Throbbing Gristle

Throbbing Gristle is one of these few groups that have changed the face of contemporary music, both musically and ideologically and politically. And yet, in view of the influence that the collective of four energy-filled ideas and talents has brought, it is difficult to believe that the name of the formation did not have more recognition at the present time. It is the very essence of the philosophy of their musical style that they theorize and create during their ephemeral career that explains this. Throbbing Gristle, born of the death of the group COUM Transmissions, exploits the pains that music can provide and feels the need to shock by creations that will live live, more than she will listen to. Industrial music will be born, theorized and implemented by the formation, alongside two other cult names, SPK and Cabaret Voltaire.
The band is composed at its beginnings of singer Genesis P-Orridge, guitarist Cosey Fanni Tutti, programmer Peter "Sleazy" Christopherson and keyboardist Chris Carter, and will remain under this lineup until the end of its activities. After several recordings in 76, TG's four thinking heads decided to set up their own label, which they call Industrial Records, out of pure denigration of the industrial side of music creation, but also because of the very aggressive and electric side of their music. This event is the official birth certificate of industrial music. Throbbing Gristle seeks the sound aggression, the violence by the waves by beating the unfortunate who play the curious with the growing reputation that continues the combo. The rare (but all cults) concerts given by the quartet compete with inventions, introducing military aesthetics that will be so related to the indus trial scene later, projecting pornographic films or using sound frequencies only for the purpose of destabilizing the audience. Throbbing Gristle shockes, upsets the codes of rock, and this even before the imminent punk revolution, of which they can be considered an integral part, as the ideology developed approaches the famous "No future". The group seeks anti-music, directly inspired by aggressive work by contemporary composers of concrete music such as Pierre Henry or Pierre Schaeffer, and seeks to get people out of the comfort in which the society against which they stand brings them. The transgression of customary codes, the emphasis on contemporary societal themes (often linked to the progress of science), are only part of the universe created by Throbbing Gristle. The spontaneity in music, the death of the cult of the technique that came with 70s rock, becomes the key to a revolutionary philosophy and only a few blocks away from exploding in the open. It was in the course of the year 77 that the first album of Throbbing Gristle , The Second Annual Report , was released, never seen in terms of rock experimentation, both thanks to the instruments that were born at the end of the decade and by the madness of the 4 members of the band. The sounds are distorted and violent, the voice unrecognizable and all takes a kind of musical freedom close to free-jazz, something relatively unthinkable though.
However, the most representative record of what could be the concerts of the formation remains D.O.A. the third and final report (1978), which goes even further in the definition of lindus, always in this perspective of upsetting the achievements, proposing disparate titles, whimsical experiments and always the most destabilizing possible. This record, however, already marks the end of the training, which sees the collaboration between the members complete, for lack of frank agreement in the middle of what happens to the training. The following year released a last album, 20 Jazz Funk Years , which also became a cult object, and the band ceased any official activity a few years later in 1981, without having released anything again, and with a few more concerts on its meter.
From then on, fallen to the top of his art, the artistic contribution of Throbbing Gristle will be relayed and deified, notably by dozens of posthumous outputs, live and other unpublished from the short period of exercise of the quartet. Members will have more than convincing careers, with Christopherson founding Coil and his mythical discography, P Orridge taking over the reins of Psychoic TV and his no less impressive musical production, and the other two taking over the CTI label.
Finally, it is unlikely that more than 25 years after the cessation of their official activity, the 4 characters will meet again in 2004 to try to revive the Throbbing Gristle entity live. A successful experiment resulted in a new recording in 2007. More agreed by the context in which he positions himself, Part Two: The Endless Not disrouting and scrambling the cards, which he believed.
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