Modern Witch – Disaro CD-R

I have no idea who is behind Modern Witch (man? woman? men? women? ROBOTS?), never mind the what or the where or the why of this record’s existence. But with a name like MODERN WITCH and a cover like that, I’m buying.

Going by the cover alone, I’m thinking: like if Marianne Faithful had recorded ‘Modern English’ when she was still hanging out with Kenneth Anger? And if the music within doesn’t have the grace to follow up that suggestion, that’s ok, the key point being made here is that this is a recording for and by people who understand such distinctions, and who surely didn’t create that impression by accident.

As Modern Witch hissed from the computer speakers (I may have my EQ set to favour “explodes from..”, but stuff like is made to hiss), I was apprehensive, thinking I might have been suckered into some kind of sleazy, disembodied creep-hop, ala Salem or whatever. One thing’s for sure – those who like their music to sound invigorating, to convey sense of hard work and bonhomie and steadfast, stand-up decency… those people will not be taken to a happy place by this one. The atmosphere here is glassy-eyed fashionista lethargy of the highest order. Real “let-the-machines-do-their-thing-man-I-can’t-summon-the-energy-to-move-my-arm” vibes. Thankfully though, further listening reveals a lot more warmth and interest here than such affected laziness would tend to suggest, for those willing to look beyond it at least.

Just the facts ma’am: Modern Witch focuses predominantly on the familiar (some may say deathlessly over-familiar) combo of ‘80s horror soundtrack synths and low-battery drum machine chug. Unsettling tempo/fidelity shifts, fuzzy neon zapping noises, dictaphone street sounds and police radio noise come and go as required. Some tracks are content to skulk around in the abstract like decaying library music cues, whilst about half the album more fully manifests into the form of brutally repetitious electro-punk songs fronted by a dissolute female vocalist.

More pointless ‘80s pastiche drek foregrounding cheap signifier sounds over content would seem an easy diagnosis – too easy if you ask me.

Let me put it this way:

The British ‘hauntology’ crew, (primarily consisting of men who were growing up just as the odd idyll of post-war Britain was giving way to the ugly ‘“ realities “‘ of the Thatherite ‘80s), have long been building their own aesthetic out of attempts to claw back a glimpse of that just-out-of-reach childhood wonderland, eventually using music and album artwork to build a rich alternate past whose possibilities carry an appeal beyond that of mere dull retro-fetishism.

In doing so, the Ghostbox and Mordant guys have created music that works off an open ticket of subtle cultural recognition, as opposed to brute musical content, and they have been lucky enough to see their efforts widely acknowledged by critics and bloggers of, by and large, the same generation and cultural background – those who understand the cues and codes.

So then, why should we not grant the same liberties to younger American artists, working on a timeline shifted forward approximately a decade? People who whom the ‘80s mark the beginning, rather than the end, of the holy mystery?

Creepy and lifeless as it may initially sound, I think that a hell of a lot of attention and imagination has been invested in this Modern Witch record, and a wealth of effective and chilling moments are the result… if you’re ready/able to pick up on ‘em.

Why has “In Your Eyes” – a hypnotic disco blissout that could have been pulled from a Larry Levan DJ set – been deliberately muffled to the extent that we could be listening to it through a brick wall in the alleyway next to the club? And what are we to say to the dot matrix printer that rampages in far higher fidelity over the end of the track?

What dark secrets lie behind “Not The Only One”, in which an emotionless narrative of “buying food items” with a unnamed an co-conspirator is paired with an impossibly sinister Zombie Flesh Eaters backing track, while the singsong chorus states “I was not the only one / who believed what you said to me”?

“I Can’t Live In A Living Room” is the ‘hit’, swaying closer to punkoid reality by way of sounding like Niagara from Destroy All Monsters fronting a New York claustrophobia-wracked version of The Screamers, but even here they’re very knowingly playing to a crowd for whom descriptions like that actually make sense, almost DARING you to mute your enjoyment long enough to call foul on such internet-era retro-plagiarism. I don’t wanna do that though, cos the song f-ing rules.

And if the more jarring, fragmentary blurts of sound here sound like they could have been pulled straight off the soundtrack to “Liquid Sky”, then similarly, one is dared to recall how that film’s producers had to queue up for the chance to wrestle with a gigantic, public access synthesizer to realise their impossible dream of a twisted fashionista future, whereas Modern Witch presumably had a pretty chilled out time plugging some cool bits of old gear she/he/they/it got off ebay straight into the laptop and letting rip.

Perhaps *because* of such easy availability, the idea of some untarnished progression and innovation in pop music has seemed pretty dumb to me ever since people got bored of listening to exploding-harddrive post-Aphex Twin music a few years back. What else have you got in the future box? Atari Teenage Riot are getting back together to do nostalgia shows – it’s hilarious. Thirty three years after “no future”, is it any wonder that the most fun way to approach the future is to reimagine a new past and project it forward? Will I break some sort of record if I pose any more rhetorical questions?

And furthermore, the early ‘80s seem a particularly effective battleground for such shenanigans – a period in which the scary proclamations of the original Italian futurists seemed to finally trickle down into popular culture, as people started consciously making their music and movies rich with FUTURE. Even today, bands essentially playing Joy Division-style post-punk get lauded by The Guardian for their bleak, futurist vision, even as their reliance on before-we-were-born nostalgia means they might as well be doing a set of Hollies covers.

By contrast, Modern Witch represents a prime vehicle for some more worthwhile re-enactment. Like the British hauntology records, all the jumping off points for a complete sensory experience are right there in the sound. Close your eyes and the visuals will come.

Imagine if in 1981, John Carpenter hadn’t made ‘Escape From New York’, but had instead headed in the opposite direction, making a low budget, experimental feature about anorexic New York models who conduct weird occult rituals in an abandoned porno theatre…? Not that I don’t love ‘Escape From New York’ with every fibre of my being, but… that would have been pretty cool, huh?

Well THIS IS THE SOUNDTRACK TO THAT FILM, as reassembled by obsessive fans taping the audio off old VHS prints.

Seriously - it could have happened. And if enough of us dim the lights (maybe whilst projecting ‘Car Cemetery’ and ‘New York Ripper’ on top of each other on the wall?), drink in some Modern Witch and hope really, really hard… IT WILL HAPPEN AGAIN.

http://www.myspace.com/dickcavettsmodernwitch

Labels: album reviews, Modern Witch