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Augustus Muller (Boy Harsher)

Cellulosed Bodies (Original Score)

    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

    The Runner (OST) - 2023 Reissue

      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


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