-|-. CM .-|- (Chaos Majik)
ELECTRONIC RITUAL DRONE

CHAOS MAJIK is a ritual electronics project by Todd Brooks aka Todd Pendu: founder of Pendu NYC, also of Ghost Moth. CM uses candlelight and strobes to trigger rhythms from homebuilt light-sensitive oscillators over drones created from raw oscillators running through effects and feedback-loops for the purpose of arousing visceral and ecstatic, psychical states in the listener; exploring uses of ritual in sound and sound in ritual.

Inspired by the texts of Gérard de Nerval, Aleister Crowley, Austin Osman Spare (Yihoveaum), Georges Bataille, Peter J. Carroll, Hakim Bey, Brion Gysin, Genesis P-Orridge, and many others… Also by the rituals of A.’.A.’. , TOPY, IOT, and Vama Marga Tantra.

Become a Fan on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ChaosMajik

Watch videos of past performances by Chaos Majik on YouTube.
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CM with Raymond Salvatore Harmon @ Secret Project Robot, Brooklyn 04/16/09

CM Live @ Lit Lounge, NYC 07/03/08

CM Live @ Tommy’s, Brooklyn 03/15/09
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REVIEWS

Review from Foxy Digitalis
http://www.digitalisindustries.com/foxyd/reviews.php?which=5295

CM, or Chaos Majik, is Todd Brooks. He founded a group called Pendu. They promote occultism, adhocism, and eroticism in art. This is my kind of dude. “Cry of the 12th Aethyr” is the latest tape from CM, out now on the awesome Baked Tapes label.

Brooks conjures the sound of CM through the use of handmade oscillators and feedback loops. The two pieces on “Cry of the 12th Aethyr” combine high-pitched sounds with a droning low-end. The scrapes and squalls rise and fall, while the persistent rumbles provide something closer to a static element for the proceedings. Everything is drenched and delayed; effects gently draped on top of the other.

This isn’t a revelation of experimental music– but that’s okay. I’m sure this stuff is even better live, especially considering CM kicks out these jams with his equipment housed inside a green suitcase. Brooks’ DIY approach has yielded a couple of tracks of strung-out, astral plane drone on “Cry of the 12th Aethyr.” You can’t complain about that. This is a damn good tape. 7/10 — Robert Oberlander (16 February, 2010)
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Review from Cassette Gods
http://cassettegods.blogspot.com/2009/04/cm-erotocomatose-lucidity-c30-closet.html

Usually don’t like to google people / bands before I review them, it can give people and unfair (dis)advantage depending on what the ol’ net serves up and then sometimes it is actually helpful (thereafter i’d go back and adjust my review) this is a great example of both of those cases. I was into this tape and had a fair amount to write about it: it would have been something about mechanical pets- what pets / domesticated animals represent to people and how mechanical reproductions of those externalized needs have an extra eerie air to them because they represent a totally perverted projection of those desires; also something about machine animals purring and maybe hunting instincts…

All that feels a little funny now knowing this is the work of Todd Brooks from the Pendu organization, a group dedicated to all sorts of buccaneering projects including one of my faves, Artists with Cats: http://www.pendugallery.com/artistsandcats/. Reading his page I was also informed his source material are homemade/modified oscillators, synths etc. You see where this is all going? The man has a wholeness of purpose. His manifest interest in occultism, cats, automatons, etc has come to pass on this tape. The first note (yes, i take notes!) I took while listening to this tape was “Animal electronics, calm” and I mention it not to point out my perceptiveness but instead Todd’s evocative abilities with his electronics, atmosphere and arrangements. The tape is a great merging of canopied high end swirling and low earthy grumblings changing speed and desity slightly.

One other point worth mentioning, I suppose, is the cover. True to his interest in eroticism CM explores a motif in noise tapes I’m not entirely convinced of- a naked woman emblazoned on the front of the tape. Though she has her face collaged with some form of esoterica to remove it from the ‘extreme’ nude images that usually grace the cover of harsh noise / power electronics tapes, it feels like a forced version of ‘erotic’ whereas the suggestive elements of the music had more of an effect of me than anything that brazen. A minor point, but it speaks to the power of the music over the somewhat crass imagery.

Not sure of the label or the edition as my internet fishing turned up an empty hook. Definitely recommend spending some time at the pendu organization website: http://www.pendu.org and get yr hands on this tape: Pick it up if you can.
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Review from Smooth Assailing
http://smoothassailing.blogspot.com/2009/01/chaos-majik.html

cm*chaos majik (or cm (shares its abbreviation with a late 90s trance duo), or cm*chaos magick) (not to be confused with eric ostrowski and corey brewer’s chaostic magic) is the new solo moniker of pendu sound’s todd brooks. cm used to be known as mialessot, but now it’s not. it’s also his one solo project, to go along with his various other artistic endeavors and groups (feral comb, barkminer, abuse report and ghost moth).

erotocomatose begins with minimal electronic chirping and waves of a slightly distorted echoing rumble. pretty soon those chirps will start to play a larger factor, turning into shriller drones over the top of a gentle throb of electronic ambiance as well as humming static. there’s a few nice peaks of bulldozing rumble along the way in the first five minutes.

from there, todd joins a rad oscillating base with a series of high-pitched tones, minimal distorted stutter and dynamic modulations. it’s the dark, undulating tone, belonging to the base, which captivates me the most. everything else that’s happening is just icing, at least until around the four minute mark when brooks shifts his focus to manipulating and sustaining the shrill tones into a rather rhythmic pattern. eventually, he’ll move into a different tone and modulated rhythm, but it’s still nice. the final minute and a half of side a are in a purely minimal mode: somewhat high frequency drone and light echoing electronic sputter.

the second side will take its time in warming up, though the foundation from the latter portion of side a does make a recurrence (this was recorded live). the screeching drones make for a pleasing stopgap while you’re waiting for something else to take place, of which we’re given a few teases: a brief tonal pattern as well as ripping distortion, but nothing substantial happens for about four minutes. then a bassy rhythm pops up, though it doesn’t stick around for long at all, quickly evolving into a dense wall while the screech of the background slowly increases in amplitude along with it, until, finally, both team up to create quite the sonic force. the noise will settle down in a little bit, though the swarm of locust frequencies and undulating base will remain, trading the focus back and forth with each other. todd will also hit a couple of solid rhythmic passages, again, in the closing minutes.
erotocomatose lucidity is a nice tape put out in an extremely small run (twenty-four) by florida’s closet sorcery. i like that the label and artist name actually have something to do with each other. as far as noise goes, this would probably be on the minimal side of things, but the high-pitched droning can definitely up that ante. overall, it was that fantastic undercurrent of oscillating hums (present throughout, though altered slightly as the tape progresses) which really sold me on this. i dug todd’s noise, too (made solely with homemade analog devices and feedback loops), the juxtaposition between high and low tones made for good listening.
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Review from Arthur Magazine
“Other new swoop on MJC is the Jesuve tape by CM, which is Todd Brooks from Brooklyn’s intriguing Pendu Sound Recordings collective along with Ghost Moth who have been doing those cool releases with free jazz maestro wildman Daniel Carter and something called Mialessot. This tape is awesome gas-tank bomb blast subcurrent explosion-core; real depth-charge action with an assured musical head-feel. MJC has been doing what they call their SHORTY series of shorter tapes (we think that’s what’s going on) of more outside-the-outside stuff.” – Byron Coley & Thurston Moore from Bull Tongue in Arthur Magazine Issue 30
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