Customer Reviews

20 Jazz Funk Greats

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The best place to start, in my opinion, for the uninitiated but curious Throbbing Gristle listener. This is (slightly) more mainstream in approach - Cossi's "Hot on the Heels of Love" is a GREAT synth pop song and "Beachy Head" and "Exotica" are Eno-esque pieces of ambient sound washes - but many songs still maintain the unmistakable subversive lyrics and vocals of Genesis P Orridge ( I love the lyric about having a biscuit tin to keep panties in ). This doesn't have the chaotic, atonal sound of many of their earlier releases, and points to the more traditional approach of Chris and Cosey and Psychic TV, the two bands created in the aftermath of the breakup of Throbbing Gristle. Probably not my favourite of the TG releases ( that would be DoA - the Third and Final Report ) but essential nontheless as I think you really can't go wrong with any of their albums once you fully understand Throbbing Gristle, an aquired taste, to be sure.

The poppiest Throbbing Gristle release ever, this is enjoyable from start to finish. They kept their arty pose, their performance artists pedigree and their weird lunatic essence, but the tunes are more accessible and traditionally melodic in its minimal fashion. This time they decided to create a listenable record without losing their integrity and indie-industrial credibility, and we have to give them credits for achieving this purpose so successfully. After listening to ''Exotica'', both ''Disciplines'' and ''Hot In The Heels Of Love'', it's hard to swallow contemporary minimal acts with nothing new to add to this noisy way paved by its masters.

I first heard this album years ago, but never got around to owning a copy. It is Throbbing Gristle at their most commerical, I guess... but still a faaaaar cry from being truly commercial.

If you're a die-hard Chris and Cosey fan (are there any left out there??), then you may have heard about their rather dubious beginnings in TG. If you think that you are in for Chris and Cosey by considering this TG release (the allegedly most "accessible of all" TG releases), think again.

No, there is no "October Love Song" or "Exotika" (the C&C version that is!) on this one. Nowhere to be found are the waif-like butterfly-fragile vocals, or the tender, lilting keyboards. Instead, this rather tough and dry early industrial music. Much like Nico singing, with a heavily drunken Kraftwerk or Devo laying down the tunes. The "tunes" are often very-loosely contstructed (to say the least), and often resemble a John Zorn piece.

So, perhaps you have a general idea of what to expect now, or perhaps my review has been horrible and leaves you absolutely clueless. I hope that the latter is not the case. In short, just don't expect somber, sleepy-time-sweet-ala-mr.-sandman type music.

Also, if you ever come across a recording by TGT, I would recommend you stay away. It's some almagamation of TG and C&C, meets early Psychic T.V. (and, of course, Genesis P. Orridge). Very mid 80's style housy-ness, with almost no vocals. Not very decent, and, actually, shameful for an outfit of this caliber.

you can't go wrong with this album...very accessible, good place to start if you're new to Throbbing Gristle.

Mainstream music has nothing to offer. Listen to Throbbing Gristle.

most tracks are slow, dark ambient, and disturbing. a couple (hot on the heels of love, walkabout) are bouncy kraftwerk-esque dance tunes. then there's the greatest song ever recorded in the history of man, what a day! it evokes such pictures and feelings i cannot describe. TG's masterpiece, no doubt!

Read the review title again. It's literal. If you are a die-hard industrial music fan, you are supposed to have this already, otherwise people will come to your house and hit you with bats. All the cool people have it already. No, not THOSE people, the GENUINE cool people.

the vocalist once said the future will belong
to the non musicians, that was in the late seventies
now with dj culture and turn tables out selling
guitars we see he was right. Throbbing Gristle was
a band that put art first though in one song there
is the lyric/spoken word"this is a crusade it has
nothing to do with art". All they created had a point,
was thought out, weather it was ment to shock, offend,
comfort, mock, or add humour, there was thought involved.
Today as we look at a musical landscape and see hollow
shells of worn out formula from wich half wit pop songs
are forced down our throughts i can find refuge in
Throbbing Gristles music. They were a band ahead of thier
time,the first to release cassette tapes, the first to release
concerts on vhs and the first that dug the trenches and
formed the front lines between us and the music industry,
they released everything on thier own lable with total
control of the end product. They made punk rock sound
docile and meek in comparison,they pushed the boundries
and the boundries were to afraid to push back. As for this
perticular release, probably the most accessable and Very interesting
so if your looking for something new try this
if you are already a fan all i can say is "very friendly"

This is Industrial Music, pure and simple. This is what people generally think of when they refer to Throbbing Gristle. The misleading cover, the Martin Denny references, the conflict between beauty, ugliness, decay, and free construction. It's as good as it gets.

Start here and continue your Throbbing Gristle habit with 2nd Annual Report, and one of the live disks, I'd recommend Mission of Dead Souls, but Heathen Earth is good as well.

Of TGs works, this is easily one of a select few that really feels like an album of music, rather than something you have to strap yourself in for. It's far more polished than their earlier albums. While not representative of their more nightmarish soundscapes from earlier years, it's something you can casually throw on and enjoy without having to commit yourself to the "experience" of something such as Second Annual Report or CD1, and unlike D.O.A, none of the tracks really feel like throwaways.