Witcyst

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. “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. “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.

Screuma / Chilli Song is a challenging but rewarding listen, a record that invites repeated exploration. For fans of outsider art, noise, and experimental sound, this LP is an essential addition to the Planam catalogue.