John Lacey / COUM Transmissions - Music For Stocking Top, Swing & Staircase (rec. 1974, rel. 2014)

Staying in the mid-70s today, but on a completely different aural/artistic tangent.  Captured here are 80 minutes of lo-fi cassette recording, taping segments of a 1974 performance by proto-Throbbing Gristle performance art group COUM Transmissions.  Despite the co-crediting of COUM on this archive release, Genesis, Cosey and Sleazy aren't actually audibly featured (unless they're among the voices intermittently heard in conversation during the second track - I couldn't be sure, definitely can't pick out Gen's distinctive accent).

This instead is the soundtrack to COUM's performance (one of their less extreme and more playful ones, IIRC - unfortunately I can't find my copy of Wreckers Of Civilisation at the moment to check, and Cosey's book doesn't mention it).  The electronic sounds were performed by John Lacey, or John Gunni Busck to give him his COUM name.  Lacey, son of robotic artist Bruce (see 'Mr Lacey' by Fairport Convention), would reunite with Chris and Cosey eight years later for the proto-techno project CTI (Creative Technology Institute, not to be confused with Creed Taylor International!), but here he's on his own, playing self-built synths.

The sounds that Lacey conjures up vary from queasy drones to rhythmic pulses to murky splodges of sound; despite the spartan recording quality, it's all very listenable and enjoyable in its own right if you like DIY electronica from this era.  In fact, the recording quality pairs well with the sonic textures if you consider this as a precursor to the early TG sound, which it very much sounds like.  Lacey's electronic work here is a very worthwhile and recommended adjunct to the COUM/TG story, and kudos to the label Other Ideas for releasing this in 2014 (they don't appear to still have the files for sale, and the only other release was a limited-edition LP of the longer track, so I guess it's all 'out of print' now).

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