Esben & the Witch

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Reckon it's about time we had a thread for these folk.

Self-released third album (A New Nature) due out in one month and from the couple of tracks that have emerged so far it sounds like it's going to be a belter. Last album was great, but it sounds like they've ditched a lot of the 4AD-ish sounds for something a bit more visceral as you'd probably have guessed from the Albini production credit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WckSWlEf2nM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ca6rBYWv5Vw

john wahey (NickB), Friday, 1 August 2014 13:08 (ten years ago) link

Last couple of minutes or so of that second song are so damn cathartic.

john wahey (NickB), Friday, 1 August 2014 13:10 (ten years ago) link

I didn't think it would be so soon.

Robert Adam Gilmour, Saturday, 2 August 2014 20:44 (ten years ago) link

hell yeah this is good shit

reminds me a bit of Scrawl sometimes

sinister porpoise (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 4 August 2014 14:23 (ten years ago) link

the thing i was hearing was early pj harvey, kind of unavoidable given the production and the vocal similarity

john wahey (NickB), Monday, 4 August 2014 14:40 (ten years ago) link

yeah totally that too but i guess a lot of that era stuff had a vibe like that

sinister porpoise (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 4 August 2014 14:43 (ten years ago) link

one month passes...

Album up on Soundcloud:

https://soundcloud.com/esben-and-the-witch/sets/a-new-nature

john wahey (NickB), Thursday, 4 September 2014 10:24 (ten years ago) link

digging this

like goth for ppl who like mid 90s touch & go records

rap steve (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 5 September 2014 19:06 (ten years ago) link

The closing verses in 'The Jungle' are pretty incredible. I feel like this album will take some listens to unpack, but on the surface it seems quite rich. Style-wise, it's total ear candy.

jmm, Saturday, 13 September 2014 04:28 (ten years ago) link

The Jungle, Dig Your Fingers In and No Dog are all immense. There's a couple of songs in the second half that haven't grabbed me yet, but I'm willing to give them time. UMS is spot on with his mid90s T&G comment, it's got that same sinewy balance of space and tautness in the rhythm section, struck me as being kinda later period Come-like.

john wahey (NickB), Saturday, 13 September 2014 05:55 (ten years ago) link

nice video btw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-m1NxD_V3E

john wahey (NickB), Saturday, 13 September 2014 05:58 (ten years ago) link

Yes, this is relevant to my interests.

Shugazi (Branwell with an N), Saturday, 13 September 2014 08:40 (ten years ago) link

I need a lyric sheet for this. They have this interesting kind of proud, severe, stoicist attitude, which never breaks even when bursting with ecstasy. The singer maintains the same sort of calm relentlessness all throughout.

jmm, Saturday, 13 September 2014 16:35 (ten years ago) link

Worth backtracking to the previous album Branwell, that might be up your street too, but in a different sort of way. Those songs are a lot more concise and employ a lot of post-4AD textures that remind me of Piano Magic circa Low Birth Weight or In Debt-era Disco Inferno. Fell in love with record last year after some good walks in the woods with it, and now after a billion listens those songs are a fundamental part of my psyche.

john wahey (NickB), Sunday, 14 September 2014 19:18 (ten years ago) link

from that record:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VHsbhM6o9A

john wahey (NickB), Sunday, 14 September 2014 19:20 (ten years ago) link

Well, I already had the first (?) one, Violet Cries, which is kind of ~none more Goth~ so I was curious which way they were going to go with it, down a more Gothick path, or a more folky path. (They remind me sometimes of Espers, but that might just be the similarity of the name.)

Shugazi (Branwell with an N), Sunday, 14 September 2014 20:35 (ten years ago) link

didn't pay much attention to that first album at the time, much to my subsequent annoyance. i like the quality of their earlier gothicness - or at least my interpretation of it - felt a little pre-raphaelite and a little brothers grimm. now they seem more cormac mccarthy, less ornate and a bit more grizzled and epic

john wahey (NickB), Sunday, 14 September 2014 21:11 (ten years ago) link

I definitely thought of McCarthy while watching the "Dig Your Fingers In" video. I like its lack of specificity about the whole scene, though there is a part where the camera focuses in on the figure's wedding ring, which the figure then seems to withdraw from the viewer's gaze. That may not have been planned... it's a bit of a subtle gesture.

jmm, Sunday, 14 September 2014 21:36 (ten years ago) link


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