October 11th, 2009 by GT
Telecult Powers are a Brooklyn-based synth duo influenced by various mysteries, mystic states and magickal systems. Performing custom-built synthesizers behind lit candles, Telecult opens a link to a spirit world in hopes of communicating with another dimension. I asked one of the members known as Witchbeam a few questions about the group, his artwork, his label and his experience at the Voice of the Valley festival…
GT: I was first introduced to your work form Chris Madak (who runs Deception Island, performs under Bee Mask). I was looking to set up shows in NYC for Brother Raven and he dropped your name and a link. From there I started my search of Telecult Powers and found all sorts of bizarre information and occult references, as well as some links to artists I was a bit more familiar with. I found the Temple of Pei website and the Witchbeam site, both of which seem to add to the mystique of your efforts. I ordered a few tapes from Temple of Pei, Baked Tapes, and Pizza Night Tapes and was floored by the spaces the duo creates: ritualistic, mind-altering visions of otherworldly dimensions (A Beginner’s Course In Hoodootronix, Baked In the Kitchen w/ Bob Bellerue & Kiss the Viper’s Fang). Upon my visit to NYC, I was able to see Telecult perform at the Cakeshop – where I had the opportunity to meet you. Since then, I’ve wanted to find more about you guys – which lead to the idea of this interview . Maybe I can start by asking you how you got involved with Telecult Powers?
Witchbeam: Wow, thanks for kind words. I guess a bit of a time line is in order, my friend John and I went down to Ohio University one weekend in the really early nineties to visit our girlfriends. On the way back to Cleveland he was playing a Whitehouse tape, which I am pretty sure was Dedicated to Peter Kurtin. I had never heard anything like this before, and was hypnotized by it. He was telling me about this kid Jason and all the bands he was into (Throbbing Gristle, Whitehouse, Muslimgauze, Psychic TV, etc.) After that I was really intrigued, mixed it all with an interest I already had developed in psychedelia, various occult systems, Robert Anton Wilson, Death Valley & Ed Sanders’ The Family, Grant Morrison’s Doom Patrol, and this whole other world sort of unfolded before me.
Before long my friend and current collaborator Matt and I started dabbling in making music, along with our friend Jacques and some other local weirdos, Craig from 9 Volt Haunted House comes to mind. Pretty basic stuff, but the Process Sound of the Final Judgment sprang from that. Then we sort of morphed into a four piece, The Sinister Cloaks, and then that sort of fell apart, we walked away from the jams for a while. Matthew wound up moving to New York, and I started focusing on Witchbeam, a bit of a portfolio site for my cosmic illustrations.
A couple of years ago I had to get the hell out of Cleveland and moved to Brooklyn, leaving behind one of the brightest noise scenes in the country. I had been playing in a rock band in Cleveland called Yeti Scalp doing weird looped computer sounds, generative music for the background, but wanted to get into something more organic. Matt had started being an electronic hobbyist a while before, and we started picking up his synthesizers he had been building and our sound sort of oozed out of our earliest developments.
Listen to Telecult Powers ‘The Joy of Hex’:
[audio:TelecultPowers-TheJoyOfHex.mp3]
GT: What has the experience been like?
Witchbeam: As far as Telecult Powers as a personal experience, I have to say this has been ridiculously rewarding. Almost every single person I have met from being in Telecult has been a wonderful and fantastic individual. People have been surprisingly open to it, which makes it much easier.
GT: So where do you see Telecult Powers heading now?
Witchbeam: Further into inner space… but in seriousness, we have been talking about creating a much more open and interactive environment in our performances, more of an initiation to our mysteries? Or actually, non mysteries…. There is a bit of occult vibe that we put off, but I think we are moving towards more of a gnostic one, illumination instead of secrets? I get a lot of flack for saying things like that, but those are the things that interest me.
GT: You mentioned a little bit about your illustrations. I’ve seen a few things, posters and cover art… all of which seems to be very integrated into your musical involvement. How does your visual work fit into your artistic efforts?
Witchbeam: It’s pretty much all the same. The illustrations and the sound both try to tap an essence more than anything else. Whether it is through trance inducing music or cosmically themed art I want to open gateways to other worlds. The material plane has always shown off its limitations to me, I’m more interested in what lies beyond it.
GT: I know Bee Mask’s work, but not much about the other artists on the label. Can you tell me a little bit about Temple of Pei and how that all got started?
Witchbeam: I have to imagine that it is similar to most of the other labels out there, when we started we needed an outlet to release our sounds. It’s grown a bit since then where we have solicited releases from a few other people, but in general it is a way to get Telecult Powers out there without being filtered by anyone else.
