Witchbeam

New Batch NOW ON SALE! These cassettes

Excepter – Equinox C40 – TOP 12 – ER 21

1. In my head I have written a description of Excepter using all sorts of flowery prose saying that they are dark bishops in a contemporary age of enlightenment and carry a torch passed from Roman mystery religions to the Gnostics to their hermetic brethren to the Ifá cults. Instead of a rant like that I think it would be more appropriate to say that Matthew and I are proud to release their latest tape entitled Equinox. 40 minutes of mindzap electronique, many more moments of beauty than grotesque, fluid, meaningful. No jokes, no pranks. No trappings of any genre. – Witchbeam, in a fever dream hovering over Crow Hill, March 20th 2010.

Side A: “EQUINOX” recorded at Glasslands Gallery NYC
Side B: “PROJECT ROOM” recorded at Issue Project Room NYC
All music by Excepter: Ryan, Corbin, Amory, Hougland, Nicholson, Ryan

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2. Technicians of the Divine Vol. 2 C30 TOP 13
Virginal Volcanoes – Whiskey on the Rocks
On Tuesday, August 24th, 2009 an obscure fraternity was born between Telecult Powers & John Fell Ryan of Excepter. Transplutonian communication was attempted via liquid instead of the vacuum of space. JFR took the role as the houngan, Mr. Matthews as the host. Witchbeam most likely lost his mind. This recording is the result.

Clouds Without Water – Lord of Unbalanced Force
Clouds WIthout Water is Brian Butler, a musician, magician, writer and filmmaker based in Los Angeles. He performs in a duo with the legendary Kenneth Anger called Technicolor Skull. He recently premiered “Night of Pan”, a film starring Vincent Gallo in a dark ritual that “symbolizes the stage of ego death in the process of spiritual attainment.” I first came across his work when I read the excellent Marjory Cameron article in the Disinfo Book of Lies.

http://www.brianbutler.org

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3. Fluxmonkey – The Man in the Yellow Hat Serves Imperialism C40 TOP 14
Some know him as Fluxmonkey, Flar calls him Luigi Bob & his email says Bbob Drake, all point to Cleveland’s synth building wizard king. I have a great memory of looking across the camping field during the Voice of the Valley last summer and seeing all the great Cleveland freaks of past/present/future sitting in his dojo – Bee Mask – Emeralds – Sam Goldberg – Fragments – Thursday Club – Mr. Matthews – J. Guy – all were at the feet of the master and enjoying his coffee.

This is his first solo release, he had been biding his time, making something beautiful. We couldn’t be happier to release it in our temple.

Check him out online – http://www.fluxmonkey.com – Check out that wall.

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4. Lil John to Chew Root TOP 15
Just Judgment – Increase Wealth – Break Hexes (Keep in pocket to curse go back) – Sold as a Curio Only
Just as important to the Temple of Pei’s music is its theories and practice of Hooodootronix, our special blend of noise, hoodoo rootwork, mysteries, candle magic, & espiritismo. We are thrilled to unveil our first root, the Lil John to Chew. It has been alleged to be a swayer of jurys and a bringer of good luck; you can’t go wrong with one in your pocket. Telecult Powers swear by this lucky little root to help open cosmic gateways and you should too. Each package is anointed with Little John’s older brother, High John the Conqueroo oil.

1 Tape 8 US/ 10 Rest of the World
2 Tapes 15 US/19 Rest of the World
3 Tapes 22 US/27 Rest of the World
3 Tapes + Root – 23 US

Root – $4 US Not available Europe

Paypal – telecult.powers@gmail.com Between 11 PM EST & 10 AM EST please email first to check availability. If available I will put reserve it for you until the morning.

Temple of Pei has a new batch of tapes coming out on Saturday, including one from Excepter, a split between Virginal Volcanoes and Brian Butler, and an amazing new one by Fluxmonkey. That’s right kids, the first official solo release by one of Cleveland’s greatest noise artists, and if you know anything about the scene in CLE you know that is a ridiculously bold statement.

Which leads me to…

So I met Genesis P-Orridge the other day. I was stumbling around trying to find this abandoned ballroom that I keep hearing about and bumped right into her. We chatted a bit, but almost immediately after I saw this place and laughed and laughed and laughed:

So yeah, if you know why this image is related to my little story, send me an email with your postal address to witchbeam@gmail.com and tell me why.

Whoa, Jason & Jack got in on this action, early. They should expect some extras too! Whoo hoo.

Fine print – first two people. US only, I’m super broke, sorry Europe, etc! Oh, and if you have won any other contests, you’re not eligible.

Wm. Berger invited us (Telecult Powers) back to his Castle of Quiet radio show last week during the WFMU marathon to perform a Prosperity Spell to attempt to beef up the donations, and from what I heard we blew past the projected goal so it must have been a success. Magick is nearly impossible to really measure so I will take what I can get.

