PSYCHIC TV - UNCLEAN (12") @ 40

 

Released in August of 1984, Psychic TV's 12" EP, Unclean, turns 40 years old this month. It was the first title issued by Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth's own label imprint, Temple Records, which was inaugurated following the acrimonious demise of their relationship with Stevo's Some Bizzare label, who released PTV's first two LPs, and the single, Just Drifting. Unclean is also the group's first release following the equally conflicted departure of co-founder and former Throbbing Gristle partner, Peter "Sleazy" Christopherson, and his then romantic partner, Geoff Rushton (aka John/Jhon Balance). They departed principally due to their concerns regarding Genesis P-Orridge turning TOPY into a "cult of personality" and would go on to form the widely influential project, Coil.

Without the backing of a major label, leaving the group owed significant sums from their previous releases, budgets for production and studio time were limited, but the founding of an independent label meant that all the proceeds from record sales would belong to TOPY/PTV, and creative control of the product would be entirely under their purview. Given P-Orridge's experience with Industrial Records during the TG days, this was not unfamiliar territory. It would ultimately provide the group with a great latitude when it came to the diversity of their output, from the most bizarre experimentation, to a charting pop single that would help finance a planned film production, though these plans would be eventually derailed by their manager absconding with the single's profits. Still, their own label would help them bounce back from this by virtue of the live series of LPs.

Getting back to the Unclean EP, side A's title track kicks it off with an extended, near ten minute long sluggish dirge that is not too far off from Metal Box era PiL in terms of its repetitive drum loop, throbbing minimal bass and piercing, atonal guitar(?) feedback. Genesis wails atop the cacophonous musical backing with a diatribe against Christianity, declaring its "Saviour" to be a perversion of morality and "obscene". The run-out groove etching on the vinyl exacerbates the blasphemy of the song by declares the record to be "CURSED BY GOD". In comparison to the relatively accessible and tuneful music contained in their first two albums for Some Bizzare, Unclean is nearly a full return to the aggressive bite of TG at its prime, landing comfortably in proximity to something akin to Discipline as far as rhythmic assaults go.

But the mood changes abruptly for the flip side of the record, which includes two ambient compositions that seem to feature P-Orridge as the principal performer. The first is a soundtrack from a Derek Jarman short film, Mirrors, which may be one of the most sublimely beautiful pieces of music PTV ever put to record. It is built from a meandering kaleidoscopic collage of gentle piano improvisations that seem to reflect and refract off each other, perfectly representing the abstract mylar dancing lights of the 8mm film for which it was created. The piece bares a striking resemblance to the fifth and closing movement of the final TG studio album, Journey Through a Body. The section titled, Oltre La Morte / Birth And Death, is also an improvised piano meditation, and likely an early rendition of this conception that now finds its full flower in the PTV recording. I also seem to recall coming across an old COUM era recording of Genesis on the piano performing what sounded like an even more primitive rendition of this theme, so it's likely it was lurking around in various incarnations for years before this most complete realization of its intent.

The third piece, Unclean Monks, is a vocal choral piece created by Genesis repeatedly singing the word "Jesus", layered on multiple tracks to create a sombre, sacred sounding choir reminiscent of medieval monks performing Gregorian chants. As sacrilegious as the A-side is, it's as if Genesis is seeking salvation and repentance with this closing composition, or else and more likely, codifying his curse upon the iconography.

The cover for the single featured the striking graphic template that Temple Records would utilize for many of their "Library" series releases, with it's black and grey primary layout accented by an eye catching red banner. Seeing these releases pop up in the shops was a great way to inspire collectors as aficionados like myself were eager to ensure a complete set of these matching releases. As the label built up its catalogue, seeing all these coordinated artifacts together engendered a kind of satisfying sense of accomplishment in their acquisition. Rather good marketing, I must say. Unclean has remained one of my all time favourite PTV releases, showcasing the group at both their most extreme and confrontational and seductively alluring states.

PSYCHIC TV - TEMPORARY TEMPLE @ 40

 

Recorded at a guerrilla performance on July 28th, 1984, Psychic TV's Temporary Temple turns 40 years old today. Released in January of 1988 as volume 9 in thee 23 live album series, it included the final voucher necessary to send in to Temple Records in order to receive the free 10th album, which turned out to be a studio album picture disc, colloquially referred to as "Album 10", or "Psychedelic Violence".

The Temporary Temple recording itself was captured as part of a Temple ov Psychick Youth tribal ceremony conducted at a squatted derelict circular building in Drayton Park, London. The event nearly didn't take place as police were spotted in the area prior to the attendees setting up for the performance, but the coast was eventually considered clear and gear and facilities were set up for the show. Musically, the material captured for the record encompasses purely improvised extended instrumental jams, with the LP only identifying each side with a symbol rather than a title. The music is essentially tribal ambience, with percussion and guitar tonalities interwoven across the side long pieces. Nothing approaching recognizable songs is included in the release. Its intent and purpose were entirely ritualistic in nature, functioning as a rallying call to TOPY members in the area to gather and celebrate their community.