We have also been lucky enough to put out tapes by Reviver, Bee Mask & Family Treasures, all top acts and top shelf releases. It seems small, I know labels that put out what seems like 6 tapes a week, but we are more restrained. We just received the master from Cleveland homebuild freak god Fluxmonkey that is sure to make some people reexamine the way they even get out of their bed in the morning. One of the best things I have ever heard, period. It is his first release anywhere, so this is something really special for us. He had a couple of tracks on the Dark Barbarians compilation we put out, but those were just teasers for the real deal.
I heard Telecult Powers played Voice of the Valley this year – how was that? What were your favorite acts?
Witchbeam: Shit, favorite acts at VOV? Pretty much everyone that played brought something to the table. Sam Goldberg played a particularly illuminated set iirc, Bee Mask raised the bar as far as electronics went. There was an Emeralds/Max Eisenberg set that really really was interesting. We were over on the mountain freaking out and walked down to the stage and the sound just sounded WEIRD, it was a nice surprise that they were jamming with a fourth, so that was really cool. This guy Clang Quartet was a really odd one, he had this christian apocalyptic puppet vibe, but I was really drunk by the time he played so I have no idea what was really happening. Signs bearing quotes from the Acts of the Apostles and stuff, really flipped out.
Cleveland really flexed it’s freak sound muscles, Fluxmonkey/J. Guy was incredible, Outer Space, Fragments & Thursday Club were hot, and scumfuck Skin Graft was particularly twisted. He brought the sound of urban squalor and decay into the woods, visions of children playing with dirty needles at the beach. Really sick mental shit.
There was no MC so I left not knowing who a lot of them were. Oh yeah, by the third day acts started breaking away from the stage, and these freaks Twilight Memories of the Three Suns climbed the mountain and really did some weird shit. They would bang on an anvil and you would see it, then a few seconds later the sound would roll down the hill. Brilliant use of the space. Oh yeah, and can’t not mention the free jazz stylings of Tiger Hatchery. We were on the mountain during their set, in this heavy fog, couldn’t really tell what was going on but it was great. Our friend Flar did sound for the fest, and really blasted out the valley. This guy Narwalz played my favorite Psychic TV track through Flar’s system, it was AMAZING to hear Blue Pyramid at incredible volume. Nautical Almanac closed out the weekend, and sort of hypnotized the crowd. There was a hill in front of the stage and they asked that you lay with your feet up where your head would be, so the blood would rush to your brain. I just remember having this wonderful sense of calm listening to them, seeing two stray shooting stars that I associated with the two of them. We had an overwhelming feeling of community with everyone else there that generally lacks at noise shows. It carried on for weeks after.
Stony Tusco did an amazing job putting it together, I have to hand it to him. A lot of people went into it with some apprehension, but the whole weekend went off without a hitch. God is as good to the humble as the devil is to fools? Hahahaha.
(Check this link for some recordings of these sets.)
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September 28th, 2009 by GT
Freshly returning from the mountain forests of Eastern Oregon…I wanted to put the word out there that the new Gift Tapes releases are out now. I couldn’t be more happy about this new batch of cassettes from Pulse Emitter, Matt Carlson and The North Sea. This time around the tapes have been pro-dubbed in editions of 100. These tapes will go super fast, so be sure to order soon.
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 Pulse Emitter - grass - C30 Fellow NW-based Pulse Emitter, the solo project of modular synth mastermind Daryl Groetsch, has created a beautiful work, half of which is reminiscent of his self-released Meditative Music series, while the other half delves into the weirdo world of sub-earth root structures crawling with insects. Grass is one of my favorites from his recent discography and Gift Tapes is extremely honored to present one of his works.
 Matt Carlson - stereo face - C40 Matt Carlson’s recent solo efforts venture into the sounds of early electronics pioneers. As a member of the minimal noise drone trio Bonus & former member of the Parenthetical Girls, Carlson’s efforts have included pop music, noise, free improv and performance art. His new work, Stereo Face, is modular synth wizardry all over the stereo field and steeped in science fiction themes that nod at the 1960’s while simultaneously hyper-driving towards the future.
 The North Sea - daytona - C30 Daytona is an epic drone work formed of textured synthesizer and layered electronics. The North Sea’s (Brad Rose) high-density sound projects degraded memories that lead to abandoned tunnels and empty into sunset skies. Both noisy and meditative, this gorgeous piece is the perfect compliment to lone autumn walks. Definitely another exciting addition to the North Sea catalog.
