The Torture Memos (2009)

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Torture Memos excerpts:
(no.5) Technique:

(no.6) Medical Personnel Are On The Scene:

(no.9) Self Defense:

“The galvanizing force is the concept: a song cycle based on the heinous torture memos which attempted to justify the Bush administration’s enhanced interrogation procedures. This fierce music sheds their first disc’s comparisons to Brian Eno, Philip Glass et al., while the full-bodied recording amps up the rhythm section’s belligerence.

The Torture Memos’ strong narrative, decoupled from predictable verse/chorus structures, makes for anxious listening. When phrases like “self defence” or “whatever it takes” are stretched out like taffy, they turn into great hooks — just as evil slogans should. And Kristin Mueller-Heaslip’s fraught, full-throttle operatic vocals are absolutely brilliant, exposing the brutality dulled by the jargon of the source material.”

David Dacks, Exclaim Magazine

When I read John Yoo et al.’s memos, a musical adaptation seemed obvious. The documents represent a legal effort to codify a particular darkness in the human soul while simultaneously manipulating language to disguise its real meaning: the mainstreaming of torture.

Music can get beneath the surface of words, give weight to the connective tissue between ideas, and both communicate and illuminate meaning. So our adaptation does not change a word of the original text, because try as they might, the cold light of day is all in there.

Music by Benjamin Mueller-Heaslip, lyrics by John Yoo and friends.

You can buy the record for $10 at iTunes or CD Baby.