THROBBING GRISTLE - RE:TG | TG NOW @ 20

 

May 16th marks the 20th anniversary of the first reunion performance in 2004 by Throbbing Gristle, after a near exact 23 year gap since the band's original "mission" was "terminated". The event also saw the release of a brand new mini album of studio recordings by the group, TG NOW, which was available for sale at the show and sold online in a limited edition afterwards. 

 

The unlikely reunion of TG began in 2002 with the release of the massive TG24 CD box set of live recordings, which was effectively a reissue of the group's self released cassette box set, 24 Hours of TG. The process of putting that release together facilitated communications between the group members which had not occurred since their breakup. An art exhibit of TG memorabilia, custom gear and other artifacts offered an opportunity for the group to get together in the same place for the first time in years. Things went well enough that Mute proposed the group reform and an agreement was made to do a single, one-off performance as part of All Tomorrow's Parties annual music festival to be held in May of 2004 at the Camber Sands resort. A great deal of publicity was put into the event, with TG fans bursting with excitement at the possibility of the band's reunion, but those balloons were burst when the news broke that the event had to be cancelled due to organizational issues with the promoter, a situation that was entirely outside the control of the band. 

 

But TG had built up too much momentum by this point to simply let this reunion be stifled by circumstance. They'd issued a collection of remixes, Mutant TG, and a new "Best Of" album, The Taste of TG, and had even recorded new music to release on special limited edition CDs and perform at the show. So the group quickly managed to secure an alternate venue at the Astoria in London where they could perform their set on their own on May 16th. The event was promoted as something rather similar to when they recorded Heathen Earth in front of an invited audience in their Studio back in 1980. For this, guests who had purchased tickets for RE:TG could use them for the Astoria show and, during the event, no one was allowed to enter or leave the building while the band performed, and the entire performance would be recorded and videotaped. 

 

The band had prepared a set that mixed brand new compositions with impromptu live improvisations and a sprinkling of classics from their original incarnation. Above all, they were determined that this would NOT be about nostalgia or looking back. This, as the album of new recordings proclaimed, was TG NOW! They were taking all of their skills and experience they'd gathered from the intervening 23 years and applying them to the essence of the band in order to create something fresh and new, Industrial Music for the 21st century. Their determination paid off and when you observe the audience reaction to the band in the live video, you can see why. There are people who are visibly moved to tears by the immense sound of the band as their pulverizing PA system throttled them with sounds. 

 

The TG NOW CD clearly demonstrated that there was still chemistry between the four members and that the sound of TG in the 21st century was capable of going in some surprising new directions. The tools had changed and the level of skills had evolved, but nonetheless, there was that "thing", that recognizable essence coming through that was unmistakably Throbbing Gristle, a whole that was unquestionably greater than the sum of its parts. 

 

Though this was intended to be a one-off performance, ATP eventually rescheduled their festival at Camber Sands for December of that year, though tragedy would befall the group with the accidental death of Jhon Balance (Geoff Ruston) after a drunken tumble from his home's balcony that summer. The group would then embark on a renewed collaboration that would last until the end of 2010, abruptly coming to a halt when Genesis P-Orridge walked away from a European tour without explanation. That event was followed by Peter Christopherson's sudden death in Bangkok a few weeks later, effectively sealing the group's fate and terminating its renewed mission, yet again. 

 

GEORGE HARRISON - ELECTRONIC SOUND @ 55

 

Released on May 9th, 1969, George Harrison's second solo album, Electronic Sound, is turning 55 years old today. It was the first LP of entirely electronic music released by a rock musician, breaking new creative ground, though perhaps lacking in sophistication or any true understanding of how to use the instrument.

In the late 1960s, the MOOG modular system was a novelty, for the most part. Micky Dolenz of The Monkees had purchased one and it was used on the group's fourth LP, released in 1967, one of the first pop music appearances of the instrument. George Harrison became fascinated by the MOOG soon after and purchased his own the following year. While in California making the purchase, he recorded a demonstration session by Bernie Krause (of Beaver & Krause) which ended up becoming No Time For Space on Harrison's album. This recording was done without Krause's permission or knowledge and its release undermined Krause's plan for his upcoming collaboration with Paul Beaver because he'd utilized a number of themes they were planning on incorporating into their project during his demo for Harrison. Harrison initially had Krause's name on the LP cover, but it was painted over at the insistence of Krause, who was offended by the use of his demo without permission as well as subsequent interactions with Harrison which he found disrespectful and insulting.

