The ten songs on Boy Harsher’s second full length album, Careful, spanning forty-four minutes, contain eerie narrative soundscapes that are both bracing, high tempo and dynamic. The album delivers manifold emotions, from the nostalgic yearning of “LA” to the gripping intensity of “Come Closer”. The nervousness of Augustus Muller's bent, out of tune synths paired with the lush and sometimes brittle vocals of Jae Matthews, delivers an unsettled, yet fulfilling encounter with Boy Harsher. Careful summons a new spirit for the young band - that of growth and desire. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Keep Driving
2. Face The Fire
3. Fate
4. LA
5. Come Closer
6. They Look You Gave (Jerry)
7. Tears
8. Crush
9. Lost
10. Careful 

Augustus Muller (Boy Harsher) teams up again with Four Chambers to release Cellulosed Bodies, which features two scores, Crash and Automation, through imprint Nude Club Records. Four Chambers is the self-described “project” of experimental pornographer Vex Ashley, filmmaker, photographer, and cultural phenom. Both scores serve as accompaniments to films released by Ashley last year through Four Chambers.

Crash and Automation demonstrate Muller’s mastery of stark, industrial soundscapes. Yet, Muller takes the compositions further - introducing club elements such as ‘nu disco’ tendencies and vocal samples. Thus, he embraces the theme of body meets machine as explored in the visual content of the films.

Crash is an homage to David Cronenberg’s 1996 film of the same name. Both Ashley and Cronenberg explore the eroticism of car accidents, a fetish that feels both mechanical and gory. This violent juxtaposition is Muller’s ultimate inspiration. Featured in Crash, “Body and Machine” is a pulsing, synth anthem, exhibiting both synthetic echos and playful plucky highlights. “Perverse Technology” is a groovy and discordant number, where “Sharing a Smoke” has a somber austerity, you can almost see the hands pass across leather seats, shattered glass against sweaty bodies, and open-mouth kisses in the headlights.

Automation experiments came from the isolation brought upon the pandemic, which turned many into digital fiends. Ashley explores the fixation of technological intimacy, with Automation, a sci-fi feeling porn that features a severe computer entity and trapped prey, succumbing to pleasure. Unlike, Crash, Muller uses less “industrial” sounds in Automation, instead favoring synthetic instrumentation. “Who is in Control” and “Observation” are chilling examples of this - compositions that feature oblique strings and organ like synthesis. Songs such as “Subdue Yourself”, featuring vocal samples of dominatrix Miss Marilyn, are deftly human, yet “speak” from the perspective of the machine.

Ultimately, both sides of Cellulosed Bodies play with the mercurial erotic relationship between body and machine. A soundscape that is both haunting and humble, Muller’s follow-up with Four Chambers features some of his best score work.

“You belong to the machine, you are nothing, you are use, you are there to be taken...”

“Cellulosed Bodies (Original Score)” is the second collaboration between Augustus Muller and Four Chambers. In 2020, the Soundtrack “Machine Learning Experiments” was already released as a two-part soundtrack on CD and LP.

TRACK LISTING

Side A - Crash:
1. Fur And Metal
2. Sharing A Smoke
3. A New Wound
4. Perverse Technology
5. Body As Machine
6. Shattered Glass

Side B - Automaton:
7. Initialize
8. Next Subject
9. Endoscopy
10. Examination
11. Acceptance
12. You Belong To The Machine
13. Observation
14. Stretching / Invading
15. Who Is In Control
16 Subdue Yourself

Boy Harsher’s latest release, ‘The Runner (Original Soundtrack)’, is an exorcism.

Augustus Muller and Jae Matthews’ fifth release entitled ‘The Runner (Original Soundtrack)’ is not a traditional album. Rather, it is the soundtrack to a short film, also entitled ‘The Runner’. The film, written, produced, and directed by the duo, is a searching horror film, attached to a meta-style “documentary” about Boy Harsher’s recording process. The album includes several distinct components: cinematic arrangements, vocal features, and of course classic Boy Harsher dark pop.

Last year, in the midst of the obvious chaos (the global pandemic), but additionally with Jae’s MS diagnosis, Augustus started working on moody, cinematic sketches. It was uncertain what these pieces would become, other than catharsis. In Jae’s period of convalescence, she kept thinking about this sinister character: a woman running through the woods. Together, they developed this idea further into a film. They were unable to tour, a drastic (and isolating) shift in their career, and making ‘club music’ did not feel right. But there was so much they needed to get out. The next Boy Harsher release would be a reconciliation of this time. The album processes feelings of universal anxiety and the confrontation of at home illness. A necessary expulsion during a time of unrest.

The album opens with “Tower”. The only track on ‘The Runner (Original Soundtrack)’ that Boy Harsher has previously played live, but never recorded. The song is an incantation, with its pulsing synth and Jae’s begging vocals. A spell about desire and impending destruction. Jae asks 'But are you honest? Do you trust? You trust in me?' Questions answered by her desperate yells. It starts both the film and the soundtrack with a heavy presence.

Two songs on ‘The Runner (Original Soundtrack)’ feature vocalists other than Jae Matthews. He allows a distinct sound for both vocalists and really leans into the possibility of divergent genres. “Machina”, is a HI-NRG homage, performed by Mariana Saldaña of Boan, and “Autonomy” a new wave tribute, performed by Cooper B. Handy of Lucy. Augustus Muller fully embraces the soundtrack ethos, by creating fictional ‘bands’ to generate additional content.

‘The Runner (Original Soundtrack)’ is exactly what’s in the name: a soundtrack. At first the shape of the release was nebulous - yet once realized the album is dynamic. It serves as the story of the running figure and her musical accompaniment. Those expecting a traditional release will be surprised, but not disappointed.

STAFF COMMENTS

Mine says: Cold wave darlings Boy Harsher return with a new record as well as a horror film written, produced, and directed by the US duo. The accompanying soundtrack is everything you could want from a Boy Harsher album. Dark and mysterious, yet catchy and danceable, it is up there with some of their best work.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Tower
A2. Give Me A Reason
A3. Autonomy (Feat. Lucy - Cooper B. Handy)
A4. The Ride Home
B1. Escape
B2. Machina (Feat. Ms. BOAN - Mariana Saldaña)
B3. Untitled (Piano)
B4. I Understand

Lesser Man (Extended Version) is the first release of Boy Harsher`s imprint, Nude Club Records, originally released on cassette by Soft Science in (2014), and Night People (2015). The album was reissued by the infamous Berlin goth label aufnahme + wiedergabe in Nov 2017 on 500 copies, and sold out in less than two weeks. Remastered by Thomas P. Heckmann at Trope Mastering, Lesser Man (Extended Version) includes the dark wave hit, “Pain” and the unreleased track “Run” which was recorded during the Lesser Man session. LP version includes digital download code + 2 bonus tracks: “Pain (radio edit)” and “Pain (The Soft Moon Remix).”

TRACK LISTING

1. Lust
2. Modulations
3. Pain
4. Run
5. Crimea
6. Love
7. Spell
Bonus1. Pain (The Soft Moon Remix)**
Bonus 2. Pain (Radio Edit)**