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.

LAURIE ANDERSON - BIG SCIENCE @ 40

April 19th marks the 40th anniversary of the release of Laurie Anderson’s debut LP, Big Science, which was issued on this date in 1982. Featuring the surprise hit single, O Superman, it took Anderson out of the obscure corners of the performance art world and made her into a “new wave” pop star.

Big Science was not Anderson’s first appearance on vinyl. Anderson had previously recorded one side of a 2-LP set titled You're the Guy I Want to Share My Money With, a collaboration released on Giorno Poetry Systems with William S. Burroughs and John Giorno. She had also contributed two pieces to a 1977 compilation of electronic music. But this was her first album all on her own and it was a showcase for material which had been part of a massive 8 hour stage production, United States Live, which was a multimedia experience where music was only part of the show. The success of this album helped to put Laurie’s musical efforts into a far more prominent position in her career.

A key distinguishing factor for this album was that it put to use a number of technological innovations which were only starting to become known in the world of popular music. Digital samplers and effects processors allowed her to work with a palette of sounds unlike anything else familiar to the record buying public at the time. The few people who were using samplers back then were mostly employing them for special effects and augmentation of more traditional instruments. Anderson put those tools front and center and took specific advantage of their potential for performance techniques beyond the scope of conventional instrumentation. That’s not to say that regular instruments weren’t used, but that they were seamlessly balanced with the digital and electronic tools to create a combined sound that was fresh and alien. Even the use of pitch shifting was novel at the time and made her songs stand out as she modulated between her normal voice, a deep baritone and a high pitched childlike patter. The fact she could replicate this live was also something new for most audiences and gave her a kind of magical presence, like an illusionist performing a slight of hand or a space age version of ventriloquism where she became her own puppet.

All these strange sounds were further emphasized by her arrangements, which were kept to minimalist essentials so that every nuance was highlighted in a way that brought focus and attention to the austerity of each composition. O Superman is a singular example of this approach as it rests upon a starkly simple vocal pulse with little more than vocoder enhanced spoken word accompaniment. Careful accents highlight the shifts in the extended arrangement of the piece until, near the end, it starts to open up and bloom before it finishes in a flutter of synth arpeggios.

Conceptually, the album uses the same kind of dispassionate observational disposition as David Byrne was doing with Talking Heads. Anderson offers commentary on life and culture and human nature while weaving in a subtle, but omnipresent sense of humor throughout each piece. Yet she also manages to place in those perfectly poignant moments along the way, like her heart warming “hi mom” in the middle of O Superman. Although she sounds emotionally distant on the surface, it always feels like her finger is still lightly touching a pulse of empathy and feeling throughout.

I bought the album when it came out on the strength of seeing the O Superman video on late night TV. The video for the song is just as innovative as the music and just as minimal and stark. The hook for the whole thing is the use of a small light which Anderson had inside her mouth, creating the strangest dehumanizing effect. It made her seem like some kind of android automaton in performance as she kept her motions slow, mechanical and deliberate, though with a dancer-like sense of grace and precision. It was enough to bring her to my attention and get her album in my collection.