COIL - HOW TO DESTROY ANGELS @ 40

 

Recorded on February 19th, 1984, Coil's debut EP, How To Destroy Angels, turns 40 years old today. As an example of functional music intended for practical application, it set the standard for the band's uncompromising approach to sound and structure.

At the time of its recording, Jhon Balance and Peter Christopherson were still part of Psychic TV (PTV) and the Temple of Psychick Youth (TOPY), and this project was seen as furthering the exploration of sound as a functional tool, rather than a mere source of entertainment and distraction. Many of the ideas present here were also used when recording the Psychic TV, Themes, bonus LP, which was included with the first pressings of PTV's debut, Force The Hand of Chance. These were sound works that had no concern with standard song structures, an approach that could be rather confusing to listeners who were expecting them to adhere to recognizable conventions of rhythm, melody and verse-chorus-bridge, song structures. None of that was relevant here, which often had these recordings sounding like random noises, devoid of meaning or purpose. The reality was quite the opposite.

For this particular project, the fact that Balance and Christopherson were gay and involved in a relationship with each other became essential elements in the thematic essence of the recording. The intent of its creators was to incite and harness specifically male sexual energy. No offence nor disparagement to females was intended, but this work was simply NOT designed for feminine energy. This requirement during production was even taken to the strictest conditional extremes, where any women at the studio were kindly requested to vacate the building during recording. For this, manly Mars was the focus for the session and it was crucial that nothing diffuse or dissipate that energy. Venus wasn't invited.

For instrumentation, a selection of gongs, cymbals and bells were employed, along with a large corrugated whirling tube, known as a lasso d'amore, corrugaphone, or Bloogle Resonator. The resultant recording was 17 minutes of ritualistic ambience, suitable for personal or group ceremonial use. The original plan was to release it along with another PTV recording, Silence and Secrecy, but Balance & Christopherson had a falling out with TOPY and Genesis P-Orridge over his "cult of personality" and the direction TOPY was going, so any PTV works or resources were now unavailable, including the label imprint, Temple Records. The EP was instead released by L.A.Y.L.A.H. Anti-Records as a standalone, with the B-side initially occupied by an unplayable "noise" side called Absolute Elsewhere. On subsequent repressing, the B-side was repeatedly changed, first to offer a selection of closed loop tones and then a totally blank side.

Although How To Destroy Angels is not typical of Coil's subsequent output, it remains as one of their most enigmatic and effective creations. It's certainly one of my personal favourites when it comes to music with the power to summon distinct and powerful energies. To put it plainly, it's a great record to fuck to, especially if you're gay.

PSYCHIC TV - FORCE THE HAND OF CHANCE @ 40

 

Marking its 40th anniversary today is the debut LP from Psychic TV, Force The Hand Of Chance, which was released on December 11th, 1982. As well as confounding the expectations of Throbbing Gristle fans, the album, along with its accompanying bonus LP of acoustic ritual themes, contains the DNA for at lease a half dozen sub-genres of music which would evolve throughout the ‘80s. It also served as a calling card for the “anti-cult cult”, Thee Temple Ov Psychick Youth (TOPY), the pseudo-occult/paramilitary order which Genesis P-Orridge and Monte Cazzazza had been concocting since the late stages of TG.

After the demise of TG, Genesis P-Orridge shifted focus towards the creation of a new kind of intellectual and spiritual network which would focus on personal development through revitalized pagan rituals and magickal techniques largely related to theories & practices developed by Aleister Crowley and his contemporaries. Evidence of this work first surfaced on the 1981 TG 12” of Discipline, which included the phrase “Marching music for Psychic Youth” below one of Sleazy’s photos of a knife holding young lad on the back. The initial conception of the organization included prescribed manners of dress and grooming in order to affect a kind of paramilitary-meets-religious aesthetic, including the grey clothing, priest collars and shaved heads. These were adorned with emblems like the Psychick Cross, designed by Gen, and other arcane occult symbols.

In the immediate aftermath of TG’s “termination”, Gen had little interest in pursuing music and was prepared to give it up in favor of writing and visual arts. It was only through the dogged insistence of Alternative TV band member, Alex Fergusson, that the focus would return to that medium. Alex took some poetry of Gen’s and created music for it and that was enough for Gen to realize there was a new opportunity to do something different from TG. The two combined the names of their individual projects to come up with “Psychic TV”, which would function as the propaganda arm of TOPY. Also, the “TV” component was key to them being more than a “band”. By enlisting Peter Christopherson into the project, thanks to his developing interest in video production while working with the Hipgnosis design firm, they envisioned PTV becoming an actual media outlet and even a proper TV channel at some point, producing not only music, but visual content: from documentaries to music videos to ambient TV. This was rather visionary as it was years before the development of subscription TV services and specialty channels. Cable TV was only just beginning, but the writing was on the wall for where it could go.

Because of the notoriety of Throbbing Gristle, when Psychic TV began looking for a label to release their music and videos, they came to the attention of "Stevo" (Stephen Pearce) at Some Bizarre Records. He offered them a contract and financed the production of their debut LP and its followup, Dreams Less Sweet. It was a relationship which would ultimately result in PTV including "Stevo, pay us what you owe us" comments for years afterwards on their LP liner notes. Apparently he had a habit of not paying bands royalties from record sales.

