Key Takeaways

This feature traces witch house’s brief 2009–11 run and its impact on hip-hop and pop through dark synths, stuttering drums, pitched-down vocals, and occult imagery.

The artist Pictureplane coined the name in 2010, while Salem and Clams Casino helped carry the DJ Screw-inspired sound into music by A$AP Rocky, The Weeknd , and Kanye West.

The piece spotlights six defining tracks from Salem, Clams Casino, Balam Acab, Holy Other, oOoOO, and White Ring.

Deep in the digital catacombs of the Internet lived a corner of music you’d hardly remember, let alone find, even with a map pointing you directly toward it. Witch house, the electronic, micro-genre best known for dark, sonic landscapes littered with stuttering drum machines and its pitched-down, reverb-soaked vocals, ruled the underground music scene, even if just for a moment. Years later, its influence holds true.

The “witch house” moniker was coined by Denver-based electronic musician Travis Egedy (a.k.a. Pictureplane), back in 2010.…