Poltergeists is a biweekly feature in which Michael and Wes share tracks that they have had on repeat over the past two weeks.
Michael
Ritual Springs - “Safety Cage”
Where did this band come from!? Portland is the answer. Damn. I have listened to this song so many times this week and it still hasn’t gotten old yet. I am coming to find that I have a very specific post-punk/new-goth taste and these guys scratch all of the right places for me. There is a great balance between minimal, 80s-styled synthesizers and bellowing vocals. I would also like to point out that this is a debut EP. I look forward to many great things from these new local friends.
Sofia Reta - “Le Soif”
Sofia Reta is something that Wes turned me on to about a year ago when I asked him for Witch House and Witch House-adjacent music that I could play when I DJ. There is so much emotion in these songs. I love how the few elements that come in and out of this song are so subtle, but very impactful, adding to the pitch-dropped vocals to create a robotic longing. Even when most of the elements drop out about three minutes in and there is only a simple drum beat, bassline, and vocal left, the song feels so full - which I think is really hard to do.
Wes
Wovoka - “Chosen”
Let me just say upfront that if you consistently want to find good metal on Bandcamp, follow Majbritt Levinsen.
Wovoka lays down some heaviness on “Chosen,” the first track from their album Saros. The song starts with the feedback hum of the guitars, slowly building to the drums and bass. These hums seem more intentional than you might expect; rather than being used simply as a pre-track texture, it seems they are intentionally used to build tension, adding to the sluggish, brooding pace the rest of the track maintains. The whole album, in fact, maintains this pace; it is always slow but never drags. I found Saros this past week and I haven’t been able to stop listening.
JVNITOR - “Albatross”
One third of trap/witch-house trio BRUXA recently departed for LA, leaving JVNITOR in her wake. JVNITOR maintains the dark, witchy tones that BRUXA was so good at creating, and in "Albatross", the atmospheric elements of that tone really shine through. In between heavy kicks and claps, delayed vocal clips and quiet howls of distortion meld with muted bass tones to create an almost calming feeling; I say almost because the darkness of the track is consistently unsettling enough to prevent the sort of chill that you’d get from someone like The xx.