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Music by The Doll

Bog Roll Doll

The Doll (she/her/doll) has been making no-fi sounds since 2004. She likes to augment her vocals with contact mics, balloons, magnetic tape, percussion junk, garbage from the side of the road, horns, household appliances, a T-Pain mic, & field recordings. She enjoys Cool Edit Pro on an XP craptop.

The Doll played in Seattle bands TBA & PUNTERS (noise improv), Auckland band Septithe (BBQ Doom), London-based tujuh kuda (noisy ambient transmissions) & Toxic Octopus (wonderful psychedelic audio intoxications), and Taranaki-based Unknown Tofu (improvised percussion). Her US/Aotearoa collective noise project, Contact Mike, co-founded with Biled Will and Unknown Rockstar, has over 40 band members aged 14 months and up. As Corporal Tofulung she runs Dubbed Tapes, a tiny label that recycles old tapes by hand-dubbing new sounds over exisiting albums sourced from charity shops, dump shops, & trademe. Also as Corporal Tofulung she deejayed at Hollow Earth Radio (Seattle) and Threads* Radio (Berlin).

"The Doll can be constituted by mixing 3 parts experiment, 4 parts noise, 1 part ritual, and 2 parts theatre, with a pinch of space dust." - Alt Music.

"This is not just a normal doll, but The Doll. An artist of the kind that isn’t one to be told what to do, stands strong on her own legs and does whatever she enjoys and wants to do." - Yeah I Know It Sucks.

"This EP starts with some fine ‘Video piracy’ which comes delightfully at us like an old screwed up VHS tape featuring some classic mayhem-worthy-hits that got all mingled up as it’s been eaten in the tape recorder. It doesn’t sound bad at all, in fact the urge to cheer it on as the tape recorder eats the tape feels bigger than life! I could close my eyes and enjoy the fantasy of the tape all being eaten, stuck and being screwed up. I guess it is the sound of nostalgia, a happening that the new generation probably might never enjoy in real life – a sad thing as who doesn’t enjoy the physical failures of such things? It’s much more fun than having to deal with an software error, a failing hard disk or an overheated telephone. In any case The Doll started this Bunny Girl release strong with this case of sentiment and glitchy business." - Yeah I Know It Sucks. Review of Bunny Girl 3" cdr.

"The Doll is another noisesome New Zealander, one of whose stocks in trade is called diapercore. On her 'multi-instrumental' side there's moaning, trombonic tooting, long drawn aether slips and lots more bonkerism." - Size Matters. Review of 1974 8" lathe.

"It's not easy for me to imagine someone other than The Doll creating these types of sounds- where you can't distinguish what it is and how it feels like two completely different things at the same time, two things which you don't think should maybe go together but somehow when The Doll does it, it just works. Also, typing about The Doll like this makes me feel like The Doll is like The Rock in that way. But yes, this is what makes The Doll so special and why you should be listening to this music-- it does what no one else can." - Raised by Tapes. Review of Hiss cassette.

"The Doll manipulates sound – that’s a given! – but these field recordings tell a story grounded in everyday events, in real life, in the physical world around us that we can touch and feel and embrace – and pop! Throughout “Hiss,” during which there’s a lot of the titular sonic flourish, The Doll observes, records, and reflects, flashing commentary on the disposability of objects through the sound associated with them." - Cassette Gods. Review of Hiss cassette.

"Sounds escaping from time. Like watch dogs or guards, recording devices are positioned on make shift perimeters. There is no struggle, sonic patterns are captured on magnetic tape or in binary form. This aural pool is full of all noises, initial vanguard cacophony sacrificed without hesitation. Soon the instruments used to keep the Hiss contained within a specific time frame will reach capacity. The machines will begin to frizzle and wail in their own mechanical way. Creating more sounds, new notes, bleeps and blurps to join the departing throng." - Lost in a sea of sound. Review of Hiss cassette.

""The Doll is a secretly great sonic moniker (soniker?) because it completely guards against assumptions of what an artist called The Doll sounds like. Some iteration of "doll" I would have at least had a hint. The Babydolls? Doll Face? Doll Eyes? The New Jersey Dolls? But just The Doll? I had no fucking clue. Literally no ideas popped into my head. The red bubblewrap cover didn't prod me in any direction either. Now Hiss was potentially a proper clue, but I don't know, maybe after all this it's just neo-post-neo-nü-shügaze?" - Auxiliary Out. Review of Hiss cassette.

"Last year this label brought us the weird and wonderfulTonal Rotors by Patrick Cosmos. This is also weird and wonderful, but in different ways. I take it the track titles ('Bubblewrap', 'Static', 'Radiator') have something to do with their creation, but it's hard to tell. I tweeted that 'Static' gave me Twin Peaks: The Return vibes, and the artist responded "Aaah the sweet sounds of a '96 Toyota Starlet..." Noise, but with a sense of humour." - bandcloud. Review of Hiss cassette.

"Of course the scruffy warm experimental sounds, coming from the eccentric fuzziness of the Doll experimenting is a big part of what makes these tracks, but it’s these vocal performances that makes them stand like a house on a dusty foundering." - Yeah I Know It Sucks. Review of 28 Till Now digital.

"Described as "#diapercore" I was not sure what to expect with this one either and, well, it didn't disappoint. Ringing, laser glitches and crashes all begin things and they sound together like an engine revving up. Talking is buried back in there somewhere too. Laser whooshes change the pace into the idea of a spaceship taking off. Crackling static has forced me to create a new word- harsharpness: a combination of harshness and sharpness. As I think the side might be coming to a close, it instead begins to come through in waves. Fading static turns to drilling and then there are some skips. It sounds kind of like an airport." - Raised by Tapes. Review of Rash cassette.

"Using the crudest techniques imaginable, [The Doll] collages tapes of various known songs with the sounds of urination, faux-bells and various other crap, creating a truly messy mélange. Punker than you? Why, yes it is!" - Size Matters. Review of Down with Noddy cassette.