'No witches in this house', reads the myspace page of Balam Acab, a.k.a. 19-year-old Brooklyn-based producer Alec Koone, whose 'See Birds EP' has been one of the finest slices of tripped-out, slow-motion dubtronica this year. Genres can be stigmas, and while 'witch house' is not as universally despised a term as the artificial, media-created 'wonky', the style's alleged protagonists are understandably wary of the recent hype.

There's no denying a common denominator in the output of acts like Raime, oOoOO, or Balam Acab however. Radically slowed-down beats, heavily processed vocals and densely layered synths, reminiscent of shoegaze or drone music, characterise their productions, as does a certain dark quality to their aesthetics, both sonically and visually. 'Drag' is another term for the music, coined by pioneers of the sound, Salem, who have recently remixed LA's popular noise-poppers Health. Another proposal is 'screwgaze', since the sound owes heavily to the late-1990s, codeine-tempo 'screwed and chopped' hip-hop style of Houston's late DJ Screw.

Houston is also the home of Disaro Records, the underground label at the heart of the witch house movement, whose output consist of highly limited runs of hand-numbered CDrs. Another imprint to watch out for is Brooklyn's Tri Angle label, recently founded by Robin Carolan of 20 Jazz Funk Greats, and home to San Francisco's oOoOO as well as above mentioned Balam Acab.

Another term thrown around at the moment is 'chillwave', which is geared towards more indie-influenced artists working in the direction of psychedelic pop acts like Animal Collective. Toro Y Moi, Washed Out, or Memory Tapes are some of the bands mentioned in this context, and their style bears a resemblance to drag in its lo-fi production and washed-out sound aesthetics.

German electronic music stalwart !K7 has recently issued a compilation which summarises the diversity of these new musical styles. In an attempt to steer clear of any terminological minefields, 'F*<k Dance Let's Art' is simply subtitled 'Sounds From a New American Underground'.