The second piece recorded for the album was done by Harrison in England after receiving delivery of the synth. Under the Mersey Wall displays Harrison's lack of understanding of the device, a situation aggravated by the lack of a user manual included with the unit, something about which Harrison complained to Krause, further aggravating their already strained relationship. The recording amounts to little more than childlike noodling with the synthesizer, with little in the way of nuance or clear intention.

The album was released in tandem with John Lennon and Yoko Ono's Unfinished Music No. 2: Life with the Lions, the second album in their trilogy of experimental recording releases. Both were issued on the same day by Zapple Records, a short lived subsidiary of Apple Records that was set up for the purpose of issuing budget priced spoken word and experimental sound recordings. The sub-label, however, was quickly folded after these releases, with a third title being shelved before being released. The cover for Electronic Sound featured a childlike painting created by Harrison himself, which quite nicely suited the amateurish innocence of the music on the record.

At the time of its release, it was mostly dismissed or ridiculed by serious music critics, though some found it oddly amusing or confounding, yet fascinating. However, despite its crudeness and the issues with the questionable provenance of one of its recordings, it has managed to become something of a cult favourite in some quarters. As with the Lennon/Ono releases, and Harrison's previous debut solo release, these flew in the face of expectations for The Beatles, as a collective, and were nonetheless expanding the boundaries of pop music. In the case of Electronic Sound, it cracked open territory that would later be properly explored by the likes of artist like Klaus Schulze, Tangerine Dream and Cluster. The concept of abstract electronic ambience was just getting started, and Electronic Sound was the first foot in the door of that genre in many respects. As crude as it was, it still managed to carve out a place as a cornerstone album.

JOHN LENNON & YOKO ONO UNFINISHED MUSIC NO. 2: LIFE WITH THE LIONS @ 55

 

Marking its 55th anniversary today is the second in John Lennon & Yoko Ono's trilogy of experimental albums, Unfinished Music No. 2: Life with the Lions, which was released on May 9th, 1969. It was released in tandem with George Harrison's second solo outing, Electronic Sound, with both titles released on the short lived Apple Records subsidiary, Zapple, which was intended to function as a budget priced outlet for spoken word and sound experiments. The label was quickly shut down after this pair of inaugural releases, however.

Life with the Lions continued John & Yoko's attempts to push the boundaries of what pop musicians could get away with. With Ono coming from a background in Fluxus performance art, she was setting the example for John to follow. The album kicks off with a side long live improvised performance recorded on March 2nd, 1969, at Cambridge University. Cambridge 1969 features Yoko wailing away in her trademark high pitched vibrato while John, who performed the entire show with his back to the audience, accompanied with electric guitar feedback. It was his first live performance without the Beatles. Near the end of the piece, some other musicians chime in to finish it off. The second side includes recordings of John & Yoko reading press clippings in the hospital where Yoko stayed during her miscarriage, and the unborn baby's heartbeat before it was miscarried, which is followed by 2 minutes of silence. The record closes off with a recording of John scrolling through random radio signals. The cover photograph shows the couple in the hospital during Yoko's miscarriage. As with the nude photo of the couple on the cover of Two Virgins, the image and the record's contents clearly show how open the pair were to sharing their most intimate moments with the public.

The trilogy would be closed out with the release of The Wedding Album later that year. Public reception for these releases was certainly not enthusiastic, though they have acquired cult audiences since their release. While many consider them something of a grand joke by Lennon, he is quoted as saying their intent was to activate people into becoming contributing participants in the listening experience, finishing off what he and Yoko had started expressing, thus the series title of "Unfinished Music". These works may lack a certain sophistication in some senses, but they do set a precedent that creators are NOT bound by anyone's expectations and that expression can occur in many forms and address even the most traumatic subjects.

