If you aren’t already burning up enough during this scorching heatwave, Boy Harsher’s Augustus Muller has announced a brand new album and along with it, two hot new singles. For this brilliant new body of work, Muller teams up with Four Chambers, the project of experimental pornographer Vex Ashley. Making its debut on the first of September under the umbrella of the Boy Harsher’s in-house label, Nude Club Records, the Cellulosed Bodies (Original Score) promises a tantalizing tapestry of tunes borrowed from this new wave of avant-garde adult cinema.
The first single is the sultry sonic narrative of “Fur and Metal,” which is woven into the fabric of Crash, featuring both Sadie and Velvet taking center stage in the gorgeous video accompanying the intriguing instrumental.
(You might want to bookmark these to watch at home as these steamy visualizers are NSFW!)
The second single is the tension-imbued tonalities of “Stretching/Invading,” which color the backdrop of “Automaton,” where Daisy and Miss Marilyn lend their provocative performances, embodying a contemporary queer EBM, industrial, quasi-Thunderdome style.
Crash, is a 1996 film based on JG Ballard’s novella and directed by David Cronenberg. It explores the eroticism of car crashes, blending the mechanical and the morbid, the metallic and the macabre, with the sensual extremities of a beyond-taboo fetish. This harshly contrasting duality of sensations serves as the keystone of Muller’s inspiration. Conversely, Automaton blossoms from the solitary confinement the pandemic wrought, metamorphosing many into digital addicts. Ashley’s narrative peels back the layers of our obsession with techno-eroticism in this sci-fi-laced adult film, featuring a stern computer entity and captive, slowly surrendering to euphoria. Contrary to Crash, Muller eschews the ‘industrial’ in favor of synthetic instrumentation for Automaton.
Crash and Automaton serve as the perfect soundboards, showcasing Muller’s skill with the stark and the mechanical. Yet, with their cold, rigid lines, these aural works form only the base of Muller’s hypnotic soundscapes. In a deft twist, he infuses his works with elements of the club scene — the energetic throb of “nu disco” and the soft whispers of vocal samples. This novel direction complements the films’ exploration of the ‘body converging with the machine’ theme. Each chord and beat offers a narrative, echoing the tawdry tales unfolding on the screen.
Cellulosed Bodies is out on September 1, 2023
Boy Harsher Tour Dates
- Tue. Jul. 18 – Riga, LV @ VEF Kvartals
- Thu. Jul. 20 – Cluj Napoca, RO @ Electric Castle Festival
- Fri. Jul. 21 – Leeds, UK @ Project House %
- Sat. Jul. 22 – Stuttgart, DE @ About Pop Festival
- Thu. Aug. 3 – Chula Vista, CA – North Island Credit Union Amphitheater #
- Sat. Aug. 5 – Irvine, CA – FivePoint Amphitheatre #
% = w/ THE KVB
# = w/ Danny Elfman
