Salem, the Michigan band credited as being pioneers of the witch house genre, have been mostly silent for the past decade. Their debut (and so far only) album, 2010’s King Night, was influential in indie circles, and it found its way onto multiple year-end best album lists. They haven’t release a new one since then, though.
However, there were signs of life earlier this week with the release of their new Stay Down mixtape, which isn’t exactly the sort of mixtape listeners are used to today. It contains some original compositions, but it’s also blended with music from Prince, Frank Ocean, Tchaikovsky, and others. Today, they followed that effort up with “Starfall,” a more traditional stand-alone track that is their first official release since King Night.
For the video, the band’s Jack Donoghue and John Holland linked up with veteran storm trackers to chase storms between Tulsa, Oklahoma and Dallas, Texas during tornado season. Subsequently, the video is full of stormy skies at intensity levels that most people don’t get to experience.
Press materials indicate the song is “a signal of additional work to come,” so for the first time in a long time, Salem fans have something to look forward to.
Watch the “Starfall” video above.