MICHAEL NESMITH - INFINITE RIDER ON THE BIG DOGMA @ 45

Released 45 years ago this month, in May of 1979, is Michael Nesmith's capstone LP for his 1970s musical career, Infinite Rider on the Big Dogma. After spending the decade attempting to establish himself as a solo musical artist in the shadow of his 1960s fame with The Monkees, Nesmith's focus was rapidly shifting into another medium, with his Pacific Arts media production and distribution company quickly moving into the realm of home video, with ambitions towards feature film production.

While Nesmith's releases during the first half of the decade had gone for a laid-back, country tinged coolness, his two albums in the latter half of the decade began to skew back into the more energetic realms of rock 'n' roll and upbeat pop music. With his previous album, From A Radio Engine to a Photon Wing (1976), its single, Rio, had inadvertently invented a new format for the presentation of music in video form, becoming the first music video to include a coherent narrative, effectively functioning as what Nesmith termed a "mini-movie". Rather than simply performing the song in front of the cameras, Nesmith had conceived of the idea that you could tell a story with the music, complete with character development and a narrative arc. This approach would become the blueprint for the explosion of music videos that was looming on the horizon for the coming decade, something he also had a hand in by helping to create MTV.

Building on the foundations laid by Rio, Nesmith's original plan for this album was that it would be a full video album, with videos produced for all the songs. That plan never quite managed to come to fruition for these songs, however the concept did end up leading to the production of the Grammy winning video release Elephant Parts (1981), an hour long assemblage of comedy sketches, fake commercials and musical interludes. Several of the songs used for that production were taken from Infinite Rider.

Ultimately, the draw of the video distribution market and film making would distract Nesmith from music making throughout the 1980s as Pacific arts focused on building a massive library of VHS titles it would market and sell, as well as producing a few feature films such as Timerider, Repo Man and Tapeheads. As a result, Nesmith didn't release any albums of new music throughout the decade, with his next collection of new music not coming along until 1992 with his acclaimed Tropical Campfires album. As such, Infinite Rider stands as a capstone to Nesmith's musical output for the 1970s, book-ending a decade that had begun with The First National Band, leaving an under appreciated legacy of music that continues to find new fans as the years roll on, with this album being a prime example of Nesmith's skill at crafting a catchy pop song. 

THE GOASTT - MIDNIGHT SUN @ 10

 

Celebrating its 10th anniversary today is the sophomore LP from The Ghost of a Sabre Tooth Tiger (GOASTT), Midnight Sun, which was released on April 28th, 2014. The band, fronted by "nepo-baby", Sean Ono Lennon, and his girlfriend, Charlotte Kemp Muhl, took a sincere deep dive into the realm of psychedelic acid rock and came out with what can only be described as a completely legitimate monster of an album.

When it comes to the children of certain celebrities, I've come to expect very little in terms of actual talent, so before the release of this album, Sean Lennon was completely off my radar as a serious artist. Beatles kids were, in my experience, too deep in the shadows of their iconic parents to ever stand on their own merits. But then one day, a friend of mine insisted I watch the video for The GOASTT's single from this album, Animals, and it sent me into a tailspin of ecstasy. Not only was the music incredibly on point for the genre, but the video was the best music video I'd seen since the 1990s, pulling in references from some very obscure sources, like Kenneth Anger, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Stan Brakhage and a variety of cult and occult culture from the 1970s. It was a fucking TRIP, and it was enough to turn me into a solid fan of the band, and later Sean's work in general.

There's clearly no mistaking the echo of John Lennon's voice in Sean, but the latter owns it and doesn't let that stop him from creating his own distinct presence. Even his appearance is very much akin to his daddy's long-haired hippy freak days, but again, not a problem, at least not for me. The reason is simply because the music kicks ass. It's some of the best psyche-rock I've ever encountered, vintage era or otherwise. And I'm not overlooking his partner here as Charlotte is clearly an accomplished player and performer, and also an amazing film maker to boot, as can be clearly seen from the aforementioned video. She deftly pays homage to the styles of Anger and Jodorowsky with meticulous attention to detail, giving the video an uncanny sense of authenticity.

If you're in need of a fix of some absolutely bang-on acid rock, this album unabashedly delivers the goods from start to finish. I'd certainly rank it as one of the essential listens of the genre. It's just a shame that this project hasn't really been back in the studio since this was released, albeit Lennon has certainly been busy with a plethora of other projects of similar merit.

