When Balam Acab, who is also known as Alec Koone, first arrived on the music scene one year ago, “witch house” or “drag” music was just starting to become a real thing, due in part to the release of Balam Acab’s debut EP, “See Birds.” The genre of witch house is one of the many micro-genres to spring up in the past few years — mostly online — to then be named by someone in the music world as having enough influence to come up with something that will stick. In this case, electronic artist Pictureplane is credited with coining the term.
So what is witch house? Its main features include hip-hop or industrial dance beats, extremely slowed down vocals, spooky samples and plenty of creepy imagery to go along with this gothic-inspired house music. Also, most witch house bands employ the use of various typographical elements, such as triangles, crosses and other shapes, to form their names, making it nearly impossible to easily find them online and thus keeping the genre far under the mainstream’s radar.
All of this was still in a period of incubation at the time of “See Birds’” release in 2010, but even at that early stage it was clear that Balam Acab didn’t exactly fit the witch house mold many critics were trying to squeeze him into. While it’s clear that “See Birds” did meet most of the criteria to be classified as witch house, Balam Acab was just experimenting with the genre and pushing himself to see how far he could stray from it without completely losing its roots.
And now, with the release of “Wander/Wonder,” Balam Acab has developed his sound so thoroughly that it truly sounds like his own genre. Sure, there are still many elements of witch house, but he’s expanded on the creepiness to create something entirely unique and beautiful. He’s found a place where he can comfortably sample grandiose opera samples over his eerie industrial beats and still create a space that’s as grim and foreboding as anything else in the genre.
A version of this article appeared in the Sep 6 issue of the Collegiate Times.
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