by Ian MacPhee
Content Warning: The album being reviewed is the score to a play that focuses heavily on suicide. Therefore, suicide is discussed in the review.
It’s not often that the score from a DIY play is able to survive on its own, detached from the original work the music was created for. In 2010, Washington D.C.’s Taffety Punk Theater Company premiered the dance play suicide.chat.room, which addressed the cultures of online chatrooms where members openly discussed suicide, suicide pacts, and other topics of this nature. Ten years later, the previously unreleased score by Beauty Pill, Sorry You’re Here, was finally made public. The score created by Chad Clark, the mind behind Beauty Pill, feels cold and dystopic, yet is delicate, human, and holds its own as a powerful piece of music about a difficult topic.
Sorry You’re Here is remarkably complex. Sharp electronic noise cuts through flowing, melodic textures, creating a dense collage of mood and emotion. Acoustic instruments and organic sounds are used sparingly, and are processed to the point that they’re only subtle reminders of the humans behind the music. The overall production of the score is impressive, and manages to sound innovative and fresh despite the decade long gap since its creation.
“Valuable Experience No. 2” stands out on the release. During the piece, an anonymous woman explicitly describes her thoughts on death and suicide. Loosely sourced from the web pages and forums that inspired suicide.chat.room, the message shared in the piece is brutally honest. Ambient pads emerge beneath the confessional speech, and the vocals are layered, off-kilter, and shifting, giving the impression that the speaker’s thoughts may be echoed by many.
Beauty Pill’s Sorry You’re Here is a cinematic score that refuses to be pigeonholed. It’s sound is heavy and moving, and offers something new with each listen. Divorced from Taffety Punk’s message and play, the album stands on its own as a unique, experimental work of art.