Throbbing Gristle - Journey Through A Body (rec. 1981, first rel. 1982)

The final studio recording from TG's initial existence, Journey Through A Body was recorded in Rome over a week in March 1981 at the invitation of RAI radio studio, and released the following year, by which time of course 'the mission was terminated'.  In retrospect, and especially before the 2004-9 reunion, it became an intriguing what-might've-been had TG stuck around a few more years.

Kicking off with a fascinating 15-minute chunk of medical sound art that swapped the burns unit of Hamburger Lady for the maternity ward, the second track was more intriguing still.  Again with the benefit of hinsight, Catholic Sex (dedicated to the then 18-year-old Paula Brooking, who would become Mrs P-Orridge three months later) sounds like early Chris & Cosey fighting early Psychic TV to a draw and creating a strong, distinctive track in the process, proving that there could've been life yet in the parent band.

Cover from Mute CD reissue, 1993

The second half of Journey Through A Body, though, goes to perhaps the most uncharacteristic sonic plane of all, due to Chris Carter opting for acoustic piano throughout for perhaps the only time in his career (Certainly that I'm aware of; I haven't heard his & Cosey's entire ouput by a long chalk).  Exotic Functions wasn't that big a surprise for those who'd heard 20 Jazz Funk Greats, but what does make a difference is how sincere and fully-realised a Martin Denny tribute these mostly non-musicians managed to pull off this time around.  Violencia (The Bullet) sounds a bit more like traditional TG, but the crashing piano is still an oddity, as is the album's epilogue Oltre La Morte, presumably performed by Carter alone.  Would another album this good have been preferable to Heartbeat and Force The Hand Of Chance?  Who knows.  I'm still glad we have Dreams Less Sweet, though, by which time it might've definitely been time for the TG mission to be terminated.

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Previously posted at SGTG: In The Shadow Of The Sun

Psychic TV - Dreams Less Sweet (1983)

Should probably use this week for posting anything Christmassy that I have... no matter how tangential...  What's that song that goes 'Santa Claus is checking his list, going over it twice; to see who is naughty and who is nice'?  Oh yeah, it's Psychic TV.  Any excuse to post the greatest stone-cold (yup, bits of it were recorded in a cave) classic of the post-industrial 80s, Coil notwithstanding - and of course, the core Coil duo were still in the PTV fold at this point, making for an unbeatable supergroup.

I remember listening to White Nights for ages before finding out where that refrain quoted above comes from - it was taught to the children of Jonestown to instill paranoia by the Reverend Jim himself, and all the other lyrics were taken from his horrific final address.  Aside from a cherubic choral rendition of a Manson Family ditty, this was the darkest, and perversely most melodic depths that were plumbed on what was once brilliantly described as 'the Sgt. Pepper of icky music' - wish I could remember what magazine I read that in - and the rest is pretty listenable and accessible stuff considering the roll call of contributors. 

Based around oboe and Reichian marimba, The Orchids is simply gorgeous, one of my favourite songs of all time, and a good chunk of Dreams Less Sweet is the most musically ambitious stuff GPO ever put his mind to - aided in no small part by arranger Andrew Poppy.  19 tracks, many of them fascinating little fragments, zip by in a tight, coherent 43 minutes, and remain a huge high-watermark in the post-TG fallout and in dark, twisted 'England's Hidden Reverse' creepiness in general.  Essential alchemical musick.

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Throbbing Gristle - In The Shadow Of The Sun (rec. 1980, first rel. 1984)

Been thinking about doing a TG post for the last few days since mentioning Chris Carter in relation to Pyrolator.  Everything TG recorded between 1975 and 1981 (I've become increasingly ambivalent as to whether they should've even bothered reuniting) invigorates and refreshes me like a cold shower every time I dig them out, if cold showers were capable of breaking down every established notion of what music, sound and art should and can do.

CD reissue cover art

Which album/live disc to post though?  This is the one I come back to over and over again if I'm looking for the most satisfying experience of TG playing together as a group to create a sustained atmosphere.  In The Shadow Of The Sun was a film by Derek Jarman, which repurposed various sections of film he'd amassed earlier in the 70s into a slowed-down, overlapping soup of dreamlike formlessness.  TG were called upon to provide a soundtrack, and recorded the perfect one for the film - an hour's worth of dark ambience that drifts, clangs and howls like some unknowable occult ritual.  You can clearly hear the first seeds of Coil and Psychic TV's more ambient, soundtracky moments being sown here.

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