Today
marks the 15th anniversary of the release of the debut album by the
reconstituted Psychic TV, aka PTV3, Hell Is Invisible...Heaven Is Her/e,
which was issued on June 4th, 2007. It represented the rebirth proper
of Psychic TV after over a decade of dormancy and was part of a pantheon
of Throbbing Gristle related releases that year. These included a new
TG album as well as new works from Carter Tutti, Thee Majesty and
Sleazy’s Threshold Houseboys Choir. A banner year for TG fans to be
sure!
After the release of Trip Reset in 1996, an album recorded
while Genesis was recovering from severe injuries resulting from his
escape from a near fatal house fire in California, PTV effectively
ceased operation. No new recordings were release and only reissues were
hitting the market, often of dubious provenance given that Genesis had
sold off most of the PTV rights for cheap while desperate for cash,
which put many titles into a nebulous state, opening the doors for less
scrupulous labels to take advantage. PTV’s Roman P. even ended up in a
Volkswagen TV ad where they obviously were oblivious to the songs
condemnation of Polanski and his dalliances with underage girls.
During
this time, Genesis mostly moved away from the music world and focused
on fine arts, photography, poetry and installations. There were
occasional live appearances, including a reunion of PTV’s founding
members when Alex Fergusson joined Genesis and a few other members from
the mid 1980s era PTV for a special one-off show in London in 1999.
This event celebrated his return to the UK after his “exile” in 1991
after a scandalous TV tabloid piece accused him of Satanic abuse of his
children. P-Orridge had also started working with Bryin Dall for the
spoken word project, Thee Majesty, which also performed that evening.
By
the mid 2000s, Genesis and wife Miss Jackie / Lady Jaye were settled in
NYC when Jaye and former Toilet Boys drummer, Edward ODowd, began
working in tandem to convince Genesis to reactivate Psychic TV. After
the reunion of Throbbing Gristle in 2004, Genesis finally decided it was
time to bring back PTV and they set about filling out the rest of the
band with local NYC musicians. The revitalized group began performing
and working on new material which eventually lead to the recording of
Hell Is Invisible… Heaven Is Her/e.
The album and the rebuilt
group ultimately landed in a musical territory which had always been at
the core of Genesis’ interests, psychedelia, but which s/he had only
briefly managed a dalliance with in the mid 1980s during the
“Hyperdelic” phase of the band with the release of singles like Godstar
& Good Vibrations and the unfinished Allegory and Self LP. Almost
from the first days of he/r exploration of music, Genesis had wanted to
have a psychedelic rock band inspired by groups of the late 1960s. With
this new version of PTV3, Gen went full tilt into that genre with
unhindered abandon. The results of those efforts were not always
successful, but the intent was certainly sincere and Gen never seemed
more satisfied with the music that was created than by what PTV3 did.
The album’s themes, while not constructed into a coherent conceptual
album, roughly chart the progress of death and rebirth while also
incorporating concepts of gender ambiguity, which had been at the core
of Gen’s relationship with Jaye for the preceding decade.
The
album was the only one to feature Miss Jaye before her tragic death
later that year. The loss of Jaye was a devastating blow for Genesis
and put the project into turmoil for a couple of years before they could
fully regroup and get back to proper touring and recording, which they
did for the next decade until Genesis became ill with leukemia, a
condition which ended he/r life early in 2020. Of the PTV3 era
releases, this album may not be their best but it does “set the controls
for the heart of the sun”.
P.S. Oops! Almost forgot to censor the cover so I don't get dinged by FB's algorithms. Can't have those naughty bits visible!
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