THE RITA

[SS1535]

I have been meaning to watch this for a while---I guess I didn't miss much?

I really enjoyed it fwiw. I thought it was really well put together and I always like seeing where he goes next.

It's short anyway---I will definitely watch it nonetheless! Besides, hasn't The Rita always been related to fine/high concept art? I recall in the podcast interview that he did a lot of installation art before turning to noise?

[luciferjonez]

I have been meaning to watch this for a while---I guess I didn't miss much?

I really enjoyed it fwiw. I thought it was really well put together and I always like seeing where he goes next.

Without a doubt the filmwork was excellent. I think adult human nailed it for me.

[moozz]

Besides, hasn't The Rita always been related to fine/high concept art? I recall in the podcast interview that he did a lot of installation art before turning to noise?

If I listen to something like Sea Wolf Leviathan, Lake Depths Lurker, Thousands Of Dead Gods, Bodies Bear Traces Of Carnal Violence or such I don't hear much fine/high artsy stuff but just crushing harsh noise. Newer stuff is a completely different thing but I never got anything but a total harshness vibe from The Rita until the ballet stuff.

[SS1535]

Besides, hasn't The Rita always been related to fine/high concept art? I recall in the podcast interview that he did a lot of installation art before turning to noise?

If I listen to something like Sea Wolf Leviathan, Lake Depths Lurker, Thousands Of Dead Gods, Bodies Bear Traces Of Carnal Violence or such I don't hear much fine/high artsy stuff but just crushing harsh noise. Newer stuff is a completely different thing but I never got anything but a total harshness vibe from The Rita until the ballet stuff.

True---some of those even predate the full-on HNW---not to mention the strange minimalism he now finds himself at, at least to my ears? I guess I was more speaking in biographical terms, of where he came from before making noise.

[holy ghost]

I have been meaning to watch this for a while---I guess I didn't miss much?

I really enjoyed it fwiw. I thought it was really well put together and I always like seeing where he goes next.

It's short anyway---I will definitely watch it nonetheless! Besides, hasn't The Rita always been related to fine/high concept art? I recall in the podcast interview that he did a lot of installation art before turning to noise?

I view Sam’s work as “art” without the pretentiousness typically attached to the concept of “art”. I am in Copenhagen atm and saw an installation in the national galley attaching electrodes to a ballerina to control her movements and this could have easily been influenced by Sam. It this had a “gallery” aesthetic where Sam's work is “high brow” but remains entrenched in noise.

[SS1535]

I really enjoyed it fwiw. I thought it was really well put together and I always like seeing where he goes next.

It's short anyway---I will definitely watch it nonetheless! Besides, hasn't The Rita always been related to fine/high concept art? I recall in the podcast interview that he did a lot of installation art before turning to noise?

I view Sam’s work as “art” without the pretentiousness typically attached to the concept of “art”. I am in Copenhagen atm and saw an installation in the national galley attaching electrodes to a ballerina to control her movements and this could have easily been influenced by Sam. It this had a “gallery” aesthetic where Sam's work is “high brow” but remains entrenched in noise.

High-brow but rooted in noise seems like a very good descriptor of his current work---though the same could be said for Black Leather Jesus on the tour going on now, giving noise performances as a background for a runway show.

[adult human]

The Rita is compelling because it does two things at once. It draws from art world treatment of subject - in this case sound - and inserts that methodology into a distinct underground subculture known as harsh noise. His obsession with crushing walls and lines or whatever is absolutely equivalent to visual art movements, for example, that would seek to strip back photography, film or painting into the most basic, blunt expressions of tone and colour. At the same time, the presentation of these subcultural outputs is always rerouted back through an aesthetic strategy which comfortably fits into a series of far broader art world discourses. In situating himself within the deepest layers of strict harsh noise aesthetic boundaries he seeks to demonstrate the level on which it all operates as pure conceptual art. It's both things at once yet never too much one or the other. Simply put, he's an obsessional fan of harsh noise with the ability to articulate that mania in terms greater than the swamp he dwells in. An educated thug.

Which is why I'm ok with it when his albums are shit and underwhelming. Right now he's probably the only guy trying to operate on this level and so I'll take it in spite of its failures. It's perhaps worth thinking a bit about how this approach was at one point far more common, even if in radically different forms. Noise existed within a radically varied culture that consumed a wide range of audio, visual and conceptual art forms, expressing them within a zero audience, zero budget context. It may be an easier thing to identify these days in retrospect than back in the day, but really the 'high brow' shit has been written into this artform since day one. The outlier nature of the Rita in today's conversation perhaps speaks to how diluted a lot of that original creative impulse has become as well as it does to the undeniable aesthetic vision of Sam McKinlay.

[Happiness, forever]

Sam is an educated thug!! Yes!!! An Art School Brute, riding thru the halls of academia on his skateboard or bmx, Black Flag to Big Black in his headphones, dressed in all black, thinking abt Giallo films and scuba-diving and knives and sharks and knifing sharks while scuba diving, watching Giallo after. Ha!

