First Version — © Todd Brooks, 2007

ANTHEM-03/11/11

• “The most current love child of electronic music is a genre based on a dark aesthetic commonly referred to as “witch house.” It’s influences run across a wide spectrum of music, from hip hop to industrial. While its not easily definable, the common thread seems that these artists are on a mission to do things their own way, and they aren’t taking no for an answer. They have created a subculture that encompasses all realms of this aesthetic and at the forefront, we find the record labels Pendu Sound Recordings and DISARO Records. For the first time, Anthem got DJs Zane Landreth, BLKRAINBW, and Disaro from Killing Spree, L.A.’s best representation of this new genre, to sit down with New York’s Todd Pendu of Pendu NYC to dissect this cultural phenomenon of all things dark.” — Read here >>>

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BABE CITY BABES-03/03/11

•”Every once in a while as we gallivant through the world of men admiring their exterior Babe qualities we actually get to sit down and talk to them. This is the most amazing part of our course in Babe Studies because this is when we get to discover the incredible depth of beauty and knowledge within these Man-Babes. And not only is it a thrilling find, but it is also totally inspiring as you’ll see below.
Today our lovely correspondent, Sister Of Night, takes you on a nice journey through her experience of meeting the hyper-creative superman behind Pendu NYC.” — Read here >>>

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BLACKBOOK-01/19/11

• Interview with Todd Pendu :: “On January 27, 2011, Pendu Disco – aka Horror Scores for the Dance Floor – will celebrate its first anniversary with some decidedly dark musical performances by Houston’s //TENSE// and GHXST, DJ sets by DJ Harrison, and plenty of cake. The raucous concert series burst onto the scene this time last year at Glasslands Gallery, with unforgettable performances by Salem and Gatekeeper, two bands that came to define the hip-hop/goth/industrial genre known as Witch House. Pendu Disco has become known as a place to discover new bands, even for show promoters. Recently, the concert series developed a Manhattan offshoot, Pendu Acid Disco at Home Sweet Home, and it will be making its West Coast debut in Los Angeles on February 12, presenting live performances by Chelsea Wolfe, The Present Moment, King Dude, and a DJ set by Robert Disaro of Disaro Records” — Read here >>>

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STEREOGUM-11/29/10

• Various artists including Sasha Grey, Gatekeeper, Zola Jesus, Matmos, Todd Pendu and more, remember Peter ”Sleazy” Christopherson- ”The philosophical direction of my organization Pendu NYC reflects the influence of Sleazy as well as my solo electronics project known as CM (aka Chaos Majik) devoted to exploring ritual in sound as well as themes of sex magick and esotericism. Although I am singularly and individualistically on my own path, it is doubtful that I would be doing what I do now had I not discovered Coil first”-Todd Pendu – Read here >>>

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ZIGULINE – 11/15/10

• “Todd Brooks (Pendu NYC), Owleyes, Mario Zoots & Kristy Foom (Modern Witch), Mater Suspiria Vision, sono invece i 5 protagonisti di “Witch House & Okkvlt art” progetto espositivo che si dipana attraverso un’ampia serie di collages, ed un film “Surrealistica Uniferno” realizzato da Cosmotropia de Xam e sonorizzato da Mater Suspiria Vision. “Witch House” è l’ennesima definizione affibbiata dalla stampa internazionale, sempre in cerca di nuovi hype, ad una sottocultura nata attorno ad alcune lungimiranti label quali “Disaro”, “Pendu” e “Clan Destine Records”. Si tratta piuttosto di un nucleo di artisti che sposano sapientemente arte visiva e ricerca sonora, affondando le radici in un cut-up di riferimenti crowleyani e italo-disco, zombie movies ed estetica acida targata ‘60, psicomagia, chaos magic, golden dawn, tarocchi e croci rovesciate, ma anche DIY ed estetica pop violentata e distorta.” – Read here >>>

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WOW MAGAZINE-11/6/10

• Interview with Todd Brooks and a Pendu mixtape with the best of whats happening now like Chelsea Wolfe, Atelecine, Mater Suspiria Vision and many more… — Read here >>>