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Tapes available here: Gift Tapes.
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September 22nd, 2009 by GT
For the next few Autumn days, I’ll be overlooking the sunsets & sunrises from this fire lookout in Oregon. When I get back next Tuesday, we’ll release the new batch of GIFT TAPES ! Mark it on your calenders – September 29th, 2009 – as these tapes will be flying off shelves: Pulse Emitter, The North Sea, & Matt Carlson (of Bonus). Extreme synthesizer radness.
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September 11th, 2009 by GT
Wanted to give Gift Tapes Blog readers the heads up about two releases from Gift Tapes artists that were released this past week. Brother Raven has a new tape called Nellie that just came out on Brad Rose’s fine label Digitalis LTD – it’s a C40, limited to 70 copies. Additionally, there is a new Spare Death Icon tape on OMM called Highlander/Seahorse – also a C40, limited to 45 copies. Please check with those labels for copies. We’ll also be getting artist copies soon, so if either of them sell out – check in with us.
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August 28th, 2009 by GT
The new tape by Brooklyn-based artist Prehistoric Blackout (Taylor Richardson of Infinity Window, Purple Haze) called Stone Reaper collages synths and guitars to create cloudy, layered electronic music for mind-altering states. This is murky, cavernous mysticism ran through a phaser pedal in a fish-bowled room.
Side A opens with a tweaky, but poppy guitar progression that’s momentarily overtaken by a white noise storm and morphs into loopy synth noodles stream of consciousness-style through stereo-panning and rhythmic muting. The B side begins by continuing the psychedelic trip-out light vibes of the first side. Noise-head sample warping momentarily devolves into tribal drum circles surrounded by a multinational boys choir, providing the perfect ending to ruling cassette.
This tape was recently released on Pizza Night Tapes alongside 3 other great-looking releases. I highly recommend taking a look at Sam Goldberg’s label, as it offers an excellent selection of experimental cassettes. Definitely pick this one up.
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July 22nd, 2009 by GT
Just got word that tonight (July 22nd) Telecult Powers is gonna be jamming on WFMU on Wm. Berger’s show, My Castle of Quiet. They’re doing 2 sets: one at 9pm & another at 10pm EST. Both sets will be live-scoring of 16MM films, one on coral reefs and one on volcanoes. Check it out tonight! Also… stay tuned for GT’s interview with Witchbeam from Telecult Powers… coming soon!
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July 12th, 2009 by GT
^^^ is a beautifully packaged CDR by mi or and the pedestals, the project of Ceci Moss. Ceci generously sent me her solo disk back in April, and soon afterwards I had the pleasure to share a bill with her in NYC at DIY venue West Nile. Using synthesizer, computer processing, effects pedals, and voice samples, her live performance manages to recreate similar spaces found on this CD.
The disc opens with intense waves of digital heaviness, a spatial vacuum that presses at the temples. Hints of open spaces pierce this river of sound, until the flood of inverted gravity begins to slowly degrade into a dimly lit spectrum of falling particles. These particles rise, taking the form of stars that become constellations. Here the music takes a turn, becoming synth music of the cosmos, a soundtrack to the night sky.
When the second track takes shape it becomes apparent that we have traveled: a place of foreign origins, an altered perspective. The breadth of this new ambiance echoes through the dense, new atmosphere, as a mix of electronics and voice spin up a web of sound that reflects the natural rhythms only found in reoccurring dreams. From here on out, the listener is free to explore the quiet dynamics of the invisible and the unlikely.
This disc is a total treat. It comes from a very unique perspective and definitely one that is well versed in experimental and ambient musics. Support her efforts by acquiring her works here: ceci AT amillionkeys DOT com
LINKS: http://www.myspace.com/miorandthepedestals OR http://amillionkeys.com/mi-or-and-the-pedestals
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June 24th, 2009 by GT
About the time I released the first batch of Gift Tapes, someone told me about a crazy productive guy named Josh Burke. I hadn’t heard his work before, but I had seen the name. He pops up all over the place – distros like tomentosa and the like. When I looked into it further I found out he’s the dude behind Sky Limousine & Futuresport. And further research lead me to the labels he head’s up – Clear Audio & Video, Slime City & Avocado Jungle. Descriptions of his jams really got me digging deeper – each seeming to contain ‘warm synths’ (can’t go wrong). In my experience, people this insanely productive are always doing interesting work (ie. Brad Rose of Digitalis, Lieven Martens of Taped Sounds, Chris Madak of Deception Island, or Pete Swanson of JYRK/Freedom to Spend). Many props to these dudes and the many others out there releasing important work on their labels and still finding the time to make their own rippin’ jams – these dude make things happen.
