äbvsd “Häxan: The Possession”

Techno is ritual. I didn’t realise this for the longest time. The sparse, relentless beats are transcendent in their hypnotic maelstrom. Whatever you might think of the sweaty swarm of DayGlo Dionysian nightclubs, these beats have power.

That said, I asked a techno DJ at work if he could recommend me anything else that sounded like this and he looked at me aghast, like I’d poisoned his ears.

Whatever sacred ceremony may be found in techno is pushed to its absolute extreme and made manifest in this.

The covers of the Häxan EPs (this and Ego Death) both feature goats and the fascination with The VVitch and the titular 1922 film are obvious, but even without those (or the film samples), this music is seeped with ritual and bleak invokkation.

Unusual for the genre, however distantly related this may be to it, the tonal palette is earthy and primal; utterly raw. Apparently, there are no electronic sounds other than the most ferocious of kick-drums.

This belongs in a woodland clearing, not in a club, surrounded my mushroom circle, its dancers laid out on stone slab as sacrifice for äbvsd’s pummelling, all-consuming darkness.

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