*Limited to 50 comes along an exclusive black t-shirt in chain-spun cotton with white monochrome print with the original artwork by Sam McKinlay * With his flagship project based in Canada, The Rita, Sam McKinlay has explored and distilled into sound various permutations of obsession and vice for over five lustrums. Though his musical approach has remained more or less consistent, the subject matter inspiring McKinlay's work has periodically shifted through the years, mapping out the constellation of non-musical obsessions that occupy his mind: sharks, drag racing, Giallo cinema, skateboarding, snorkeling, nylons, ballet and female to name just a few. Frequently, McKinlay utilizes field recordings and other sounds sourced from the objects of interest before encrypting them in an opaque shell of noise.
For The Rita, the abstraction and minimalism of the female form has played a major role in the fetishized development of his source sounds and harsh sound manipulations. Eye shadow and eyebrow pencil pushed to raccoon-like limits and nylon stockings have been used repeatedly in past recordings to personally investigate via harsh sound the abstracted qualities of the aesthetics. For this completely new work utilizing aspects of the female as starting point, The Rita picks apart all leg and foot medical taping / bandaging source sounds by Gabi Losoncy. The various portrayals of the invisible woman in popular media and her choice to be wrapped in medical bandage to represent her otherwise invisible bodily form. The taping and bandaging are articulated and applied in such a way to envision the woman's form in a linear fashion, not unlike contour lines on a map. The predatory nature of her invisibility is tightly cloaked in bandage form.
The Bandage Dress: "...Leger mulled over what to do with the long strips of waste fabric he found discarded in a textiles factory. To create the dress, narrow elastic fabric strips were sewn together horizontally, often with additional 'bandages' deployed to emphasize the swelling curves of the hips and the bust. ...for whom the exaggerated femininity and ostentatious sexiness signaled a rekindled-cultural desire to reform and deform women's bodies."
Nefertari's Mummified Knees: "An analytical chemistry analysis of the materials used to mummify the knees suggests that they belonged to someone at the very highest strata of ancient society. They'd been mummified to a very high standard using the most costly of ingredients. Very careful wrapping, a lot of attention to detail."