Send "Throbbing Gristle " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Pitchfork |
 "Yea yea twist again better than we did last summer, laughing in the face of all rock and roll historians collectors revivalists purists inquisition members puritans bores creeps and not forgetting the fussy midgets with obscene hairdos." So wrote Claude Bessy in the liner notes to Throbbing Gristle's Greatest Hits, one of the five classic Throbbing Gristle albums Industrial Records have just reissued, and which now sit upon my desk, uncanny and accusatory, over 30 years after that pre-emptive fit of snark. Throbbing Gristle were never meant to be reliable, but here they come again, ready to be harvested by the very culture industry they alternately solicited and spat upon so long ago.Permit me to adjust my obscene hairdo and offer those of you not already in the know some history: In their first incarnation as the Death Factory, they were the house band for Coum Transmissions, an abject performance-art troupe whose presentation of used tampons, anal syringes, and pornography featuring band member Cosey Fanny Tutti in the ICA gallery for their "Prostitution" show in 1976 earned them tabloid infamy and denunciations in Parliament as "wreckers of civilization." So far, so punk. But the music of the Death Factory, soon re-named Throbbing Gristle after a Yorkshire slang term for an erection, was a horse of a different color: "industrial music for industrial people," a dystopian, negative form of what the band itself called "post-psychedelic trash."...full text |
| Blogcritics |
| The remaining nine tracks are group efforts, recorded at various locations. “Death Threats” is a bit of frivolity from a deranged female “fan,” who seems quite convinced that the British Empire would be best served by the collective murder of TG. The band’s sense of humor remains intact on “United.” This was the single released between the first and second albums. Usually in a case like this, a group would include the single on their next record. TG bowed to convention by putting “United” on D.O.A., albeit in a speeded-up, 16-second version. “Hamburger Lady” was inspired by a letter describing a burn victim (absolutely gruesome both musically and lyrically). The title track, “Walls Of Sound,” and “Blood On The Floor” stretch the boundaries of what is or is not “pop” music more than anything the band recorded before or since. The second CD in this special reissue package contains live material recorded in 1978, the year D.O.A. was originally released. Two live versions of album tracks are included, “Hamburger Lady” and “I.B.M.” There is also a treatment of Second Annual Report’s “After Cease To Exist,” titled “New After Cease To Exist Soundtrack.” Other onstage highlights include the powerful tracks “Industrial Muzak” and “Cabaret Voltaire.” The 11-cut second CD closes with their non-LP single of 1978 “We Hate You (Little Girls)” b/w “Five Knuckle Shuffle.” The five Industrial Records albums that have been reissued as special double-CD editions are The Second Annual Report (1977), D.O.A. (1978), 20 Jazz Funk Greats (1979), Heathen Earth Live (1980), and Greatest Hits (1981). Of these, their second (perversely subtitled Third And Final Report) is the most harrowing and powerful (not to mention disturbing) of the bunch. Although at the time, TG were mistakenly lumped in with the punk movement, they never had anything in common with the safety -pin set....full text |
| Sputnikmusic |
| Some people say that The Beatles or Led Zeppelin or Elvis invented rock'n'roll. But to say such a thing for a genre as diverse as rock'n'roll would be foolish. However, when it comes to the origins of the british noise/art movement known as Industrial, there can be no mistake that Throbbing Gristle were the first: they made the sound, they formed the label, hell they even came up with the word. The Second Annual Report of Throbbing Gristle is neither an annual report nor a second one. The "formal report" approach to the album is a satire on the "industrial" world of 70s london in which the band formed. That said, on SAR, the band (transvestite Genesis P-orridge, technology freak Peter "Sleazy" Christopherson, and "junkie hangers on" Cosey Fanni-Tutti and Chris Carter) take their lack of musical knowledge and turn it on the listener from the first listen. On "Slug Bait" (the first one), a slowly pulsing drone is matched by waning sirens as a decidedly creepy Genesis P-orridge describes a home invasion to the pregnant woman whos husband he is mutilating, in his gentle but indifferent monotone that makes such later TG tracks such as "Hamburger Lady" so eerie. Its time to check your cd liner notes. Yes, this album did come out just 12 months after the skyrocket success of punk in london. When "god save the queen" was the most offensive thing on earth, Genesis and co. were 'singing' of eating babies. The following 2 tracks are live tracks of "Slug Bait", neither of which greatly resemble the first track at all. All distorted car sounds and radio samples, the two tracks are more experiments in aleatoric instrumentation than alternate takes on a TG classic. The same technique is used for Maggot Death, with the first version being the 'definer' track, comprised of reverb-laden knob-turning and gasping, howling vocal tyrades, climaxing in a sea of white noise. The next three versions of Maggot Death are just experiments under the same name, with Maggot Death (2) and (3) each under the 1:40 mark. As a matter of technicality, (3) is just Chris Carter swearing at the crowd at the Rat Club, calling them "ignorant ***heads" before a brief punk-break (clearly provided by another band) ends the track....full text |
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