Friday, August 25, 2017

Toarch - This is Me [Bill Murray Tapes]

From Dallas, TX label Bill Murray Tapes comes This is Me by Toarch, a brief 3" CDr and zine combo release (8 minutes/24 pages). It features a zine filled with photos of serial killers and occasional text, while the disc is intended to provide a soundtrack while the zine is leafed through.
I'm not up on my serial killers, or at least their faces, so without the label description I may not have known the ugly mugs littering the pages belong to serial murders (other than a couple pages which makes things pretty explicit). The intent of the zine is to contextualize the serial killers differently (from "glorification from Goregrind bands and such") and to reveal their vulnerabilities. Some pages achieve this better than others (namely the text accompanying a face relaying the common everyday enjoyment of listening to the radio and reading newspapers). Though I'm not necessarily familiar with serial killers' portrayals by Goregrind bands, so it's quite possible I am missing the point. That said, your mileage will probably vary based on how interesting you find violent white dudes.
Aurally, This is Me is heavy heavy heavy on the low frequencies. It's hard to make out exactly what's in play, it's likely electronic in origin (perhaps with a filter cutting out all but the bass frequencies). There is a certain texture, however, that seems like it could be a bowed bass (electric or otherwise) perhaps that's the source material before electronic processing. The track isn't particularly dynamic over the course of its 8 minute run time but it does have presence, which was its goal in the first place as it is supposed enhance the readers experience with the zine. But if you're one of those sonic texture hounds like me you'll probably dig it.
If you're interested the disc/zine is available from Bill Murray Tapes

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