PSYCHIC TV - THEMES 3 @ 40

Recorded at a pair of performances staged on April 22 & 23rd of 1984, Psychic TV's Themes 3 turns 40 years old today. The album was originally released on Temple Records in April of 1987 as part of the label's History series, but it is not part of the "23 Live" LP series that was being issued at the time. As the third volume in the "Themes" series, it continues the group's exploration of sound as a functional element, rather than mere entertainment. The first volume in the series, was originally included with the debut PTV album, Force the Hand of Chance, as a bonus disc. The second volume was issued by Temple Records as a stand-alone limited edition. Both were created in the studio using various experimental recording processes in order to create a kind of interactive listening experience. This third volume, however, was recorded at a live presentation, though this particular configuration was not a "band" performance. Rather, it was conceived and executed as a multimedia presentation, with various pre-recorded audio and video elements being live-mixed during the performance, incorporating visual projections and multi-monitor installations. Those involved in the presentation were behind the scenes, operating equipment and real-time editing source materials together.

I got a chance to see one of these presentations in Seattle at the Showbox Theater in 1988. This particular manifestation of this configuration was called "Stations Ov Thee Cross", and involved a setup featuring a giant Psychic Cross in the middle of the stage that was built from large CRT monitors, and was flanked by two large projection screens. At the time we were unaware that the performance would not involve a live band, so most of our party were rather disappointed to have made the trip down from Vancouver to see this. Personally, I thought it was an interesting concept, though the venue didn't really make it particularly comfortable for viewing something that was more contemplative, as opposed to seeing a bunch of people bounding about a stage with instruments. Still, in retrospect, it's something I'm extremely happy I got a chance to see, and I did eventually get a chance to see PTV as a full band in 1990 when they brought their 3 hour Acid House rave-up show to Vancouver's Town Pump.

 

THE ROLLING STONES (England's Newest Hit Makers) @ 60

Celebrating its 60th anniversary today is the eponymous debut LP from the legendary Rolling Stones, which was released in the UK on this day, April 17th, 1964. The slightly altered US edition came out on May 29th. While The Beatles were selling a relatively wholesome "mop top" version of the looming "British invasion", The Rolling Stones were digging deep into the grit and grime of American blues & R&B to fashion their "bad boy" counterpoint.

With roots that go back as far as 1950, when Keith Richards & Mick Jagger first became classmates and friends, the real genesis of the band would come in 1961 when the pair would reacquaint themselves on the platform of the Dartford railway station. Jagger was carrying records by Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters, which revealed to Richards a shared interest. A musical partnership began shortly afterwards, a relationship that was solidified when the pair responded to an ad in the music press from Brian Jones, who was looking to put together a new band after having split from his previous group.

For the next two years, the band would build their following, taking their cue from The Beatles, but self-consciously crafting their image so as to contrast against the "fab four". While they initially dabbled with the whole "matching suit" look, their manager quickly abandoned that approach and realized that the Stones could benefit by cultivating a style and aesthetic that was counter to The Beatles more approachable & family friendly vibe. Instead, the Stones would go for a messy, unkempt and raunchier look and feel, coming off as the kind of lads parents would definitely NOT want their daughters bringing home for dinner!

For their first LP, recording was completed in only five days scattered across January and February of 1964. At this point, the songwriting prowess of the Jagger/Richards duo was barely starting to take root, so only one of their compositions was included, and that was only on the UK version of the LP. There were also a couple of songs from these sessions credited to "Nanker Phelge", which was a pseudonym used by the band from 1963 to 1965 to designate songs they'd collectively written. The selection of covers reflects the group's focus on American blues & R&B classics. The US version had a slightly different track list, plus the subtitle, "England's Newest Hit Makers", which eventually became adopted as the official title for the album on later reissues.

While the group's sense of originality and identity were still developing, their debut LP still manages to stand as one of the best examples of the British blues scene of that era, full of vitality, rawness and edge. It became one of the UK's biggest selling albums that year, holding the #1 LP slot for no less than 12 weeks. And while it lacks the iconic hit singles that would soon define the band, it still represents the group in their early prime, poised to become one of the most important rock bands of all time.