[5][6] The technique consists of using a portable tape recorder to record audio of the target location, then revisiting the location over a number of days and playing back the audio at low or subliminal levels.
[7][5] Burroughs described the effect as "recording the target’s own base shittiness, and then playing it back to him at subliminal levels.
"[7] I have frequently observed that this simple operation making recordings and taking pictures of some location you wish to discommode or destroy, then playing recordings back and taking more pictures - will result in accidents, fires, removals, especially the last.
[7] Burroughs himself discussed his use of the playback technique to lay a curse of the Moka Coffee Bar: Here is a sample operation carried out against the Moka Bar at 29 Frith Street, London, W1, beginning on August 3, 1972.
[8]Burroughs enhanced the basic technique over time, splicing "trouble noises" into the recordings – "recordings of alarm bells, breaking glass, fire engines, as well as sound effects of explosions, machineguns, and riots recorded from TV" – and combining it with the technique of cutting out the image of the intended target from photographs, with the hope of literally removing the target from existence.