From the sunlit sprawl of Los Angeles to the shadowed alleyways of Paris, L.A. Witch embarks on a transformative journey with their latest album, DOGGOD. This musical trio, Sade Sanchez (guitar/vocals), Irita Pai (bass), and Ellie English (drums), has long been the siren song of the underground, weaving tales of love, loss, and rebellion with a sound that's both timeless and immediate. It’s been five years since their last long player though, the adventurous and austere, Play With Fire. Now, with DOGGOD, they delve deeper into the chasm of devotion, exploring the sacred and the profane, the submissive and the divine.
Recorded at Paris's Motorbass Studio on the storied Rue de Martyrs, the album's genesis in the City of Light infuses it with a certain je ne sais quoi, a blend of old-world mystique and contemporary edge. The title itself, a palindrome marrying "DOG" and "GOD," encapsulates the album's central theme: the duality of servitude and divinity. Sanchez has mused, "I feel like I’m some sort of servant or slave to love… just in the way a loyal, devoted servant dog would." This exploration of unconditional love, mirrored in the unwavering loyalty of canines, challenges societal perceptions, especially the derogatory connotations often associated with both women and dogs. "There is this symbolic connection between women and dogs that expresses women’s subordinate position in society," Sanchez reflects. "And anything that embodies such divine characteristics never deserved to be a word used as an insult."
The album unfurls with "Icicle," a track that sees L.A. Witch venturing into post-punk territories reminiscent of Joy Division and early The Cure. The chorus-drenched guitars and minimalist arrangements set a somber tone, drawing parallels between romantic sacrifice and martyrdom. This introspection deepens with "Kiss Me Deep," where Sanchez's ethereal vocals narrate a love so transcendent it defies temporal bounds, echoing through multiple lifetimes.
"777," the album's lead single, pulsates with a motorik groove, its driving riffs and Sanchez's haunting delivery crafting a narrative of devotion unto death. The track's title, often considered an angel number, reinforces the spiritual undercurrents coursing through the album. Sanchez describes it as, "A song about the willingness to die for love in the process of serving it or suffering for it. It's about loyalty to the very end."
Pai's hypnotic basslines intertwine with English's cyclical krautrock rhythms on "I Hunt You Pray," painting a nocturnal tableau of an abandoned dog navigating the liminal space between predator and prey. "Eyes of Love" channels the meditative repetition and deconstructed chords reminiscent of Lungfish, contemplating the parallels between the unwavering gaze of a dog and the self-sacrificial love of a savior. "The Lines" introduces an extra dose of chorus effects, creating a shimmering soundscape that oscillates between the sacred and the profane. The addition of an organ and a brooding minor-key melody conjures images of gothic cathedrals and shadowed confessionals, encapsulating the album's exploration of holiness and transgression.
The eponymous track, "DOGGOD," harkens back to the raw energy of their previous work, Play With Fire, with its lean guitars and scrappy rhythms. Yet, beneath its gritty exterior lies a meditation on submission and the perilous depths of devotion, encapsulated in the refrain, "I am a full grown dog / you can't teach me new tricks."
Throughout the album, L.A. Witch masterfully balances contrasts, romanticism and menace, reverence and irreverence, celebration and lamentation. They bridge eras, reimagining vintage sounds for the modern psyche while embarking on a new chapter that delves into the medieval and gothic energies of Paris and introspective explorations of the heart's darker corridors. It is at its heart a pilgrimage, a sonic odyssey that challenges listeners to confront their notions of love, devotion, and the fine line between submission and divinity, transmuting the base elements of rock into something profoundly golden.
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