Witchman

Witchman’s output has drawn parallels to the bleak breakbeat industrialism of Scorn and Techno Animal, yet its heavily dubbed drum’n’bass also shares ground with the jungle paranoia of Nico and Ed Rush as well as the gothic techno associated with Disjecta and Meat Beat Manifesto. Thick, reverberant drum patterns—shifting between halved and doubled tempos—layer dense effects processing atop brooding synthesizer tones, situating the project at the crossroads of Jamaican dub, early hip-hop, ambient music, and the murkier reaches of bleep techno. The endeavor is the sole creation of John Roome, who previously served as vocalist in the industrial-metal outfit Terminal Power Company. Long influenced by Swans and Dead Can Dance, Roome entered solo production almost inadvertently after spontaneously compiling a demo that secured a recording deal within months, though his initial ambitions had centered on film scoring. In those formative years he appeared more often on remixes and various-artist collections than under his own name, having reworked tracks by Gary Numan and Nefilim and featuring on anthologies issued by Rising High, Volume, and Virgin. Following a lone single on Blue Angel, his debut EP, “The Shape of Rage,” arrived on the experimental Leaf imprint in early 1996 and swiftly drew listeners toward jungle’s more abstract and shadowy possibilities. Subsequent label complications arose when Blue Angel’s parent company, Rising High, encountered financial difficulties; nevertheless Roome aligned with Deviant later that year, issuing the double-EP Nightmare Alley. The full-length Explorimenting Beats followed in 1997, while the 1998 collaboration Inferno with Jammin’ Unit surfaced on Invisible.