Witching Waves
Crystal Cafe
London, England
(HHBTM Records)
More like Bitching Waves, amirightfolks?
London’s post-wave, melodic noise punk outfit Witching Waves drops their latest LP in the States on HHBTM Records, our fave indie label of the moment. Another in a long line of noisy-yet-accessible vinyl releases, Crystal Cafe opens with a fuzzed out shoegaze-nodder (“Twister”) that could pretty much be a lost Bangles track, if only Susanna Hoffs would trade her Rickenbacker for Fender and smoke a little more weed.
Witching Waves is like the best parts of Sonic Youth albums – you know, when they let Kim Gordon let loose an ethereal wail and the guitars, although noisy as fuck, know exactly what they’re doing melodically. And that’s the key here – it’s not just noisy and post-punky for the sake of being post-punky. Peel away the layers of fuzz and grunge and there are great songs and melodies here. And without great tunes to support the sonics, what’s the point then, eh?
Take the best of the Pixies, My Bloody Valentine and maybe Sub Pop-era Nirvana and you’ve got the gist of what Witching Waves is up to. We totally dig this record, and urge you to give it a spin. Well, of course we’d say that. We did choose it as our vinyl of the month, after all…
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