Customer Reviews

Dreams Less Sweet

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Unless your a raver, this is the best Psychic TV album to get. As a fan of things stranger and more challenging I would rank this alongside Throbbing Gristle as the best work Genesis-P-Orridge has ever done. The album is a sound scape of ambient noise, rituals, chants and some of the best gentle and mystical pop/folk songs you'll ever hear. Yes, pop/folk from Genesis-P-Orridge, so you know it's going to be weird, haunting and creepy. There are also strange spoken word tracks by Genesis and Monte Cazaza... oh, yeah, and David Tibet of Current 93 plays bones and bells and stuff... There's nothing too esoteric to get about this album, ignore that review. If something puzzles you on here then it's just a mystery to be enjoyed... You don't have to understand everything in life, do you? In fact, wouldn't you say the unknown enriches your life? Sure it does... Now, get this album.

This lp is an unique experience in pop music and sound. However the recording process of the album is holophonic (a technique that allows to reproduce the same hearing feeling you have in the real world); it is also a part of Burroughs heritage (due to extensively creative use of cut-ups this album marks a new start in music and art history, de-categorizing the boundaries that exist between them). Nocturne melodies, not so gothic but close of Joy Division's enegy flirts with beautifully recorded sequences of sound in motion, almost like a movie... the growls of a dog fading away in some misty melody of a far away brass. Remember Nico, coil and current 93 are not far neither. This is not only a great post-punk, pre-goth or post-industrial album. This is poetry, at the core of how poetry should look like in a post-modern, technological and inter-disciplinary world. To conclude this album may looks weird but it shall maybe change your way to perceive music, sound and even art (if your open of course, because if your the kind of person who prefers lineary stuff, not to be troubled or confused then run away!). One of my favorites definitely because it surfs with much more than standards.

the majority of this album consists of noisy, experimental tracks (braking dogs, slamming doors, gunshots, screaming) some of which is pretty good and much of which is kind of ridiculous, like much psychic t.v. HOWEVER, it also contains two slow and beautiful ballads, 'The Orchids' and 'White Nights' which are among the very best songs i've ever heard by anyone. they're very catchy, but not in the more dance-poppy way that later songs like roman p. and godstar are. more folk-based and hypnotic i guess is an ok way to describe them. anyway, this, their second LP, is well worth purchasing and much better than their first (force the hand of chance).

It's nearly impossible for me to choose a favorite PTV album, but this one would be a strong contender. Unfortunately, the packaging on this rerelease is shoddy. The artwork is scanned and cropped. I doubt that anyone in the band is getting any royalties, otherwise Genesis probably would have mentioned this rerelease on he/r site.
As far as the music itself goes-- you have some beauty, some darkness, some pretty songs, and some abstractions. All of it is great. If you're interested at all in Psychic TV, you have to hear this album. I recommend finding a used copy. This one doesn't claim to be remastered, so there's no loss of sound quality going that route.
I'm giving this five stars because the questionable ethics by Stevo at Some Bizarre shouldn't be held against such a wonderful piece of music.

It took me a long time to buy this album because i don't usually pay more than ten dollars or so for most CDs online, but eventually i just had to because i really can't get enough of Genesis P-Orridge.
To be honest i expected this album to be a lot more accessible than it ended up being (due to the fact that the only other things i've heard from them are Hell Is Invisible...Heaven Is Here and Mr. Alien Brain Vs The Skinwalkers, which i strongly recommend). at first i found it to be quite soothing and very neo-folk but as it progressed i could clearly tell what it really was: the disturbing artistic ramblings of a mad man.
although very mad sounding, this record is also very brilliant and well worth the wait and the extra money. if you can find this for cheap definitely get it.

I first heard this in the early 1980's, in high school, and it still moves me every time. This album IS poetry! Evocative, not just entertaining, it engages on many levels. This album is the still-beating heart of my love for this group. Beyond classic. The noise is noisey, and the softer material is,..... Heaven! Always is Always (who ever heard Manson performed so beautifully?), Clouds Without Water, The Orchids (LOVE!), White Nights and Black Moon, oh lord,.... these songs are enthroned in my heart forever.

The problem with Psychic TV is that you have to be able to 'get' the subcontextual bits in order to 'get' the music to its fullest. And while I'm pretty versed with the various works/philosophies of Aleister Crowley/Thelema, in which a lot of what Genesis P-Orridge circa this time period was drawing on, the 'source material' would likely prove a bit too dense for the majority of potential listeners. As a result, the music here really borders quite a bit on self-indulgence, taking on almost a proselytizing air for Gen's Temple ov Psychick Youth, an ongoing concern up until Gen's bailing from its headship in the late 80s. Atmospheric and very 'precious' in a lot of the aesthetic here, things really only start kicking loose with "In the Nursery", which hearkens back to some of the ominousness of the previous "Force the Hand ov Chance" or Gen's prior tenure in Throbbing Gristle. It's interesting as a documentary piece, I guess, but as for PTV, they've done better...and others do better at this sort of thing, also (Current 93 come to mind here).