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LOVE VENOM – 05/25/10

• Interview with Todd Brooks – “It’s so hard to say what Pendu does in a sentence. All of the various activity is related. It’s basically a loosely connected series of curatorial projects that cover everything from visual art to performance/live music to putting out records to just about whatever really. I wanted something that included the arts in a connected kind of way. I like to think of Pendu in terms of making good mixtapes. As an artist and as a curator, I am a collagist… arranging seemingly different parts into something that makes sense, even if in a weird kind of way. I like to keep people curious and guessing. I like to stay fresh and current, always new. I want people to see new things or at the very least, see things in a new way.” — Read here >>>

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IMPOSE MAGAZINE – 04/05/10

• Interview with Todd Pendu :: “Since the beginning of 2010, Todd Pendu, the preliminary hand churning the wheel for the annual New York Eye and Ear Fest, has thrown a weekly Tuesday Nite Disco party at Glasslands. ” — Read here >>>

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JOONBUG – 02/16/10

• “Pendu’s Tuesday Night Disco Brings Dark Spin to the Dance Floor….What happens when an online magazine/record label/events entity known for portraits of artists and their cats, taro cards provocative enough to guarantee they will never be sold at Barnes and Noble, and a dedication to fostering a thriving art and music community starts hosting a weekly event at Brooklyn’s Glasslands Gallery? The answer is Pendu Org’s Tuesday Nite Disco, a weekly live music event and dance party that’s definitely a breed of its own. Its dark, deeply atmospheric vibe has already attracted a devoted following in the short time since its debut.”– Read here >>>

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WKCR – 06/09/09

• Tuesday June 9, 2009 – 9 to 9:30 pm, Gerry Visco interviews artist musician writer occultist Todd Pendu for her show “Arts and Answers” on WKCR (Columbia Uninversity, NY) 89.9 FM. Listen online if elsewhere.

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VICE MAGAZINE – 07/09/09

• “NEW YORK – GO TO THE NEW YORK EYE AND EAR FESTIVAL” – Interview with Todd Pendu about NY EYE & EAR FEST + more by T. Cole Rachel… Read here >>

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ARTHUR MAGAZINE – 07/31/09

• “Todd Pendu Says Yes!: An interview with the man behind Pendu Org and NY Eye and Ear”. Interview and lengthy article devoted to Pendu Org and NY EYE & EAR FEST II… Read here >>>

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IMPOSE MAGAZINE – 07/15/09

• “Bothering: Todd Pendu” Interview with Todd Pendu about NY Eye & Ear and esoteric activities… with drawings by Karen Aragaon… Read here >>>

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NEW YORK PRESS – 07/08/09

• “Todd Pendu Puts the I Back in DIY” – Profile of Todd Pendu, the Pendu Organization, and NY EYE & EAR FEST II by Stefanos Tsigrimanis… Read here >>

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EVR (EAST VILLAGE RADIO) – 07/05/09

• Radio interview about NYE&EII and Pendu on East Village Radio!
Sunday, July 5, 2009. Ceci Moss of RADIO HEART puts together a DJ playlist preview of the upcoming NYE&EII (July 9-12) and interviews Todd Pendu of the Pendu Organization. Tune in to East Village Radio wherever you are from 4-6pm on July 5. The show will be archived if you miss it… You can listen to the archived stream here >>

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FREE WILLIAMSBURG – 02/22/09

• “The State of DIY: An Interview with Todd Brooks of the Pendu Organization” – Lisa Baldini of Free Williamsburg interviews Todd Pendu… Read here >>

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WFMU – 12/09/08

• Radio interview about NYE&E Fest on WFMU! Tuesday, December 9, 2008. Todd Pendu and Ariel Panero (Less Artists More Condos, Showpaper) Guest DJ with Marty McSorley on WFMU from 2am – 4am and will be talking about the upcoming NY Eye & Ear Festival. You can listen to the archived stream here >>

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EVR (EAST VILLAGE RADIO) – 12/05/08

