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Editorial Reviews
From Library Journal
Beware of post-postmodern types name-dropping COUM and Throbbing GristleTM as the proud parents of industrial music and industrial bands like Nine Inch Nails; that's the half-assed version to expect from people who think they invented black. Here, Ford shows the patience and respect of an extragenerational fan while detailing the frenetic evolution of COUM from a hippie freak-out band to a performance art troupe to TG, an anti-rock, anti-high art missionary. Although TG's attacks on social, political, sexual, musical, and artistic mores were brave, they often bordered on the hypocriticalAe.g., TG desired intimacy with its audience but used halogen lights and P.A. barricades to alienate people at live shows. Using his interviews with Chris Carter, Peter Christopherson, Genesis P-Orridge, and Cosey Fanni Tutti, Ford convincingly defends TG on every frontAincluding its use of fascist album imageryAand proves that COUM and TG elevated civilization more than they wrecked it. A dense but enlightening work; for larger public libraries.AHeather McCormack, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Book Description
Performance artists Coum Transmissions and the music group Throbbing Gristle are subjects of the first major book by critic and art historian Simon Ford. The four key members of the groups, led by Genesis P-Orridge and Cosey Fanni Tutti, were shocking and controversial, exposing the physical and emotional truths that were at the core of the political and social makeup of England in the 1970s. Paving the way for the onslaught of the punk movement, Coum and TG extended the boundaries of both art and music, where the profane was provocative and private acts became public display. P-Orridge exposed the groups' essential credo when he exclaimed, "When in doubt-be extreme." Tory MP Nicholas Fairbain responded by calling groups like Coum and TG "the wreckers of civilisation."