes me wish all electronic music paid more attention to creating polyrhythmic layers. Beat and Pulse is an aptly titled musical homage to a previous genre, (hint: remember the days when people were happy but dressed like they were depressed?) the goth 80s. The beat is pure old school cold wave electronica, the pulse relentless and the amazing vocals by Katie Stelmanis are flavored with Siouxsie-like echoes combining to create an overall sinister kind of mood. Is a goth revival coming too? Let’s skip the goth moniker and call it Witch House (sorry, but that stuck). It’s true, I was a goth kid at one point, isn’t it obvious? That’s what happens when you’re a little mocasa Chicana living in Boyle Heights and your kinda-hippie parents move you to the suburban wasteland of Rosemead (sorry, incorporated South San Gabriel). Things happen, or they don’t happen and you’re bored and then you listen to KSPC at night. Then you dye your hair black and start wearing clothes from the thrift store and end up dancing with some flailing arm moves that surprisingly, get you almost voted “Best Dancer” for the eighth-grade yearbook but instead it goes to the more popular girl who likes to freak. Uh, where was I? Yeah, this song is a really good nu-goth, synthwave, darkwave, witchy kinda tune that makes me wanna dance, flailing arms and all.
It seems the best music these days is coming out of cold weather spots, Austra are from Toronto, Canada. The amazing things you can create when you’re stuck indoors.
