Throbbing Gristle
| Throbbing Gristle | |
|---|---|
 Throbbing Gristle, 2008 |
|
| General information | |
| origin | London , England |
| Genre (s) | Industrial , experimental , electronic music |
| founding | 1975, 2004 |
| resolution | 1981, 2010 |
| Website | www.throbbing-gristle.com |
| Current occupation | |
| Cosey Fanni Tutti | |
| Chris Carter | |
| Peter Christopherson († 2010) | |
| Genesis P-Orridge († 2020) | |
Throbbing Gristle or TG (literally translated as "throbbing cartilage", in the colloquial language of Yorkshire for an erect penis) was a British avant-garde music group that is considered the most important representative of classical industrial .
history
The band emerged from the action art group COUM Transmissions (CT), which was founded around the end of 1969 by Cosey Fanni Tutti and Genesis P-Orridge . They were joined by designer and technician Peter “Sleazy” Christopherson in 1974 and by Chris Carter the following year . Throbbing Gristle emerged as a side project as part of CT.
The initial spark was an exhibition by CT entitled “Prostitution” at the prestigious London ICA ( Institute of Contemporary Arts ) in October 1976. Objects such as used tampons and images from porn magazines were shown, as well as appearances by a stripper, the punk band LSD (pseudonym of the punk band Chelsea ) and for the first time also by Throbbing Gristle himself. The exhibition, indirectly financed by the British Queen, provoked a national scandal that even the British Parliament dealt with, and MP Nicholas Fairbairn, who was disgusted by the ICA Show, gave it the nickname “Wreckers of Civilization” (Eng. Destroyer of Civilization ”). The art historian Simon Ford adopted this formulation, which was quickly picked up by the press at the time, later as the title of his book on the history of Throbbing Gristle and its predecessor COUM Transmissions.
The scandal was deliberately staged, but not only served as an advertising staging, but directly indicated what Throbbing Gristle should be about in the following:
“We're interested in information, we're not interested in music as such. And we believe that the whole battlefield, if there is one in the human situation, is about information. "
“We are interested in information, we are not interested in music as such. And we believe that the central field of discussion, if there is one among people, is information. "
Shortly thereafter, Throbbing Gristle founded their own record label, Industrial Records , the first independent label in England and at times the third largest. In 1977 their first album was released : 2nd Annual Report , in a limited edition of 785 copies.
Throbbing Gristle then used techniques of the musical avant-garde such as ribbon loops and extreme distortion; worked with electronic devices (including synthesizers they had built themselves) and invented new effects devices that functioned as a kind of forerunner of sampling .
They worked with texts that, for example, interweave the murder of Sharon Tate and the atrocities of Rhodesian guerrillas against a calm electronic background ( Slug Bait - ICA ); recorded fragments of speech; the story of a murderous couple ( Ian Brady and Myra Hindley ), accompanied by monotonous bass runs; drastic public insults ( Maggot Death - Brighton ) and soundtracks to a film about a vasectomy ( After Cease to Exist ). Throbbing Gristle also liked to flirt with National Socialist elements, which they also stylized in video tapes. They displayed photographs of concentration camps on their publications or showed used Zyklon B cans. The group itself later preferred to appear in military uniforms.
All of this encouraged numerous other artists who soon gathered under the umbrella of Industrial Records: Clock DVA , SPK , Thomas Leer / Robert Rental , Leather Nun and others.
For the next five years of their collaboration, Throbbing Gristle were extremely productive; six studio albums appeared, many live albums, a soundtrack for a film by Derek Jarman ( In the Shadow of the Sun ), and also numerous singles and maxis alongside a flood of cassettes on which they documented each of their concerts.
