L.a. Witch - Octubre - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

L.a. Witch - L.a. Witch [COMPACT DISCS] date 09/08/2017

L.a. Witch have always exuded an aura of effortless cool, whether it manifested as the Americana noir and laconic back-to-basics rock n' roll of their self-titled debut or the blistering austere adventurism of their sophomore album Play With Fire. The band-comprised of Sade Sanchez (guitar/vocals), Irita Pai (bass), and Ellie English (drums)-began as an informal affair, but the sultry and beguiling reverb-draped songs they created caught on with the public, moving the project beyond the insular space of the band's friends and peers in Southern California into the broader world. On their latest album, DOGGOD, the trio push their craft beyond their previous creative and geographical confines, opting to craft the material in Paris, recording the tracks at Motorbass Studio on the Rue de Martyrs. DOGGOD explores broader swaths of sonic terrain, employs a greater arsenal of tones, and probes larger existential and cosmic themes, all while retaining the band's signature sense of the forbidden, the forsaken, and the foreboding. DOGGOD is a way of tackling the universal riddle tangled in the spiritual nature of love and devotion. InchI feel like I'm some sort of servant or slave to love,Inch says Sanchez. InchThere's a willingness to die for love in the process of serving it or suffering for it or in search of it... just in the way a loyal, devoted servant dog would.Inch The album title is a palindrome fusing together DOG and GOD-an exaltation of the submissive and a subversion of the divine. It's a nod to the purity of dogs and an acknowledgement of their unconditional love and protective nature that's at odds with the various pejoratives associated with the species. InchThere is this symbolic connection between women and dogs that expresses women's subordinate position in society,Inch Sanchez explains. InchAnd anything that embodies such divine characteristics never deserved

Where L.A. Witch's self-titled album oozed with vibe and atmosphere, with the whole mix draped in reverb, sonically placing the band in some distant realm, broadcast across some unknown chasm of time, Play With Fire comes crashing out of the gate with a bold, brash, in-your-face rocker InchFire Starter.Inch The authoritative opener is a deliberate mission statement. InchPlay With Fire is a suggestion to make things happen,Inch says Sanchez. InchDon't fear mistakes or the future. Take a chance. Say and do what you really feel, even if nobody agrees with your ideas. These are feelings that have stopped me in the past. I want to inspire others to be freethinkers even if it causes a little burn.Inch And by that line of reasoning, InchFire StarterInch becomes a call to action, an anthem against apathy. From there, the album segues into the similarly bodacious rocker InchMotorcycle BoyInch-a feisty love song inspired by classic cinema outlaws like Mickey Rourke, Marlon Brando, and Steve McQueen. At track three, we hear L.A. Witch expand into new territories as InchDark HorseInch unfurls a mixture of dustbowl folk, psychedelic breakdowns, and fire-and-brimstone organ lines. And from there, the band only gets more adventurous. Play With Fire is a bold new journey that retains L.A. Witch's siren-song mystique, nostalgic spirit, and contemporary cool. Despite the stylistic breadth of the record, there is a unifying timbre across the album's nine tracks, as if the trio of young musicians is bound together as a collective of old souls tapping into the sounds of their previous youth.