Customer Reviews

24 Hours of Throbbing Gristle

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If you are reading this review then this is what you've been waiting for. The Holy Grail of the industrial music pioneers. Since I was 16, I had heard about the TG 24 hours cassette suitcase. No chance of completing that collection ever. I had found a few copies of the individual cassettes at Wax N Fax in Atlanta while still a teen, but at that pre-internet time that was all that could be found. Now, at last , I have them all.
Here is TG24, a CD collection of that long lost, much rumored and longed for collection!!
The box itself is a modest (mute!) grey. About the size of a pistol case. "TG 24" is stamped in black on the top. Inside are:
2 patches, 3 stickers, 4 TG pics, 4 photo collage prints made for this release by each band member, 3 button badges, a certificate of authenticity, and a lengthy newsletter ( I got two copies ?)
The CDs themselves are wonderful. Each is in a "record sleeve" with the gig location printed on the front and the cassette picture printed on the back!! The sound is great, every detail is clear as Carter went over every master to bring us the best sound possible. The live sound is now of the same quality as the TG studio CDs you've been listening to for years. No more muddy cassette rituals to sit through! A real labor of love on the part of Chris Carter who mastered it all. The live Throbbing Gristle sound can only be described by me as cosmic drama, horror, alien drones, modulations and passages into damp cellar graves, dayglow submarine empires where slow-motion life reverses and then implodes with cyber-punk hyper-space awareness. Of course TG can be enjoyed as a live gigging band, as individuals exploring their fetishes thru music and performance, and as a soundtrack to your favourite scenes of conquest, lust, devastation, and self discovery.
At this point I'll just say that every CD gives more credit to the claim that LIVE was where TG thrived. I've been thrilled with each CD! Now, when do we get DVDs of every TG video?

There is really some great stuff buried in here...but who has the time to even listen to 24 hours of the Throbbing Gristle Live. I managed only part of the albums. The previous 4 CD set was more concise and easier to listen to.

Sadly, I cannot recommend this box set for the following reasons: Each CD only has one index point - so you cannot listen to your favorite tracks. There is no tracklisting. They list the date but not the featured songs. The original tapes feature the titles. The 4CD box set featured the titles but not this one. Why they remastered it without including index points is beyond me - it certainly isn't a difficult task. The booklet is useless - a cheap paper thin affair. They should have allowed the author of the TG book to create thebox set booklet. The book includes the tracklistings for all the '24 Hours' tapes.
It's likely that this will be repackaged as a DVD-A, SACD, etc. or some other future format and hopefully they won't allow Chris Carter to remaster it [He's the joker that didn't include index points for each song.] and they'll include better notation. Pretty weak box set considering what could have been...
As an aside it would be nice to see 'The Industrial Records Story' sampler on CD.
Sound quality varies - source recordings were often monophonic, although a few are from the soundboard.