THE THRESHOLD HOUSEBOYS CHOIR - FORM GROWS RAMPANT @ 15

Released on April 19th, 2007, the first and only fully realized solo project from founding Throbbing Gristle, Psychic TV & Coil member, Peter “Sleazy” Christopherson is celebrating its 15th anniversary today. Produced under the project name, The Threshold HouseBoys Choir, Form Grows Rampant offered a double disc set with an audio CD and video DVD capturing images from the Thai GinJae Vegetarian Festival accompanied by Peter’s original musical score.

THC was Sleazy’s first major post Coil project following the tragic death of creative and life partner, Jhon Balance (Geoff Rushton), after a drunken fall from a balcony at their UK home in 2005. Peter had relocated to a compound in Thailand after that and began to enmesh himself into the local culture, capturing the details of the sometimes graphic rituals performed during the GinJae Festival. These include various acts of self mutilation, piercing and scarification which, though seemingly severe, usually left nearly no noticeable marks on the bodies of the participants afterwards. Peter had used some of this material as video backing for live performances prior to this release.

The music created for the album utilized many of the latest computer based audio production tools that Sleazy had started experimenting with at the time. In particular, this involved software which generated voices from scratch. These were not sampled vocals, but sounds built up entirely by the computer software. This became the “choir” referred to in the name of the project. Threshold House was the record label Coil had used to release their recordings prior to the passing of Balance. The “houseboys” component was a reference to the small stable of young Thai men with whom Christopherson kept company at his compound.

The set has recently been reissued and is available on vinyl and digital download for the first time since its initial 2007 limited release. While it is the only solo work that was completed before his death in 2010, there are other THC releases which include a 4 mini-CDR set of demos (Amulet Edition) and a few other odds and ends. Form Grows Rampant also sits alongside a series of Throbbing Gristle related releases from all the members of the group, who were in the middle of a reunion phase at the time. 2007 also saw the releases of new works by TG, Charter Tutti, Psychic TV and Thee Majesty, making it a banner year for the group and its fan base.