Salem
“King Night”
from King Night
IAMSOUND, September 2010
Buy it, eventually, from IAMSOUND
I take it that “King Night” is to “witch house” what Neon Indian’s “Deadbeat Summer” was to chillwave/glo-fi: the accessible face of an unnecessarily divisive micogenre based on what synthesizers sound like if you have an inner ear infection. From that I shall deduce that witch house is hilarious. The most striking element is the giant, bassy synth sound, portentous even without the ominous choir voices. You can picture black-hooded demons striding straight out of a 1980s backmasked subliminal message. But this is coupled with stuff that wouldn’t sound out of place on the first Prodigy album: rinky-dink little skittering percussion effects, high-pitched semi-hooks, even a cheeky children’s-show sample! And then it turns out that the choir is singing “O Holy Night”! The band name, the song title, the art, even the genre are all goth as fuck, but it’s the arch, tongue-in-cheek goth of Type O Negative writing song cycles about black hair dye or women masturbating to Jesus. Basically, this song is funny. Now, funny songs can be funny in part because they’re also so impressive you’ve gotta laugh–cf. the first time you heard Andrew W.K. or Sleigh Bells–and this isn’t on that level, for me at least. Blame, perhaps, the laconic pace, which I understand is part and parcel of the subgenre but which prevents the bigness and silliness of the song from truly overpowering you. It’s a good goof, all told. A goof isn’t necessarily something I’d yell “stop the press!” over and dub the next big thing, but it can be a fun time.