Throbbing Gristle: RFI

There's a lot to dislike when it comes to GPO but I can't imagine my life without TG having been in it. So much joy. So much! There is something for almost everyone and even my 84 year old stepmother is a bit partial to some "Heathen Earth".

I don't mind TG but joy is not at all the word I would associate with them.

They have given me so much joy was my point. But hey, if you ever get a chance to see Throbbing Gristle ‎Live At Oundle School, that is a whole lot of joy right there.

I'm sure there's a link above somewhere but I wrote about the 2011 reissues when they came out. Heathen Earth remains my pick.

A friend made me cdrs of various releases back around 2004 or so. I dipped a toe in but not much of an impression was made. Maybe I just wasn’t in the right head space then.

Would have been good to get some more perspectives as good as Art Sex Magic from those involved. Would also be great if that Wreckers Of Civilisation book had reappeared when it was advertised to do so.
Not sure how reliable a narrator Gen would be judging by Cosi's descriptio

so today I learned from Ugly Things that two 7" EPs of some "I Hear A New World" tracks were released in small quantities in 1960 as demo records for stereo shops, so CC could definitely have heard them later that decade

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0012950?fbclid=IwAR3q2xXunpXCosGV5JwPl7Tugj33Ole0sR3r0TT-Mi4JHYE28pGTMmQX2Z4

The credits on the page made me laugh - Sleazy as played by Mr Peter Christopherson

Surprised to see Spydee Gasmantell is still being played by Spydee Gasmantell though.

Shame it's the usual BBC 60 minute edit and not the full 80 mins runtime...

bump - tonight

no way to see the 80 minute version?

I enjoyed this. So many hairy people!

welp it's about time to jump in.

20 Jazz Greats, here we go

jealous. i'd love to be hearing it for the 1st time.

good choice. definitely in my wheelhouse.

what should I go to next?

either DOA or Heathen Earth imo

was this the first TG you heard? def interested in your thoughts

i'd go Heathen Earth next. also interested to hear your thoughts.

Heathen Earth seconded.

I really enjoyed it. Especially the noisier,more abrasive stuff, like "Still Walking". I'm a dude who used to enjoy listening to our old beat up lawnmower as a kid because of its weird buzzsaw sound so I like that angle.

More traditional tuneful stuff like "Hot on Heels of Love" and "Walkabout" were great too. And I like the stoney stuff as well. Definitely my wheelhouse (and def my first TG!)

Droney not stoney lol

decided to do both DoA and Heathen Earth

"IBM" is off to a great start

"Dead on Arrival", yes yes YESSSSSSSSSSSSS

"Hamburger Lady" is the thing of beautiful nightmares, that creepy quiet drumbeat underneath barely contained chaos. I guess this is one of their most famous ones?

surprised I slept on TG so long.

But now you understand the greatness. Anyway, read Drew's book now.

Something I've been wondering for a while now - how did they get away with the images of children on the sleeve and booklet of DOA? Now I don't know what the legal definition of child porn is exactly but I would not be surprised if it would be possible to make a case that those images count. As far as I know nobody's ever tried to stop them being distributed.

I got the 2011 reissue of this album when I was working in the civil service and had it posted to my work. Freaked out a bit when I got it home and realised that I'd just arranged for pictures of semi-naked kiddies to be delivered to a government building

it was the daughter of a friend of GPO iirc. i have the OG vinyl but maybe i'm missing an insert or something as there are no semi-naked pics in my copy.

looking on discogs i see it originally came with a calendar that contains aforementioned image. i guess whomever owned my copy originally kept that.

foiud online -

in a RE/Search book P-orridge remarks that he enjoys the idea that everyone has re-interpreted the photo as having a pedophiliac subtext because he didn't intend that when he took the photos. it fits well within their position on how art is subjective and says more about the viewer than the artist. "We're interested in information, and the fact that your view of things can totally alter depending on how you look at it, or by what people tell you about it afterwards."

found

oh yeah, i have that re/search book. it's the one with burroughs on the cover, split in thirds between burroughs, gysin and TG (really mostly about genesis)

snapped a pic of the relevant page w/ my phone, can scan the article if you like but assume this is prob enough for you

https://i.ibb.co/qxr7qWG/2-FF6847-F-11-F4-4-D37-9-B53-B1195-D0744-CF.jpg

Ta, I did know that the wee girl was a daughter of a Polish friend and that TG put them in to raise questions about context and interpretation and all that stuff. Just surprised nobody tried to ban the artwork or made more of a fuss about it

well, it was quite a small initiasl pressing - 3000 copies and 1000 of those were sold by TG directly, and only those 1000 contained the calendar image.

i must have bought this circa 1984 (second hand without calendar image, as previously mentioned) and it never crossed my mind at all that there was anything about it that was shocking. maybe that says something about my teenage naievety but i also think that was probably the general concensus at the time and also that the audience who would ever have even seen a copy would not be the types to go about trying to have it banned.

however, i do remember a friend showing me the og sleeve to the scorpions virgin killer album around this same time and being very shocked by it.

i think i may have devloped middle age dyslexia.

As confrontational as TG wanted to be they were never as shocking as Loverboy.

similar to stirmonster I had the DOA album in the 80s and never gave a second thought to it, lending it out to friends etc. maybe they were less naïve and thought I was a creep with my creepy albums!
the Hatsunekaidan album (a collab between Hatsune Miku and Hijokaidan) has a cover which parodies the Scorpions one
https://www.discogs.com/release/8171232-Hatsunekaidan-Noisy-Killer

Not seen that Scorpions cover before, fuck me

Amazing that weirdos will try to trick people into paying £7 for an AI-written essay, check the cover out though.

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61GNTsue6YL._SL1499_.jpg

gahhhhhh

Gen looking like an extremely ugly version of Mick Tucker from Sweet there.

... or Andy Scott, one of the two.