Customer Reviews

Force the Hand of Chance (Reis) (Dig)

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

 

 

...if you are legitimately interested in the album. Cleopatra Records, rather than mastering the CD from the master tapes, decided it would be a good idea to master the CD from an old vinyl copy from their personal collection. The sound quality, overall, is poor, and the stereo separation is off dramatically. If you really want this album, search out the Japanese 2CD, typically referred to as "Force the Hands of Chants," which also contains the "Themes 1" album. This was actually mastered from the original tapes and is crisp in quality. Also watch out for the Cleopatra reissues of Kraftwerk records, as they were mastered in the same fashion, and I would not be surprised if other "classic" reissues from Cleopatra (Hawkwind, Syd Barrett, etc.) were done in the same way.

This version is almost as much of a complete waste of money as the Cleopatra version. It's mis-labeled. CD 2 is NOT THEMES. CD 2 is a disc of bonus stuff that was ON the Cleopatra version, simply added as a bonus CD and priced higher than a single CD set would be. I call shenanigans on Stevo for doing such a rotten reissue. The double digipack is chintzy, the artwork is ruined by unnecessary text and the back is so poorly photocopied. DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY. Find the Japanese double CD version if you can.

One finds a melodic, gentle and almost bucolic Psychic TV here, introduced by the folksy, tender Just Drifting, followed by the long spoken poem Terminus X-Tul. Stolen Kisses shares a title with a later song by Chris & Cosey, and I was rather disappointed to discover it wasn't THAT one - it's pleasant enough, though, in a sort of folk-pop way, like The Lovin' Spoonful or Francoise Hardy. Caresse is a lovely orchestral piece that ends with a baby crying, No Go Go is a gripping electronic sound collage, while Ov Power sounds a bit like Public Image Limited's "Metal Box" album. The beautiful Message From The Temple offers very practical advice on utilising the power of mind over some of the most eerie music on the album and is my favorite track. The instrumental Bubbles sounds like it was recorded through a vocoder but it has the most addictive melody, while the hidden track 13, perhaps called The Process, is another sinister collage of sound and voice. This album reveals its gems by repeated listening. A very diverse collection, but you won't find any techno beats or traditional rock amongst these often poetic, always interesting pieces.

While it is true that this is not the original album, it does succeed in giving PTV fans a chance to hear their early efforts without having to pay excessive prices for CDs.

So if you enjoy cutting-edge or advante garde music, this CD is for you. It's very esoteric, and the songs vary from straight-up, Beach Boys-like pop ("Drifting" "Stolen Kisses") to menacing ("Terminus" "Thee Full Pack") to twisted dancey stuff ("Ov Power") and back again. This album has some great moments in regards to Genessis' lyrics and voice -- something that was missing off later albums. You also get the skinny on the whole "Temple of Psychic Youth" movement, which is novel in its own right, at least as far as rock bands are concerned.

For the curious or uninitiated, check out "Hex Sex, The Singles" which is a collection of more poppy/dance stuff and is a good introduction into the world of PTV -- and again, you won't have to pay import prices. :-)

Welcome to the temple...

I really enjoy Psychic TV, rank them up there on the top of the list. But I started with Ultradrug and Kondole I, II, & III (a more ambient album). After hearing these ingenious musical pieces I *had* to have more. So 'Force the Hand of Change' was my third album and I was somewhat let down.

After a few listens the sound grew on me but it's nowhere near the previously mentioned albums. It has a very acoustic feel, violins and guitars, and 'earthy' vocals (for want of a better term).

But then, I'm more into industrial sounds which are in abundance on the other 2 albums.

I'd still recommend Force the Hand of Change though; it's a good listen. All a matter of taste!

I don't know how this was remastered when last I heard all of Genesis P-Orridge's master tapes are at Scotland Yard. I'm not saying it wasn't-- I don't have all of the information-- I just don't know.
Music-- 4.5 stars. Interesting stuff. I can't fault the music at all.
Packaging-- 0 stars. I have an older CD and the artwork on this has been scanned and cropped.
I feel ashamed owning this release. If Genesis isn't even mentioning it on his website, you know something's wrong.

I really wish someone would do a proper job with a rerelease of this album. Give us the real Themes, and a reproduction of the original packaging (which I've read had a TOPY catalogue or something of the like). I've been looking for the Japanese 2XCD for years and haven't found it for sale.

edit: I decided to give the Dreams Less Sweet reissue 5 stars, because that's such a great album and I didn't want the ethics behind these reissues to be held against the music. I was going to go back and change this one to either four or five stars, but I forgot you can't change that once the review has been posted.

When will Stevo give this album the respect it deserves? It's so brilliant,but this release, while offering some good bonus tracks, still suffers from poor quality reproduction of the graphics and blatant mislabeling of the bonus material. The second disc is NOT "Themes". It's a collection of singles. The real "Themes" album that came with the LP original edition has never been released by SB. And while the main album sounds good overall, the remastering has normalized all the tracks so that you completely loose the dynamics of what was supposed to be quite interlude sections which are now blasting loud. Get it right!

This record marked Genesis P-Orridge and "Sleazy" Christopherson's departure from Throbbing Gristle, and their turn in a direction signposted by the philosophies and practices of Aleister Crowley and his principles of Thelema. At the same time, you had a number of other artists and factions emerging from the UK industrial scene with the same or a similar set of directions; 23 Skidoo emerged from the same period, and the roots of Current 93 can be found around this same time period. This album, though, was more pop-oriented in its musical thrust than David Tibet's efforts of the period, and as such, it had and still has a really creepy feel to it, the feel you get from running across some mysterious object with some darkly powerful portent that you're not exactly meant to understand. Lots of dark menace here, notably "Terminus", and the weird 'brainwash-tape'-like "Message From Thee Temple", which lays down some of the precepts of Genesis P-Orridge's own Temple ov Psychick Youth. This CD also includes some tracks from an extra EP included with some of the LP copies, and these are also of the same quality. Interesting, and certainly disquieting, listening.

Genesis P-Orridge, and the rest of Psychic TV, are musical geniuses. Psychich always takes you on an experience when you listen to this CD. It is by far my favorite of all of the ones I have heard. To anyone who has never listened to Psychic TV this is a wonderful first purchase and I highly recommend it.

Psychic TV's Force the Hand of Chance is an interesting mix of pop and experimental music. I think the album gets better as it goes along. A few listeners may find some of the lyrics unintentionally silly; however, the album definitely sounds different and a few tracks are even memorable. The two best albums to get from Psychic TV--that are also still available-- are Dreams Less Sweet (a classic!) and Hex Sex--The Singles (excellent pop music and much more).