Tape Of The Month: November 2013
11.21.13 by Mike Haley
ARTIST: Witchbeam
TITLE: Shadow Musick Vol. 1
LABEL: Tranquility
LENGTH: C30
DUBBED: Pro
EDITION: 100
Electronic music can be, or at least can appear to be, an impersonal, detached exercise. It’s often played alone with instruments that can go virtually, or literally, untouched for entire sets. It’s also, bizarrely enough for a crew who’s material is released on formats like cassette tape and heard by (when rounded off) roughly 0.0% of the world’s population, peppered with egos inflated like Snoopy at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Folks fancy themselves on levels of the DIY noise scene that in all reality don’t actually exist. They’re just floating there, doing their Snoopy impression, patting themselves on the back. That’s what makes “Shadow Musick Vol. 1” such a reinvigorating listen. It was straight up refreshing the first time I heard it. And the second time. And the third time. And you get the picture.
I’ll get around to all that in a bit. Let’s start with the basics, shall we? “Shadow Musick Vol. 1” is a new C30 on Tranquility Tapes from Witchbeam, one half of the powerful Telecult Powers cult, recorded over the course of about a thousand days in New Orleans, Louisiana. NOLA seems like ideal stomping grounds for Mr. Beam, who’s inclination for the occult more than bleeds into his sounds. Large chunks of Musick, which is dominated by haunted synths and gravelly oscillator slithers, have spoken word accompaniment to them. Witchbeam and company speaking or chanting about knowledge of the hidden, the Obatala religion of the Yoruba, lost alchemists, and other esoteric themes. The cut Good UFO/Bad UFO is a perfect example Witchbeam’s style of blending Voodoo folkways, the paranormal, and electronics into what he calls Hoodootronix. The track is backed by djembe sounding tribal drumming with vibrant flutters of notes rushed around Witchbeam’s sermonizing.
“Secret ciphers of forgotten flesh. Secret passage ways of Draconian cults.”
He takes the imagery that heaps often apply to their aesthetic, half-heartedly most of the time, and lays it all out with passion and originality. It’s painfully obvious that you’re not dealing with a fly-by-night soothsayer who just gripped a National Geographic VHS boxset on the secrets of the pyramids from a garage sale and thought “this is ME now”. Nah, Witchbeam digs it and deals it.
The luminous pings and dense modulated waves on these recordings are all produced by gear custom built by Mr. Matthews, the other half of Telecult Powers, and a real live wire. That is stated on the tape during a personal declaration, which brings us nicely to what I like most about this cassette. Half way through Side B, after a panning drone workout, the slightly processed voice of Witchbeam shows up.
“Hello. This is Steven, also known as Witchbeam, and I want to thank you with all my heart for taking the time out of your life and listening to this cassette which has been recorded over the past three years while I’ve been living in New Orleans, LA”. He goes on, saying that he hopes this tape can help you “destroy all rational thought“. That it can be a tool to “smash your ego a bit” and “get your head straight“. While crediting Mr. Matthews for building his equipment he refers to him as his “best friend“. It left me sort of standing there with my arms up, confused as fuck as to how something so awesome could be so absurdly simple. I mean, the dude thanked each and every listener for checking out this tape. He made a brutal recording not to show off how far he could piss, or how much he could piss in one session, or whatever a pissing contest is supposed to be. He did it in hopes of leveling the fields (playing and mental). There’s also something that I love about him calling someone his best friend. I don’t know exactly what it is, but I like it. Maybe it has something to do with the way people in KVLT (with a capital incorrect letter) worlds want to be perceived, or maybe I’m afraid of losing good friends and get emotional when people talk about friendship in such a public way, or maybe it’s because I don’t think another tape exists in the universe where someone takes a sec to back away from their music and mention who their best friend is. It’s something.
The artwork was done by Caroline Teagle, who handles all Tranquility layouts, in her signature style (patent pending). As usual she did an awesome job. In fact this latest batch are probably four of my favorites. The color scheme on this one is tight as heck and the blue on the cover matches the cassette shell perfectly. The cover also pairs well with Miami Dolphins Zubaz pants. You can keep it in the pocket if ya want. I know I will.
The other three released with Musick are from Seth Graham, Giant Claw, and Loud & Sad. They are all going fast, if not already gone, from the label. You should be able to track em down somewhere (Tomentosa and Experimedia are swell places to start). When/If you do, pounce on that shit!
“Good luck on your journey” – Witchbeam