• Radio interview about NYE&E Fest on East Village Radio! Friday, December 5, 2008. Todd Pendu and Ariel Panero (Less Artists More Condos, Showpaper) Guest DJ on East Village Radio’s “Just Music” with host Casey Block – “A weekly internet radio show on East Village Radio. We focus on experimental music with the occasional foray into psychedelia and obscure pop….Ethnic folk musics and blues forms are also represented.” You can listen to the archived stream here >>

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WNYU – 12/03/08

• Radio Interview about NYE&E Fest on WNYU Wednesday, December 3, 2008. Todd Pendu and Ariel Panero (Less Artists More Condos, Showpaper) Guest DJ on WNYU’s (Make The) Product!
“(Make The) Product! is a weekly one-hour radio program dedicated to demos and otherwise self-released, private press, live, or found recordings with limited distribution. Be it freak folk, experimental, noise, punk, or free form psych drones, (Make The) Product! seeks out the rarest in vinyl, tape cassette, and CD-R releases from the local and international underground.” You can listen to the archived stream here >>

-|-. 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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LEARN MORE ABOUT THE PRACTICE OF CHAOS MAJIK

Specularium
]]> http://todd.pendu.org/chaosmajik/feed/ 0 http://todd.pendu.org/bouzingo-means-noise-by-todd-brooks/ http://todd.pendu.org/bouzingo-means-noise-by-todd-brooks/#comments Tue, 26 Oct 2010 23:48:09 +0000 Todd Brooks http://todd.pendu.org/?p=228 http://todd.pendu.org/bouzingo-means-noise-by-todd-brooks/feed/ 0 http://todd.pendu.org/tarot-readings-by-todd-brooks/ http://todd.pendu.org/tarot-readings-by-todd-brooks/#comments Tue, 26 Oct 2010 15:32:13 +0000 Todd Brooks http://todd.pendu.org/?p=192

For those in the NYC-area, I offer Tarot Readings by appointment for donation… Send an EMAIL for details. Appointments can be made 12-7PM on SUNDAY. I ask for a minimum donation of $60 for a thorough reading. Usually lasts one hour.

The Darkness (aka The Abyss)

Above you can see one of the cards from my own Tarot Deck known as The Majikian’s Tarot, a 22 Trump Divinatory Tarot Deck with an additional 23rd Trump known as The Darkness illustrated by Jesse Gelaznik … You can view the entire series here.

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I did a live psychick tarot reading for readers of VICE MAGAZINE for halloween 2009, you can check out the archive. Read here >>>

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TESTIMONIALS

“Todd Pendu is an advanced student of the esoteric arts whose interpretations are at once insightful and unconventional. Although he is rooted firmly in the tradition, he has made the tarot his own, not only by designing his own deck, but also by interpreting the cards in his own, special unique way. You will never get a standard, run-of-the-mill reading from Todd Pendu – you get a custom, one-of-a-kind psychic divination from Todd that resonates within the depths of your soul. And students of occult, astrology, or tarot will be especially pleased as he welcomes the subject to draw their own conclusions. You can discuss the cards’ signification in an intelligent and deep manner that will enable you to search not only search your own soul for meaning, but also for answers.” – Daisy St. Angel

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PENDU HQ is located at 442 Lorimer St. #4… equidistant from the Lorimer J-train or the Lorimer-Metropolitan L-train/G-train.

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]]> http://todd.pendu.org/tarot-readings-by-todd-brooks/feed/ 0 http://todd.pendu.org/untitled-2010-4/ http://todd.pendu.org/untitled-2010-4/#comments Mon, 25 Oct 2010 19:31:23 +0000 Todd Brooks http://todd.pendu.org/?p=176
Collage by Todd Brooks ©2010

]]> http://todd.pendu.org/untitled-2010-4/feed/ 0 http://todd.pendu.org/untitled-2010-3/ http://todd.pendu.org/untitled-2010-3/#comments Mon, 25 Oct 2010 19:30:06 +0000 Todd Brooks http://todd.pendu.org/?p=172
Collage by Todd Brooks ©2010

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