The latest EP from Sheffield’s dark muse of haus(witch) WIKAN has landed. His DESTROYER EP continues the dark descent into what is some of the finest witch house I’ve come across coming out of the UK.

Much like Tempa’s 12s outlay about as purist a dubstep track as you can get; Tony Stone’s offerings as WIKAN do similar for the internet powered niche genre of Witch House AKA Okkult AKA Gravewave AKA drag AKA a whole plethora of other sub sub genres and word plays on the occult obsessed dark as they come electronics.

So, track by track, what’s this sounding like. First of the four PLAGUES begins with delicate ethereal drone, like a mist. It builds into an electro-like straight roller. Kopfnicken vibes. The synth drone adds a great down feel to the upbeat beatloop. It ends as it began in the ghostly pale.

BURNT 2 EMBERS ups the tension a touch, effortlessly bringing in those witch snares with their own layer of fog. Quite the beautiful piece this one. Keeping the deep vibes, APOPHIS is an almost proggy number – those stylistic to the genre synth tones roll in, breakdown and leave us in the final section something approaching a dread but with a light at the end of the tunnel. That glimmer of hope thing.

That leaves us with the final of the four LEVIATHON. The longest piece at 7 seconds short of a round 10 minutes; it is drone rich waves of cold chill. It’s almost like a lullaby – a lullaby of the void. A repeating singular drum hit is introduced from the half way point, like the slow march from this world into the next. That wide angle black synth supported by a second reminiscent of Rabbit in the Moon – a mournful yet beautiful, humanistic wail.

End to the end this is a much deeper and lushful listen than I was expecting given the artwork and EP name. It is, in short, great.

WIKAN – DESTROYER EP
GRAB

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WIKAN – PLAGUES
WIKAN – BURNT 2 EMBERS
WIKAN – APOPHIS
WIKAN – LEVIATHON
Dark Peaks 006