CD Reviews

Ritualz | Ghetto Ass Witch

Self-released (2011)

By DANIEL BROCKMAN | March 24, 2011

4.0 Stars

A genre of music based in darkness is always the most sensitive to light, especially the kind of illumination that comes from the scorching laser beam of pop-culture attention. So it goes for capital-G goth, sequestered in its batcave and atoning for the crimes committed in its name by all sorts of late-'90s musical villains. But isolation has bred a new type of kick for fans of the dark arts. And so it is that the latest and most exciting wave of blackest-black music comes from kids in their bedrooms making up names with special ASCII characters and blowing minds via the interwebs without lugging gear or daring to face the sun. Last year's Disaro-released homonymous EP from †‡† (a reclusive gentleman from Mexico City who pronounces it "Ritualz") was a bold declaration, with tracks like "gOth bb" blasting out of the gate like a dark wordless dance wrapped in the gauze of a thousand Skinny Puppies. Ghetto Ass Witch finds †‡† both more pensive and more effective: for every moment of out-and-out synth attack (as on lead track "Ritualz," or the strobe-light-attenuated closer, "Star Magick"), there are passages that could serve as the soundtrack to the montage scene of a George Clooney spy movie where he looks through a stack of microfiche and discovers that the real killer is the guy who owns the multinational corporation (as in the black-sunshine-drenched "Ghetto Ass Witch" and "Third Eye Sixth Sense"). And at the risk of sending villagers with torches to bang on its door and ruin its obscure charm, this record is the most accomplished 30 minutes of balls-to-the-wall instro-electro-pop you'll hear all year.

Photos: KMFDM + Army of the Universe + Human Factors Lab at Club Royale
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Topics: CD Reviews , Mexico City, goth, electro-pop, More

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