Augustus Muller (aka Gus of Boy Harsher) teams up with experimental pornographer Four Chambers to release Cellulosed Bodies (Original Score), a new album featuring two scores — Crash and Automaton — out September 1st via Nude Club Records. Today, Muller presents a track from each score: the driving “Fur and Metal” and the looming, suspense-filled “Stretching / Invading.” Cellulosed Bodies marks another thrilling entry in Muller’s score catalog, following Boy Harsher’s 2022 album, The Runner (Original Soundtrack). 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.
Four Chambers is the project of experimental pornographer Vex Ashley, a cultural phenom known for his filmmaking and photography. Both scores serve as accompaniments to films released by Ashley last year through Four Chambers.
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. Automaton experiments came from the isolation brought upon the pandemic, which turned many into digital fiends. Ashley explores the fixation of technological intimacy, with Automaton, 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 Automaton, 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. 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
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