Every now and then, a track catches me off guard in the best possible way: I press play expecting some song, and instead I get a full-blown ritual. That’s what happened when I first heard This House and their new single.
“Burned House” moves on a twisted shuffle that feels almost waltz-like, but not in a ballroom sense — more like circling a fire at midnight. Søren Høi’s groove locks into a 3/4 pulse that gives the whole thing a sombre, slightly off-kilter sway. It’s hypnotic without being gentle. The cavernous kick drum grounds everything, while that glitchy, fat synth bass keeps pushing forward like it’s got somewhere urgent to be.
As a guitar player myself, I instantly got hooked on the guitars. Ignacio Córdoba treats them less like melodic decoration and more like percussion weapons — muted-string shakers doubling the hi-hat, sharp stabs snapping in sync with the snare. It’s post-punk muscle with an experimental brain. I even caught a whiff of Claypool in the more unhinged moments — that slightly deranged elasticity in the instrumental outbursts. There are no easy hooks here, no shiny chorus begging for radio rotation. Instead, it leans into shamanistic energy. You don’t hum it later — you remember how it felt in your chest.
G.W. Sok’s spoken-word delivery sits dead-centre, steady and commanding. He places us inside a burning house, calmly narrating a woman’s final breakfast as flames lick the walls. It’s surreal, almost psychedelic, yet oddly intimate. When the chorus opens up — and Sok allows himself one of his most melodic moments — a strange light breaks through the smoke. Then comes that sharp left turn: sparse, heavy, whispered. The tension thickens until feedback and scratchy slide guitar start to pile up, and the final chorus rises like something escaping through black smoke. It doesn’t explode for drama’s sake — it levitates. Structure and collapse holding hands.
The video — directed by Córdoba — adds a dry wink to the intensity: a miniature house opens to reveal the band performing inside it, as if conjuring the blaze themselves. Bucolic landscapes clash with lo-fi absurdity. It’s theatrical without being theatrical about it.
About This House:
This House is the second collaboration between G.W. Sok ( The Ex ) and Copenhagen-based experimentalist Ignacio Córdoba, now expanded into a full-band force with Søren Høi and Kristian Tangvik. They pull from rock, electronics, free improvisation and underground traditions without sounding nostalgic about any of it. There’s history here, but also friction. With their debut album “Soft Rains Will Come” set for Spring 2026 via Pink Cotton Candy Records and collaborators across Denmark, Australia, Spain and Germany, they feel less like a side project and more like a cross-generational collision that actually works.
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