Regardless of future disputes, unlike TG’s process of doing everything themselves, from running a label to sustaining their own recording studio facility, PTV now had a budget to actually utilize professional recording facilities & engineers and even take advantage of some state of the art experimental recording tools. This included the “Zuccarelli Holophonic" TM recording system, which replicated 3D hearing via a two channel process that emulated how the human body picks up sound. The stereo sound pickup system was housed in an actual body which you could place in any position and then have it pick up the sound precisely as a real person would hear it in the room. Moving around the room would create three dimensional soundscapes for the listener, particularly when monitored over good quality speakers or headphones. This process would be employed for both albums produced for Some Bizarre, with the liner notes boasting that “no microphones” (of a conventional sort) were used for the recording.

Musically, Alex was the key driver of the compositions and arrangements and he was about as far away from Chris Carter’s electronics and technology as you could get. Alex was more rooted in folk and Velvet Underground influences, but was able to go outside these by bringing in elements of “spaghetti western” Morricone style motifs, pop ballads and even a solid funk groove. As a result, the main LP offers up a seeming hodgepodge of superficially disconnected styles, yet somehow they all work together to create a distinct whole.

The opening track, Just Drifting, announces PTV’s intent to separate from the past as distinctly as possible. It’s a gentle, acoustic guitar driven, folksy ballad inspired by Gen becoming father to little Carresse. I can imagine some people simply couldn’t grasp the shift from screeching “WE HATE YOU LITTLE GIRLS” to Gen softly crooning a lullaby for his new baby. And the singing was pretty much on key and melodic, completely upending theories that Gen wasn’t capable of mustering a proper vocal. Though it starts off soft and dreamy, the album is not without its barbs and sharp edges and its construction is thoroughly subversive, once you get over the initial shock of its seductively soothing intro. Terminus is cinematic in its sonic scope with its twanging guitars, but the lyric is deeply disturbing and the piece eventually erupts into a wall of terrifying noise before again subsiding into a gentle coda. Stolen Kisses offers up some genuine pop tunefulness with Soft Cell’s Marc Almond guesting on vocals. The other key album highlight is the booty busting Ov Power, which offers up one of the most solid post-punk/funk dance grooves of the era, verging into PiL territory akin to This Is Not a Love Song. The theme of the tune is more visceral, however, as it extols the virtues and efficacy of the orgasm and its viscus byproduct in relation to magickal rituals and sigilization, a practice promoted by TOPY for manifesting one's true will. The album is wrapped up by a full on recruitment poster of a song featuring muted marching music underpinning a proclamation read by TOPY spokesman, notorious tattoo and piercing artist Mr. Sebastian, defining the motives and objectives of “The Temple”. A video produced for the track shows the spokesman at a podium, but it's not Mr. Sebastian, but rather film maker Derek Jarman acting as body double.

The bonus LP, Themes, which was included with the first 5000 copies of the album, along with a poster of Gen & Sleazy in full TOPY regalia, offered listeners a more singular kind of audio experience as it provided “functional” music to be used in the enactment of personal magickal rituals. A variety of ritual instruments including various hand drums, thigh bone trumpets, bicycle wheels, bells and occasional piano were employed to create an evolving soundtrack for practical ritual application. The text on the back of the poster included instructions for use along with cautions on being prepared for the potentially unpredictable effects of one’s efforts. As a listening experience, it’s a dissociating, transcendental collection of primal sounding improvisations which are completely different from the material offered on the main LP.

Upon its release, reactions were decidedly mixed as many from the TG fan camp were knocked sideways by the album’s complete departure from TG’s wall of noise & use of electronics and synthesizers. Those elements weren’t completely missing, but they were only accents. The main aesthetic of the album was deceptively more conventional in some regards, though undercut by excursions into experimentation. I first bought the double LP version, 2nd hand, in late 1984 after becoming obsessed with TG in the wake of a particularly transformative LSD experience. My initial reaction was like most TG fans, taken aback by the total disconnect, superficially, from what I’d come to expect from P-Orridge. However, I’ve always been partial to having my expectations of an artist challenged and it didn’t take long for me to be able to warp my head around the method to this new madness and fall in love with the album and the Themes bonus LP.

Over the ensuing years, it’s been reissued in a variety of often dubious editions, some lifted from vinyl and even the so-called “official” remasters have failed to comprehend the dynamics of the original masters, normalizing the audio levels on some connective elements and compromising their impact. I’ve yet to encounter an edition which has corrected this error. Themes has been released separately in a number of editions itself, further adding to the confusion over trying to assemble a good quality contemporary edition. Its legacy, however, remains as a remarkable signpost of things to come in the world of alternative music in the years following its release. It defies trendiness and can still hold up to modern listening. It remains, along with its followup, Dreams Less Sweet, some of the best PTV would ever offer, at least from this incarnation and for my preferences.