In stock
LP
WITCYST
“Screuma – Chilli Song”
Since the early 1990’s Witcyst (Michael Veet) has been the stunning big secret diamond of the New Zealand noise underground. A short circuiting monolith on top of the rubbish heap of NZ art and sound. This LP is made of two pieces originally issued on cassettes in 1995.
1. “Screuma”. A guitar is being fed through a washing machine. Its not a normal guitar mind you. It’s a giant home made one that’s been made from old medicine bottles and beard hair. The washing machine is on full spin and it has pine cones in it. Michael mumbles a running commentary. It goes on and on. All outputs are fed back into the inputs.
2. “Chilli Song”. A Witcyst rock song stretched into a spitting blur of strumming and singing. Streaks of hiss and saturation swamp and dissolve the riff. Someone is frying old meat and Michael has a lot to say about it. It goes on and on. All outputs are fed back into the inputs.
Witcyst instructions for completing yourself the sleeve artwork: “if the vinal comes with unprinted blank card covers rub them a bit on rough concrete, cut out the center holes like a 12” sleeve, but not perfect circle… like rough chop chop. hack or lay a cover on wood, slab with a big metal pipe end, slam down off center like cutting with a cookie cutter?!
and tear the centers out. that would be goodly!”.
Witcyst lives and works in a concrete floor shed in Whangarei, in the far north of New Zealand. His releases on his own labels Extemporaneous and LifeSpace run into the thousands. Each item hand made from insect casings, old X-rays, beer cans and elbow grease. Exquisite drawings, obsessional collage, unreadable calligraphy and photocopying onto tinfoil. His music is always a surprise and wrestles every potential sound out of endless mutations of endless new ideas. Every variation is layered, wrung out and exploded. It is the freest of all the free noise’s. A complete drooling feast for the eyes and ears.
Witcyst makes everyone else seem like a baby with a coloring-in book and one crayon. Edition of 300 copies in diy sleeve.
19,00€
In stock
LP
WITCYST
“Soibiast Anti-Culler”
Edition limited to 300 copies
Recorded in 1995 by the winterless north of New Zealand’s Witcyst. Another monolithic skid mark serving of crackers plucked from the man’s vast lifetime archive of sound making and beard.
Witcyst makes his music with oceans of constant daily mutation. Machines get used upside down and back to front and inside out. Layers of string, tin foil and expired medicine are saved up to dazzle the eye. Parcels in the post come and go full of nostril hair and pamphlets and wool. What would that sound like through a funnel and a heavy metal pedal? Is the room shrinking? One knock for yes. Two for no.
This audio is severely distressed and swollen. It is particularly buried and murky and howling here. Are they voices or organs? Meat or musical instruments? Is that a drum solo or decades of tape degradation? Are the hums musical or malfunction? It starts to sound like it was recorded inside your brain and has always been there. I wonder if it means us any harm? And then it starts to sound like a basket full of wise puppies.
“Soibiast Anti-Culler” is one of the most relevant works among at least a thousand albums Witcyst has originally released on cassettes and CDR’s on his own Extemporaneous and Lifespace labels since the early 1990s.
Edition limited to 300 copies in silkscreened sleeve.
19,50€
In stock
4 CD
WITCYST
“Real Folk – Lathe Cut Singles 1993-1997”
A bone-fide underground legend, Witcyst has been creating completely unique noise music from the isolation of smalltown New Zealand since the late eighties. For three decades Witcyst has been an infamous prol yet mysterious force of the deep noise underground, sharing handmade cassettes, lathe cut singles, CDRs and art objects via the post, but never touring or appearing live.
Witcyst’s mysterious career is marked by a complete absence of live performances and a massive prolificness in recordings wrapped in his own hand-made day-glo collaged artworks and assemblages. His music is the freest of free music. Unhampered by arch design or advanced technique, his work stands as an ever-surprising, unmatchable feast for the ears and eyes.
With the release of “Real Folk” Pica Disk and End of the Alphabet hope to break the long-held secret of Witcyst and bring his glorious visions to a wider audience. The 4xCD boxset collects 40 tracks from 20 self-released 7” lathe cut singles from the mid-nineties (all from legendary New Zealand lathe-cutter, Peter King), that were originally released in editions of 10 to 20 copies, so rare most of them have never appeared on Ebay or Discogs. The box-set also includes three booklets of artwork, photos and an extensive first-time home interview of Witcyst himself by Noel Meek.
• 4 CDs > 40 tracks > more than four hours of material
• 3 booklets totaling 72 pages, including first time in-depth interview with Witcyst and almost 100 colour photos and artwork.
• CDs in individual colour wallets reproducing the artwork of each 7” single
• Limited edition of 300 copies.
Witcyst’s mysterious career is marked by a complete absence of live performances and a massive prolificness in recordings wrapped in his own hand-made day-glo collaged artworks and assemblages. His music is the freest of free music. Unhampered by arch design or advanced technique, his work stands as an ever-surprising, unmatchable feast for the ears and eyes.
With the release of “Real Folk” Pica Disk and End of the Alphabet hope to break the long-held secret of Witcyst and bring his glorious visions to a wider audience. The 4xCD boxset collects 40 tracks from 20 self-released 7” lathe cut singles from the mid-nineties (all from legendary New Zealand lathe-cutter, Peter King), that were originally released in editions of 10 to 20 copies, so rare most of them have never appeared on Ebay or Discogs. The box-set also includes three booklets of artwork, photos and an extensive first-time home interview of Witcyst himself by Noel Meek.
• 4 CDs > 40 tracks > more than four hours of material
• 3 booklets totaling 72 pages, including first time in-depth interview with Witcyst and almost 100 colour photos and artwork.
• CDs in individual colour wallets reproducing the artwork of each 7” single
• Limited edition of 300 copies.
30,00€