So... I attended my first ever IRL Witch House gathering this past weekend. Where else other than London? The second ever Witch House London night began quietly, as all the best ones do... and kicked off by Aural Sects' first ever physical release - a compilation CD of tracks that can mostly be found online (although a new version of one of my own tracks). The DJ's proved their mettle by getting the dancefloor moving practically from the start, and before too long the first act stepped up to the plate...
Transcoda are a London based musical collective, based around using hardware in creative ways. Interesting bits of kit used in their set: a drill hooked up as a midi controller for pink noise, a baby doll that the drill went into at the height of the performance, and a variable-speed strobe light used as a midi controller for the kick drums and occasionally the full drum loop. Needless to say it was a spectacle – combined with a custom vid of said baby doll floating mid-air and one member of the duo alternately whispering and shouting through a vocoder they certainly made an impression. The sound arena was more towards avant-electronica/industrial than witch house though.
Which of course cannot be said for WIK▲N. With only a minimal setup of laptop, midi keys and a mixer, he managed to create beautiful walls of melodic noise. There was a mixture of old familiar tunes that were majorly altered and new tracks, which are due out in the next month or so. The highlight of the set was undoubtedly new single “Gucci Bitches” (see video below), which goes deeper into the hip-hop culture side of witch house than WIK▲N has explored before. The crowd were amazing, throwing triangles up in the air and cheering whenever there was a pause - it turns out witch haus is much appreciated after all. The only (minor) drawback to the gig was the fact that the venue didn't have subwoofers so much of the powerful bass of the tracks was left out.
Sebastian's set of bangers (his word of choice) was fantastic, and the night closed with Isaac of CRIM3S spinning a set of dank dubstep, which went down well in spite of the genre change. Fucking stormer of a gig and night, and certainly a good intro to what offline Witch House is like... ROLL ON THE NEXT ONE BIATCHES!
-Bunny
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