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It’s no big secret that the Homegrown Music Festival features a lot of different styles of music. Something that has been gaining some strength in the area is electronic music. In this case, I’m not talking about Electronic Dance Music or DJs per se, although there has been a big push of that recently. I’m referring to experimental electronic projects that involve synths, drum machines, modular units and other electronic manipulating devices that involve everything from guitar pedals to circuit bent creations. I’m not totally certain of everything that went into this album, but it seems to involve at least some live use of keys.  
There are some die hard electronic musicians in the area such as Logan Erickson of Low-Gain and Tobin Dack of DrOhm and then there are pleasant surprises such as when Americana/folk artist, Marc Gartman, came up with Fever Dream. In this case, musicians such as Zac Bentz and Marcus Matthews who have worked together on the electronic side of things ever since they colaborated with the group, The Surfactants. The Surfactants’ album “Our Dead Bodies” definitely had its share of electronic influences, but it held closely to staying more in the realm of rock.
The Electric Witch almost totally ditches rock and goes for a primarily electronic experience.  Before listening to this album, I had heard of the project but didn’t get the chance to listen to their debut album, “So We Burn,” which was released in August, or see them live. We asked Matthews about this crossover, “It is mostly about the diversity of Zac’s taste in music. Electric Witch is kind of a mish mash of his Dirty Knobs DJ (a former project of Bentz’s) influences, combined with the rock and roll aesthetic we cultivated with The Surfactants,” stated Matthews. I’ve always liked groups like Daft Punk and Air and I’m going to get that comparison out of the way right off the bat. Vocoder style electronic manipulated vocals, all sorts of synth work and often a very danceable arrangement of beats is to be expected on this new album, “We See the Shapes.”
The first track “The Hybrid” shows from the get go that there are contrasting elements of catchy dance worthy music with a little bit of a underlying, darker, almost industrial feel. The swirling arrangements of arpeggiated layers of synth mixing with the thematic sustained synth sounds is just fun as a listening experience. The electronic hand claps mixed into the quick driving electronic beat arrangement makes it seem more light hearted. Throughout the song, however, there are things that aren’t so upbeat. The vocals don’t sound particularly happy; it’s a sorrowful robot. The other thing that got me was the dark deep lower pitched synth that comes out in the mix from time to time. It’s chilling and it reminded me of the “Leviathan” scene from Hellraiser II.
Again with the track, “And The End Is,” detached vocoded style vocals that sing some bleak lyrics from what I could pick out. The only real criticism on this album I have is that it’s hard to understand the lyrics at times, but this is understandable because I think the songs would lose their intended impact if they would have done something like add backing “clean” vocals into the mix. Things like the electronic tom fills play perfectly into the general upbeat feeling of the music on this song. This isn’t to say that this music is anything like the group, The Postal Service, but combining not so happy vocals over happier music, Postal Service would be a good example to describe that interesting separation in songs like this.
The track “Not One At All (You Are)” gets more dark and the chorus definitely shows this. Elements of catchy synth-pop still shine through but there’s a definite industrial edge. This contrasts with the pretty and airy song, “Grand Mass” and the more sentimental track, “The One The Wayward.” The album transitions through moods but holds firm to the feeling of a troubled world of a robot’s digital symphony or opera.
Overall, the listening experience of this album could be described as epic. It’s very theatric and powerful throughout. While it’s not afraid to be catchy, pretty and even pop at moments, it never lets the listener forget that there’s something a little dark about it.
I knew that with the people involved in this project that it’d be pretty good, but if you’re into electronic music, dark wave, synth-pop, industrial or just appreciate music in general, this should be considered a “must listen to” album. For this area, it’s incredible. For the type of music it is, I could see this catching on nation wide and even overseas. It is refreshing to listen to something that is both a little different, stays accessible and is done well. The cover art is also pretty great.
“We See the Shapes” will be officially released on May 1 and on Saturday, May 3, The Electric Witch will be performing at Tycoons for Homegrown. The band line up will include Zac Bentz, Marcus Matthews, Steph Bentz and Greg Cougar Conley. Sounds like it might be a solid show if the album is anything to go off of.