Title: Toe Cleavage
Artist: Rita
Label: Urashima
Product Type: CASSETTES
UPC: 769791968585
Genre: Rock

With his flagship project, The Rita, Sam McKinlay has, for nearly two decades, explored and distilled into sound various permutations of fetish and vice. Recognized as the creator of wall noise, McKinlay's conceptual intent and the singular intensity of his focus established something novel and profound. McKinlay's compulsive reverence for noise is a fetish of sound. Frequently, McKinlay utilizes field recordings and other sounds sourced from the objects of interest before encrypting them in an opaque shell of noise. Listening to McKinlay's recordings, it's often difficult to determine whether one actually hears the sounds of the source material or if the power of suggestion is so strong that the listener extracts phantom sounds. In recent years, McKinlay has increasingly focused on the female form, particularly the modes of body augmentation that define classical femininity, such as make up, nylon stockings, etc. The progression of this focus culminated with the most archetypal projection of femininity in Western Culture: the ballerina, her feet, and her pointe shoes. The foot of a woman has long been identified as the most common source of unusual sexual preoccupation. Toe Cleavage is the most comprehensive expression of McKinlay's recent endeavors. For the uninitiated, the term "toe cleavage" refers to the display of the upper portions of toes in low cut shoes - an essential detail for many shoe designers. Across the seven tapes in this set, McKinlay, through his music, dissects, indulges, illustrates, and worships the feminine foot. To that end, McKinlay worked with Los Angeles based visual artist Olivia Burr and recording artist Kristin Hayter (Lingua Ignota). In addition to photographic contributions, Burr and Hayter provided much of the source material for McKinlay including: dance studio floor recordings; contact mic'd ballet shoes; and the repeated unboxing, unwrapping, trying on, walking in, and re-boxing of various designer shoes (Valentino, Miu Miu, etc.). Adding depth to the overall experience, McKinlay interspersed interludes throughout the recordings featuring audio samples derived from discussions and tutorials about pointe shoes, toe cleavage, and various designer ballet flat and stiletto reviews. This set of recordings is arguably McKinlay's most focused and obsessive effort to date and perfectly embodies the cultivated stylistic traits that have defined his work through the years. Seven-tape set come in a wooden box with a 16-page book, a colored poster, an insert drawn by Sam McKinlay in Ivory paper, and a sheet with notes. Edition of 99 (hand-numbered).

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