Kill Me Tomorrow – The Garbageman and the Prostitute

Tomorrow You Will Die By Noise

The Garbageman and the Prostitute opens with a twenty-six-second-long electronic shriek that pinches the part of the brain that reminds us why it’s bad to chew on tin foil. It is the warning shot for Kill Me Tomorrow’s imminent assault on the eardrums. Or rather, it is simply a warning sign to the cautious listener. TGatP is a noise expo where Zack Wentz’s convulsive drumming and muted vocals, along with K8 Wince’s eerie, repetitious back-up vocals, are joined by an array of abrasive synth effects and looping electronics. The result is a band that one would be hard pressed to find a comparable sound. Though an accompanying DVD adds complementing visuals to four of the tracks, the music is more than capable of holding its own.
With “I Require Chocolate,” a certain level of insanity begins to well up in the album. It courses through “Hot Head” and “Black Shifties,” and boils over in the nerve grinding “Chart of You.” When everything seems set to tear itself apart, Kill Me Tomorrow delivers TGatP’s self-titled track, which taps into the tension that has built up throughout the album. Wentz’s creepy narrative lyrics only add to the music’s disconcerting atmosphere, with the solitary voice on “Tell Me About Your Mother” describing how a homeless person digging in his garbage turned out to be his mother.

After a first run through the album, certain moments blur together as you try to digest the bombardment of auditory stimuli. But get through it. Listen to it again. You will either enjoy it as the randomness begins to take shape, or detest it as the noise grates on your nerves.