I acquired this tape titled Wonder released on Clear Audio & Video released in 2009. Josh Burke’s work is excellent. Light & quiet, thick and murky-mysterious, I found myself entering day dreams of green forests and blue skies. It’s soothing, emotive music, almost introspective… slightly contemplative. Synths create the landscape, melodies rise and fall, drones warp and skew, but the clouds are what lead us to our final destination. A certain weightlessness is inherent in his long form compositions, flush with oxygen and the smell of fresh rains. This Chicago-based new age ripper totally delivers.
You’ll find all of these release very limited, but each one I’ve heard is excellent. I have 4 tapes now and many more I’m in search of. If this one is no longer out there, grab what you can. I haven’t been able to get his Clear link to work, but if you want to learn a bit more about his discography, check the links here: Discogs: Sky Limousine, Discogs: Josh Burke, Discogs: Futuresport
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June 16th, 2009 by GT
I just put our second batch of tapes up for sale here: http://gifttapes.com/tapes/. All c20 tapes by Brother Raven, Million Mists, & Jeremiah Walker. Summertime goodness…
Brother Raven, A Sound Like Wailing Winter Winds Is Heard, GT005
Peace pipe in one hand, synthesizer in the other, Brother Raven (Jason E Anderson & Jamie Potter) descends from the heavens, exhaling thick analog fog and wispy digital vapors. A Sound Like Wailing Winter Winds Is Heard is the Seattle synth duo’s second release. These improvised jams recorded live to tape recall the playful, positive-vibe, electronic music of the late 1970’s.
Jeremiah Walker, Early to Rise, GT006
Jeremiah Walker’s debut cassette release Early to Rise is an expansive journey through solar skies. Lush synthesizers are wound together, forming serene meditations that seem to draw the listener towards a heightened spiritual awareness. These minimalist dronescapes open portals to ancient civilizations where mystics guided their followers from dark to light.
Million Mists, Spaeship, GT007
Weaving an inter-galactic tale of otherworldly explorations, Million Mists (Jamie Potter) bends the barriers of reality, unveiling new drone territories via ethereal loops and elusive melodies. Beaming metallic light formations envelop the hovering sub bass frequencies of Spaeship, as they swirl and morph into a stunning journey through alien landscapes.
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April 28th, 2009 by GT
A few weeks back I was completely surprised by a little package I received in the mail. Upon opening the gift, I cracked a smile- followed by a few cuss words (this dude is kicking my ass). It was another Pulse Emitter new age disc: Meditative Music 3. If releasing current new age music was a competition, then Daryl is the champion. Take the packaging for instance: the pastel-tinted nature photos, the CD case itself, the one-line description on each disc… it all lends itself so perfectly to being something you’d find at a yoga studio’s gift shop. On top of that, these discs are totally self-released and the music is comprised of minimal synth tones that truly have healing qualities. These CDs are totally legit.
Meditative Music 3 couldn’t have come at a more perfect time. I’m totally excited about this series, but since I had reviewed the other installments (see this post) a few months back, I felt like I needed a new approach to writing about this one. The stars must have been aligned because I injured my back and decided to make an appointment with a massage therapist. This provided me with the perfect opportunity to give this music the kind of listening it deserves. The masseuse was super cool and allowed me to play the disc in her boom box after reading the one-line description on the back of the case: placid waves for reflective times.
A slow fade from silence gives way to the rising tones that transform your consciousness into a dense underwater cloud of plankton. Families of micro-organisms lie static and hovering just beneath the surface. They harness the power of the sun, soaking up the solar energy, contributing to the natural cycle of life. Dense analog vibrations are contrasted by crisp, digital metallics. These bell-like FM synthesis tones encapsulate the piece in crystals. “Does this feel tender?” Those were the words that brought me back from my oceanic dreamworld, and they really couldn’t have been better put.
Clocking in at exactly 60 minutes, this is the perfect music for massage. It was so perfect in fact, that the masseuse inquired about how she might purchase a copy of it. You can buy them from him directly here: synthnoise.com or from Tomentosa. If you are a fan of synth music, of new age or of anything P.E.-related… all three of these CDs are highly recommended.
In Portland on Thursday, April 30th, I highly recommend checking out Pulse Emitter perform at Dunes. Brother Raven will be one of the opening acts, alongside Weird Fiction (live video), Sean Ongley & Regosphere.
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