We called in some reinforcements for the gig, namely our dear friend Lala who took on the role of the Queen Witch Hecate. She led us through the Initiation Rite, Prosperity Spell and a general “freakout” at the end. We are going to go into the studio next month to try to do serious studio versions of what we did, but in the meantime please check out the archive:

http://wfmu.org/playlists/shows/35015

& Oh, hey, this is important. Check this out if you want to self initiate yourself into the Temple of Pei… http://my-castle-of-quiet.blogspot.com/2010/03/supplies-needed-to-follow-along-and-be.html

We perform at 39, 1:37 & 2:16, but lots of good stuff was played, from 13 Thames’ Joshua Slusher to our Hex Breaker Quintet co-conspirators GrassHopper (Hex Breaker Quintet will be appearing on MCoQ April 28th & opening for Excepter March 20th).

Queen Witch Hecate

Wm. Berger

& for krewe that was at the show we played last week at the Red Light District, you should get this joke -
Matthew

Witchbeam

A couple of cool Vodou related documentaries above, and then below is the “In Search Of…” episode that I loved so much as a kid.

Vincent Gallo in Brian Butler's Night of Pan

I’m really excited, Temple of Pei is putting out a split C30 cassette tape between Brian Butler and Virginal Volcanoes in a couple of weeks. “Technicians of the Divine Vol. 2.” Stay tuned. In the meantime, if I lived in southern California I would check this out, and I here’s to hoping that Brian brings it to NYC sometime soon:

Brian Butler’s Night of Pan Premiers in LA at Projections Festival, January 16 at Roberts & Tilton

Los Angeles, CA – Noted filmmaker, artist and musician Brian Butler (www.brianbutler.com) will premier his short film, “Night of Pan” in Los Angeles on January 16 at 7:30pm at the opening of Projections, a festival of rare and hard to see films including other directors such as Spike Jones, Harmony Korine, Jean-Luc Goddard, and Miranda July. Projections was curated by Aaron Rose an artist, film director, writer, musician, and independent curator most noted as the co-curator of the successful museum exhibition and book Beautiful Losers: Contemporary Art & Street Culture which toured the world through 2008.

Projections takes place at the Roberts & Tilton Gallery, 5801 Washington Boulevard, between La Cienega Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue, in Culver City, California from January 16 – February 20, 2010. In addition to screening on January 16, “Night of Pan” will also be screened in a loop at the gallery on February 18, 2010.

“Night of Pan” is a seven and a half minute film featuring film auteur Kenneth Anger and actor Vincent Gallo. The film has been screened in various versions internationally – Beijing, Lisbon, Cannes, Athens, Rome, Berlin and elsewhere, but never in Butler’s base, Los Angeles.

In the film, Anger, Gallo, and Butler depict an occult ritual that symbolizes the stage of ego death in the process of spiritual attainment.

Brian Butler is a multidisciplinary artist who creates works around dark magical themes. He had worked extensively as a producer on director Kenneth Anger’s recent work. Additionally he has written for Dazed & Confused and performs along with Anger in the band Technicolor Skull.

About Projections, Aaron Rose notes, “There are few things that move people as much as seeing a great film. As the organizer of this festival I use the term “film” loosely here as I do the word “festival”, because in this context, I do not necessarily refer only to feature films. In fact some of the most inspiring films I’ve ever seen have been under five minutes long. Projections is a celebration of these types of works. While the focus of this collection is mostly on young filmmakers, I have also chosen to include some masters from the past who, for many reasons, have created things that have moved me in some way. Additionally, it is my hope that by removing all these films from their usual theatrical setting, and instead presenting them in an art gallery context, that people will perhaps look at them a little differently. Not just as entertainment, but as the works of true artists, who contribute greatly to the visual culture of our times.”

Speaking of Mr. Butler, check out Loch Ness Magick -

Super cool, you should watch them all.  Only the first hour, from what I understand hour two is lost in the ether.

My Castle of Quiet’s Wm. Berger caught our set the other night at 13 Thames and captured a few minutes  of it on video. A good primer if you have never seen us before:

YouTube – Telecult Powers Takes Off.

Interesting night in a new venue (13 Thames). The guy that freaked out at the very end of the night smashed one of our candles, something which the spirits are not happy about at all.

Oh right, on the subject of 13 Thames, we are performing there as Virgin Volcanoes, our other act with Seth, aka Excepter’s John Fell Ryan. Expect something similar to Walt Disney’s Dumbo as a primer on initiation into a mystery religion.

Halloween 2009, with Spectre Folk, Eskimo King (Mouthus side slab), Slasher Risk(Brooklyn’s best), & Family Treasures.

There are a bunch of videos on Youtube which state that Jay-Z is a Freemason/Occulist/etc. I just came across this on NPR and found it rather entertaining:

If the media player doesn’t work, check it here.

Sure, Jay Z, maybe, but I think stating that Kanye is some kind of enlightened mystic is pushing it. He is a member of another discreet organization tho.

YouTube – Telecult Powers (Live @ Goodbye Blue Monday 09/18/09).

Bonus: CM set from same night:

RITUAL AND SALON
at Anthology Film Archives, New York City

*ONE NIGHT ONLY*
Featuring Genesis Breyer P-Orridge as the “Sacrifist,” Timothy Wyllie, Adam Parfrey, and The Sabbath Assembly band performing original Process Church songs
Sunday, October 4
8 pm