In 1981 Throbbing Gristle ended their collaboration for the time being. Chris Carter and Cosey Fanni Tutti have since served as Chris & Cosey and have produced a large number of publications under that name. Chris Carter has also republished numerous historical recordings of Throbbing Gristle since 1981. After the end of Throbbing Gristle, Genesis P-Orridge and Peter Christopherson formed together with Alex Fergusson (Ex- Alternative TV ) the group Psychic TV , which continued numerous topics from Throbbing Gristle.
Throbbing Gristle got together again for a single appearance on May 16, 2004 as part of a festival (RE-TG) planned especially for this in an English holiday resort. For organizational reasons, however, this performance took place in the Astoria in London. A studio album, limited to 3000 pieces, titled TG NOW was released on Mute Records for this performance .
On New Year's Eve 2005 there was another reunion at the Volksbühne in Berlin, initially with a live concert on December 31st and a live soundtrack recording (for a film by Derek Jarman) on January 1st, 2006. Since then, the group has performed regularly again. In the course of the reunion a new album was created with the title Part Two: The Endless Not , which was finally released in early April 2007 after several delays.
The final final appearance of Throbbing Gristle with the original cast took place on October 23, 2010 in London. It was originally supposed to be the first of a total of five concerts in 2010, but only four days later Genesis P-Orridge announced to the other TG members and management that they no longer wanted to appear as part of TG in the future. After the cancellation of the concert in Prague on October 30, 2010, Chris Carter, Cosey Fanny Tutti and Peter Christopherson attended the two subsequent appointments under the name X-TG in Bologna and in Porto. Shortly afterwards, Peter Christopherson died on November 24, 2010 at his home in Bangkok.
future
The survival of Throbbing Gristle is unlikely since the spontaneous retirement of Genesis P-Orridge and the death of Peter Christopherson. Assumptions about this were shattered in advance on the TG homepage with a quote from Christopherson: “ About the future of TG live. I do not regard it as possible for any changed band or variation of personnel to perform live as Throbbing Gristle without all the original four of us on stage. ”(German:“ [freely translated] About the future of TG live. I do not think it is possible to perform live as Throbbing Gristle without the four original members with any changed band or other line-up. ”). At the end of September 2011, the reactivation of Industrial Records for the distribution of digitally remastered recordings and unpublished material was announced on the TG website.
Desertshore / The Final Report is the last publication by TG (or "X-TG") to date, which was created with Christopherson. The remaining original members Chris Carter and Cosey Fanni Tutti currently only provide information about their own music projects on their websites.
On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the first release of the first TG album The Second Annual Report , the British music label Mute will gradually reissue all of the TG's albums from November 3, 2017.
Discography (selection)
Albums
- 1977 - The Second Annual Report . Industrial Records
- 1978 - DOA The Third and Final Report . Industrial Records
- 1979 - 20 Jazz Funk Greats . Industrial Records
- 1980 - Heathen Earth . Industrial Records
- 1980 - Greatest Hits . Rough Us
- 1981 - 20 Jazz Funk Greats . Pass Records
- 1981 - Mission of Dead Souls . Fetish Records
- 1982 - Journey Through a Body . Walter Ulbricht 01
- 1983 - Heathen Earth . Mute Records
- 1984 - In the Shadow of the Sun . Illuminated Records
- 1987 - The First Annual Report . Spurt Records
- 2004 - TG Now: Limited Edition Album of New TG Material . Industrial Records / Mute Records
- 2007 - Part Two - The Endless Not . Industrial Records / Mute Records
- 2007 - Desertshore Installation (12 CD)
- 2008 - 32 Annual Report . Industrial Records
- 2009 - The Third Mind Movements . Industrial Records
- 2012 - (as X-TG) Desertshore / The Final Report (2 CD Industrial Records)
Live albums
- 1981 - Funeral in Berlin . Censor Records
- 1982 - Thee Psychick Sacrifice . Illuminated Records
- 2004 - A Souvenir of Camber Sands - Live December 2004 . Industrial Records / Mute Records
- 2008 - Thirty-Second Annual Report . Industrial Records / Mute Records
Maxi singles
- 1981 - Discipline . Fetish Records (12 "release)
Special editions
- 1979 - 24 Hours . Cassette Boxed Set, Industrial Records
- 1993 - TG Box 1, throbbing gristle live, 1976-1980 . 4-CD box set, Mute Records
Movies and videos
- 1980 - Heathen Earth . TG Live Studio Session. VHS
- 1980 - Oundle . TG Live at Oundle School. VHS
- 2006 - TGDVD . Live at the Astoria, London 2004
Bootlegs (selection)
- Live at Death Factory, 1979, Picturedisc Walter Ulbricht Schallfolien
- Führer der Menschheit / SO 36 Berlin / Funeral in Berlin, concert recordings, 1981
- Nothing Short of a Total War - unreleased recordings 77-80
- The First Annual Report, 2001 Thirsty Ear (UK) or Yeaah! Records (US), recorded in 1975
Cassettes
- IRC 00. The Best of… Volume I.
