- The word play might be an easy one, but Disaro, Modern Witch's first self-release CD-R from March 2010, was a work of perplexing and intriguing disarray. Not much is known about him/her/them (online pictures suggest it is a female-fronted four-member band, but who knows). The music spoke for itself, though: Icy, calculated, bleak, and rigid, alongside Salem's King Night, it gave witch house long-format legitimacy.
Apparently limited to a mere 100 physical copies, Unknown Domain, a new collection of goth-tinged electronica, is destined to remain an obscure release, especially as it is only available on cassette. From off, the mood and the instrumentation are plain and stark: "Dead Boys" is a model of minimalistic desolation as an anemic melody and an even more dangerously thin vocalist sit alongside severe hi-hats and barely anything else. It lasts six minutes, but like death, it feels like it lasts forever. This sentiment of time being frozen is also echoed on, err, "Frozen in Time" during which a Nicola Kuperus-like comatose impersonator is surrounded by amniotic sound parcels. Predictably expressionistic at times, other tracks offer crisper contrasts: "Cinema," for instance, is a claustrophobic and oppressive affair that resembles Salem themselves at their most mesmerizing, and the feeling is even more present on "5low," with its distended rapped vocals, or the gratuitously titled yet creepy snippet that pays homage to Julia Roberts' creepier smile ("Julia Roberts").
"Not the Only One," a track that appeared on the aforementioned Disaro release, is as direct as the band gets on here. It's one worth duplicating, as it unifies the various influences at the core of the Modern Witch sound—Chris & Cosey, a sedated Adult., Anne Clark and Adore-era Smashing Pumpkins. The only moment the band let themselves deviate from the template set by this pantheon is on "ATM," the album's one-minute coda that is built around a spunky sample of surprisingly lighter composure. A few more BPMs and it could almost be an interlude from The Avalanches.
Modern Witch's MySpace page states their genre is "visual," and as precious and a bit silly as it sounds on paper, it's an apt description. Modern Witch might not be as approachable as Creep (whose first single, "Days," is as poppy witch house will ever get), but they aren't as stubbornly cryptic as oOoOO or ∆AIMON either. Even if it already seems the trend is rapidly turning into a cliché-ridden farce, Unknown Domain is—as a concert flyer for the band once stated—dark, primordial, lo-fi, electronic psychedelia like mom used to make.
Tracklist01. Dead Boyz
02. Cinema
03. Not The Only One
04. 5low
05. Julia Roberts
06. Frozen In Time
07. Hollywood Babylon
08. Carrie
09. A Forest
10. ATM