[SS1535]

The Rita is compelling because it does two things at once. It draws from art world treatment of subject - in this case sound - and inserts that methodology into a distinct underground subculture known as harsh noise. His obsession with crushing walls and lines or whatever is absolutely equivalent to visual art movements, for example, that would seek to strip back photography, film or painting into the most basic, blunt expressions of tone and colour. At the same time, the presentation of these subcultural outputs is always rerouted back through an aesthetic strategy which comfortably fits into a series of far broader art world discourses. In situating himself within the deepest layers of strict harsh noise aesthetic boundaries he seeks to demonstrate the level on which it all operates as pure conceptual art. It's both things at once yet never too much one or the other. Simply put, he's an obsessional fan of harsh noise with the ability to articulate that mania in terms greater than the swamp he dwells in. An educated thug.

Which is why I'm ok with it when his albums are shit and underwhelming. Right now he's probably the only guy trying to operate on this level and so I'll take it in spite of its failures. It's perhaps worth thinking a bit about how this approach was at one point far more common, even if in radically different forms. Noise existed within a radically varied culture that consumed a wide range of audio, visual and conceptual art forms, expressing them within a zero audience, zero budget context. It may be an easier thing to identify these days in retrospect than back in the day, but really the 'high brow' shit has been written into this artform since day one. The outlier nature of the Rita in today's conversation perhaps speaks to how diluted a lot of that original creative impulse has become as well as it does to the undeniable aesthetic vision of Sam McKinlay.

Reminds me of this great article that Mikko wrote: https://special-interests.net/main/iconic-surfaces/

[Happiness, forever]

Mike McKinlay made the film. He’s Sam’s brother. He is quite talented and has built a very strong résumé, yep

[Bubble-Congeries]

Sam is an educated thug!! Yes!!! An Art School Brute, riding thru the halls of academia on his skateboard or bmx, Black Flag to Big Black in his headphones, dressed in all black, thinking abt Giallo films and scuba-diving and knives and sharks and knifing sharks while scuba diving, watching Giallo after. Ha!

[holy ghost]

The outlier nature of the Rita in today's conversation perhaps speaks to how diluted a lot of that original creative impulse has become as well as it does to the undeniable aesthetic vision of Sam McKinlay.

You make some great points and articulate them far better than I could! I think this above statement is really spot on - Sam has been consistently doing this for longer than most, bringing a really hyper focused aesthetic and dedication to harsh noise that few others are able to do. He’s also been able to evolve that aesthetic (sound, visuals, concept, etc) in a way that’s kept my attention over the years.

[holy ghost]

Reminds me of this great article that Mikko wrote: https://special-interests.net/main/iconic-surfaces/

I’d never seen this before! Thanks for the link.

[SS1535]

Reminds me of this great article that Mikko wrote: https://special-interests.net/main/iconic-surfaces/

I’d never seen this before! Thanks for the link.

I wish he would write more essays!

[holy ghost]

Picked up the Correlations book and WOW - really wonderful!! Just a really perfect visual companion to his work. I haven’t had a chance to read the written stuff but it really looks fantastic.

I’m very curious to see what’s on the reissue of The Rack (Expanded) and “The Rack Sessions” from Handmade Birds. I really loved that label and I’m really happy they’re back.

[Bleak Existence]

How many written pages there inside this 85$ book ?

[Scream & Writhe]

How many written pages there inside this 85$ book ?

About 50/200.

[Bleak Existence]

That's cool & look good.

[k.p.g]

Actually must add Reptilian Corpse and Dirt to this chat now that I have heard it. Really weird release for Sam, even back during that very harsh period.

carry on...

[garrison_keillor]

Actually must add Reptilian Corpse and Dirt to this chat now that I have heard it. Really weird release for Sam, even back during that very harsh period.

Was unaware this existed, just listened to it, mad decent. Had I heard side A not knowing it was the Rita I doubt I would have ever guessed it was in fact the Rita, largely for structural reasons.

[Scream & Writhe]

BLACK AIR - Paris LP (Urashima, 2010)
KAY LAWRENCE - Gills Cut Into Women LP (Urashima, 2011)
THE RITA - Gamzatti LP (Total Black, 2014)
THE RITA / ALO GIRL LP (Urashima, 2009)
WEREWOLF JERUSALEM / THE RITA / VOMIR - Threesome Slitting LP (Total Black, 2018 - recorded 2014)

Wound up with a stack of McKinlays while going through some stuff to purge and spent part of the day with them. Most (these) are staying. A surprising spread of diversity over roughly five years (2009-2014), with some of the earlier entries (the two collabs with Mr. Urashima - THE RITA/ALO GIRL, and KAY LAWRENCE) bearing more resemblance to the hyper-focused sounds of McKinlay's current efforts than the others in between. The BLACK AIR - Paris LP (Ashworth/McKinlay) is phenomenal HN purity and shouldn't have gone unplayed for as long as it has here.

[informalreleases]

a few weeks back i had the chance to see his and Lorelei's performance here in Paris, in a 16th/17th century old dancing school (followed the next day by The Rita, Vomir and Lorelei's collab in a much less fancy bar). i think of The Rita in terms of cohesiveness and this performance was incredibly coherent. it felt similar to Ballard/Cronenberg's Crash, an entire world being reorganised by/around fetish, 20+ years of obsession in about 30 minutes of performance.