Forty
years ago this month, in October of 1981, Throbbing Gristle released
the capstone of their brief yet confrontational career, Greatest Hits -
Entertainment Though Pain. It’s a compilation of some of their most
notorious music, including some non-album singles, intended to offer the
curious a convenient though subversive introduction to these “wreckers
of civilization”.
The album, like 20 Jazz Funk Greats, trades
on deception right on its cover, while also paying tribute to one of the
band’s most surprising influences, Martin Deny, who’s music often
closed TG’s live performances and served as inspiration for more than
one composition. The front is a direct parody of his ‘50s Exotica
covers with Cosey filling in as the model with bamboo curtains draped in
the background. The back cover offers the band photo, again all
looking super friendly and fun, just like 20-JFG. This image sits next
to a hype essay courtesy of Claude Bessy, who expounds upon the
mysteries and marvels of our heroes. It’s a perversely rambling attempt
to make sense of the band’s career in the wake of the recent
“termination” of their “mission”. It’s suitably obtuse and does a good
job of elucidating at the same time as intensifying their mystique.
Inside,
the album does its best to touch all the bases covered over the course
of the band’s 5 years of activity. It’s mostly kept to the more
accessible tracks like Hot On the Heels of Love, but you get a bit of
the edge thrown in for good measure with tracks like Subhuman &
Hamburger Lady. Ultimately, it does what it says on the tin and gives
the novice TG listener a handy gateway into their demented and demanding
world with just enough cushion to soften the harder blows while
twigging the imaginations of the adventurous to want to poke around for
something more.
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