- IRC 01. TG Best of… Volume II.
- IRC 02. TG live at ICA, London.
- IRC 03. TG live at Air Gallery and Winchester.
- IRC 04th TG live at Nags Head, High Wycombe.
- IRC 05th TG live at Brighton Polytechnic.
- IRC 06th TG live at Nuffield Theater, Southampton.
- IRC 07th TG live at Rat Club, London.
- IRC 08th TG live at Highbury Roundhouse, London.
- IRC 09th TG live at Art School, Winchester.
- IRC 10th TG live at The Rat Club, London.
- IRC 11th TG live at Brighton Polytechnic.
- IRC 12th TG live at Architectural Association, London.
- IRC 13th TG live at Goldsmith's College, London.
- IRC 14th TG live at Industrial Training College, Wakefield.
- IRC 15. TG live at London Film-makers' Co-op.
- IRC 16th TG live at the Cryptic One Club, London.
- IRC 17th TG live at Centro Iberico, London.
- IRC 18th TG live at Ajanta Cinema, Derby.
- IRC 19th TG live at Sheffield University.
- IRC 20th TG live at The Factory, Manchester.
- IRC 21st TG live at Guild Hall, Northampton.
- IRC 22nd TG live at YMCA, London.
- IRC 23rd TG studio sessions.
- IRC 24th TG live at Butler's Wharf , London.
- IRC 25th TG live at Leeds Fan Club.
- IRC 26th TG live at Scala Cinema, London.
- IRC 29th TG live at Goldsmith's College, London.
- IRC 30. TG live at Oundle School.
- IRC 33rd TG live at Sheffield University.
- IRC A. TG interview.
- IRC B. TG interview.
literature
- Simon Ford: Wreckers of Civilization. The Story of Coum Transmissions and "Throbbing Gristle". Black Dog Publishing, 2001, ISBN 978-1-901033-60-1
Web links
- throbbing-gristle.com
- The last Gristleizer gives up after 32 years . heise.de , March 27, 2009:
- Patrick Kilian: Dialectics of Transgression. A look back 35 years after Throbbing Gristle was founded . ikonenmagazin.de
- Wolfgang Sterneck: The "Industrial Culture". Throbbing Gristle and the culture of death. sterneck.net (Section from the book (1998) The Struggle for Dreams - Music and Society, revised by the author )
Individual evidence
- ^ Thomson Prentice: Adults only art show angers to MP , Daily Mail, October 19, 1976
- ↑ Blog note ( Memento of the original dated November 1, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on throbbing-gristle.com
- ^ Industrial Records & Throbbing Gristle News. Industrial Records / Throbbing Gristle, September 2011, accessed October 2, 2011 .
- ↑ News + Blog. Chris Carter, accessed April 11, 2013 .
- ↑ Uwe Schütte in a conversation with Ulrich Biermann on the Corso : The scrappers of civilization . deutschlandfunk.de , November 2, 2017
