The Mute Records / Throbbing Gristle reissue series continues with TGCD1 being available on vinyl for the first time on CD since its initial release in 1986 and The Third Mind Moments which is on vinyl and commercial CD release for the very first time. We start with TGCD1…..
TGCD1 was first released in 1986 and consists of forty-two minutes of studio recordings by the band (Cosey Fanni Tutti, Chris Carter, Peter ‘Sleazy’ Christopherson, and Genesis Bryer P Orridge) in their Martello Street studio during March 1979, with all music recorded on a TEAC 8-Track recorder. For fans of the infamous Industrial trailblazers, TGCD1 is rich with the thrill of a new sound and style being worked out and worked through with sections eventually appearing on various more well known tracks (the factory two-step lurch of What A Day makes a welcome early appearance) and you get a real sense of artistic map writing and sculpture as TG lay down foundational patterns that will be chipped at, edited, layered upon and crystalised on future albums.
Taken at face value, and if this was any other band, TGCD1 could feel like an album of demos that the studio wanted out there to spin some coin their way but this is TG and Mute we are dealing with here, so you know there are other factors at play. Firstly, when it comes to the music of Throbbing Gristle you never expected formula, structure, rigidness of arrangement so this instantly negates the “demo” angle because on any other strand of the timeline, each section of the music here could have landed on the studio albums. What we hear is not off-cuts but scaffolding being erected.
Secondly, the sound quality itself is wonderful considering the technology and time it was created, and it is still so thrilling to hear that propulsive rhythm and sheet-slashing white-hot electronics. Time never distills the power of TG and every time you hear their music you are ignited with that thrill once again.
The Third Mind Movements album is a completely different proposition as it was recorded when the band reformed in the early 2000s during the band’s well received Desertshore sessions in the ICA, London. For this writer, this was the actual golden period of music from the band because not only had technology caught up their ideas but now the group were throwing lots of warmth and dense textures to their music which gives it a huge slab of soul. All members of the band had been off doing their various projects and it is this air of confidence that gives the music on The Third Mind Movements, TG Now and Part Two such an infectious all-consuming atmosphere. The music surrounds you and whilst there is not always the harsher elements of their earlier work in the later recordings it does not make them any less unsettling or thought provoking. Do not mistake warmth for comfort or advancement for dilution. A return to the sounds of Second Annual Report or 20 Jazz Funk Greats was never on the cards so what we are given here is a new band with a shared past creating further works of treacle thick electronic music.
Both of these reissues are to be recommended as they both play an important part in the story of one of our most individualistic, determined, creatively adventurous bands. If you are coming to them with fresh ears then TGCD1 will help you get a good understanding of the process that went into that foundation shaking first phase and The Third Mind Movements will help you understand just what an emotionally and artistically rich band they were.
Both reissues are out on August 23rd through Mute Records.
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Review by Simon Tucker
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