Wigan's Enigmatic DJ Boogizm Unveils Haunting Neo-Folk Album

In the past month, British DJ and producer Tom Boogizm, hailing from the town of Wigan in northwest England, has released a new album titled "Dancin' In The Streets" under the name Rat Heart. Boogizm, who has maintained a low profile online with only a Boiler Room set and a now-defunct NTS Radio show to his name, has collaborated with a small group to create a collection of gothic neo-folk songs cloaked in grainy textures and gauzy shadows.

Dancin' In The Streets is described as a set of sounds around traditional folk and blues instruments, with shattered blues riffs, an upright piano, electric guitar, and fluctuating dub pulses coalescing into a "phantom jazz trio" on tracks like "NOT 2NITE." The album's overall atmosphere is one of oppressive umbra, with heavily reverbed notes, ambient room noise, and sampled birdcalls creating a sense of inaccessibility and isolation.

Boogizm's music is said to resemble traditional folk and blues idioms, but in "photo-negative" form, with the artist working within these genres to produce a haunting, enigmatic sound that few have approached since the release of Cat Power's 1998 album Moon Pix.