The Caretaker (musician)

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The Caretaker
Birth name	James Kirby
Also known as	Billy Ray Cyrix, Butcher Claus, Butcher Claws, CV[ev], Dr. Fred, Edgeley Musher, The, Leon And Hits, MC V/Vm, Notorious P.I.G., The, Pole (disputed), Stranger, The, V/Vm Allstar Marching Band, V/Vm And The Hog Chorus, V/Vm With Garry's Glitter
Born	1974
Origin	Stockport, England
Genre(s)	Experimental music noise music sound collage
Instrument(s)	computer, sampler, turntable
Years active	1996 to present
Label(s)	V/Vm Test Records
Website	Official site

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The Caretaker is a long running project by electronic musician James Kirby alongside his more infamous project V/Vm. The Caretaker creates dusty and forgotten memories, echoes and vibrations from the past. Using as source, recordings from the 1920's and 1930's era of Ballroom music. Often painful and desolate memories, recalled and replayed from beyond the grave of our senses. In amongst this darkness lies the solace of a semi-recognisable melody or phrase, a beacon of light in this often dark and distant ocean of haunted recalled audio.

The Caretaker releases the majority of his work on the V/Vm Test Records label.

Initially the project was inspired by the haunted ballroom scene in the Stanley Kubrick film The Shining (film).

Recently The Caretaker has shifted attention onto the processes of the brain's function in recalling memories. This has been typified by the monumental release 'Theoretically pure anterograde amnesia' which was released in 2005 as a series of 72 free MP3 downloads. In 2006 this was pressed up as a limited edition 6cd boxset. Those who suffer from 'theoretically pure anterograde amnesia' will still be able to recall memories laid down before the onset of anterograde amnesia, but will exist in a transient world where anything beyond their immediate attention-span disappears permanently from their consciousness. The release itself found much critical acclaim it was record of the week in Stylus Magazine [1]), received a favourable review in grooves magazine [2]) and was given an honorary mention at the ARS Technica awards for Digital Musics in Austria, 2007 [3])

Older works have received critical acclaim in publications as diverse as Russian Playboy and the BBC [4]) and the project was a favourite of legendary BBC Radio host John Peel who regularly played audio by The Caretaker on his shows.