Those privy to the recent explosion of upcoming Techno talent in the UK, will more than likely recognise the name WITCH. The Leicester based production duo first came to light when two tracks simply titled ‘A1’ & ‘B1’ appeared on their Soundcloud. Catching interest from the likes of Happa, Boddika & Avian affiliate Truss/MPIA3 the tracks have gained notoriety.
Chatting to the pair recently, we were happy to find out that the aforementioned tracks, alongside ‘Vent’, are finally in the negotiation stages for release. “Its frustrating because we got so excited when we initially got a buzz around the tracks, we wanted to get something out as soon as possible so that people could hear it. Annoyingly the whole process feels dragged out - by the time they’re released they’ll be so old to us. But we want our music to be in the best hands possible and that just means waiting a bit more time.”
WITCH’s physical release may be coming to fruition slightly later than those of their contemporaries such as Metrist, Ill Life, or Happa, but having a community of upcoming producers has obviously been useful to the pair. “We’d been big fans of theirs for a while so when they got in touch it was massively reassuring to know we’re doing something right. They’re our boys now so it’s always good to get a second opinion on something, or a bit of advice.”
Similarly to their contemporaries, their sound has a heavy emphasis on atmospherics and sound design. This is perhaps an unsurprising fact given their musical backgrounds. “We’ve both studied electro-acoustic compositions and our big fans of the whole musique concrete thing, so that’s probably where the atmosphere comes from.”
A penchant for more texturally rich Techno bleeds into their DJing styles as well. Their addition to the Stray mix series covers a range of industrial edged cuts. “We tried to make this one as interesting as possible, rather than play the records we’re buying at the moment. We thought it’d be cool to fill it with exclusives from mans in our field, and also a collection of unreleased material from ourselves with a cheeky old banger slotted in.”
Tracklist
0019 // WITCH by Stray Landings on Mixcloud