2nd Annual Report

Throbbing Gristle | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (December 2, 1993)
• Original Release Date: 2002
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Mute U.S.
• ASIN: B000003Z5A
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #244,087 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Industrial Introduction

2. Slug Bait [Live]

3. Slug Bait [Live at Southampton]

4. Slug Bait [Live at Brighton]

5. Maggot Death [Live at Rat Club]

6. Maggot Death

7. Maggot Death [Live]

8. Maggot Death [Live]

9. After Cease to Exit [the Original Soundtrack of the Coum Transmissions

10. Zyclon B Zombie

11. United

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Make this your 2nd TG purchase, but this is an important CD, September 21, 2001

By 

Winthrop Harrison "winharrison" (Seattle, WA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: 2nd Annual Report (Audio CD)

It's only right to warn potential customers that most of this CD is pretty dodgy when it comes to recording quality. Some of these tracks were recorded on cassette tape, plenty of bootlegs sound better than this. Of course, this band was never big on pleasing consumers anyway. The duff sound may actually improve the album. Instead of being the loud assault of TG's other records, the general mood and sound remind me of three things. 1) The feeling of being in a closet hearing disturbing sounds you can't quite define and becoming scared as hell. 2) the sonic and aesthetic influence of Stanley Kubrick, Wendy Carlos and Pink Floyd - this CD is not so different from the sound FX in 'Umugumma' or even the (very) few decent Tangerine Dream records. 3) I think this CD captures the basic schizophrenia of the only worthwhile 'Industrial' band. Was TG scary or silly? Earnest or pulling pranks? Is this band's music a brave uncompromising look at a cold loveless world? Or is it a very outre and somewhat sly psychedelic detour? Perhaps Throbbing Gristle could be all of these things. Although I wouldn't advise this CD as the first purchase in any Gristle collection ('DOA-Third & Final Report...' would be a better choice), make this your second buy. And for anyone who says you can't be lulled to sleep by this band, the 20 minutes of "After Cease to Exist" will prove you wrong. For better or worse, we'll never see another band like this.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This Is Art - Not An Excuse For Sick Behaviour, September 3, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: 2nd Annual Report (Audio CD)

Listening to this album for the first time one could be excused for thinking that the tracks "Slug Bait" etc. are a celebration of psychotic behaviour. Nothing could be further from the truth. This album does not celebrate or condemn the psychotic personality, rather it represents a "commodity" that Industrial Society can be proud of "producing" in the form presented on the album. This commodity IS the psychotic personality. If decent bourgeois individuals are offened at what they hear in this album then to be consistent they would also need to be offened by the very socio-economic system that produces those "products". The logo of the album sums it up: "Industrial Music For Industrial People".

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars First effort buzz, January 26, 2000

By 

DAC Crowell - See all my reviews

This review is from: 2nd Annual Report (Audio CD)

This was the first above-ground release by Throbbing Gristle. There was a prior cassette-only release that sometimes one sees as a bootleg ("Music From the Death Factory" is the title sometimes applied to this release), but this was the first taste everyone got. And it's a rather unpleasant taste. The first half consists of different versions of varying audio quality of two tracks, plus a concert intro, and while some versions of this work, others are just unpleasant sludge. Granted, this does play into TG's industrial aesthetic, but at the same time one thinks better material could have been chosen. Especially in the light of the second half, which contains the brilliant soundtrack for 'After Cease to Exist'. Some 'electronica' wag a few years back coined the term 'illbient'. This tag much more applies here. A strange meander of odd noises, drones, bleak atmospherics...this is the real show on the release. The 7" tracks 'United' and 'Zyklon B Zombie' are also on here, the former being the unlikely 'hit' that brought TG to the fore during the heyday of the UK punk scene. Not easy listening, and not a good start point, but worthwhile for those into TG's sound.