Throbbing Gristle - Live Volume 4, 1979 - 1980 mp3 album

The fourth & final album in this collection has a brief witty "Introduction" which clearly amused the audience, and indeed the latter-day listener. This comes from the SHEFFIELD UNIVERSITY gig, held on the 10th June 1980, as do the next two tracks, starting with "Punished", a swirling mish-mash of typical TG noise, a great beats of a sound wall, which thins out a little like the Red Sea parting to allow Mr. ORRIDGE to wail his dread tones through. The sound rides great metallic sustains, like robotic surfers atop a bio-mechanical crest. "Heathen Earth" comes next, growing on simple thumping bass drum beat with taped sounds - orgiastic groans, tinny orchestras, crackling sounds, all rising with the tempo into something larger & louder, with the vocalist shouting crazily over the top. It has a discordant sustained sound, building factory noise on feedback foundations. "An Old Man Smiled" was recorded at the SO36 CLUB in Berlin on 7th November 1980 - the same event from which one of the versions of "Discipline" were taken. It's a version of one of the "Heathen Earth" tracks - yet re-recorded into a much more electronic, rhythmic thing, a chant-like song with simple EuRock structure - perhaps the most commercial track in the entire collection - moody & strange, with GEN's madness very much in evidence, but rather good. Next up comes another from the GOLDSMITHS COLLEGE London, this one from a 13th March 1980 gig - "Russ". It opens as a spoken piece by GPO with a variety of FX & Industrial noises adding to the minimal effect - a little like the "Heathen Earth" 'Halfway Round' thing. Next come another couple of things from SHEFFIELD UNIVERSITY's 10th June '80 performance, first of which is "Tortured Smiles" which uses many of TG's more familiar howls, chills, shivers & grunges in a minimal piece as effective as "After Cease To Exist" - a disturbing thing which drifts in & out of weird shapes, bound together by a crisp crunch spine. "We Said No" is a floating, drifting thing, a layered swirl of blanket noise - blast guitars & keyboards, all blended with cold atmospherics & animal-like noises, effected screams & long sustains. The next two were taken from the 4th December '80 performance at RAFTERS in Manchester. The first is another haunting, chilling blend of desolate horns (presaging the early PSYCHIC TV material?), raw electronics & tense, sensory-depressing dark atmospherics which goes under the title of "Auschwitz" - an appropriate name for a piece of dread music. It grows into something which has gone under a series of titles before, on "Once Upon A Time" & "Destiny" - reworked into "Devil's Gateway", a chugging thing built on a slightly rattling rhythm over which wild white-sore whips of electronic sound are played. Next comes another from the SO36 gig, titled "Training Condition Of Obedience". Again gated tapes are used to provide a beat while GEN utters his dark words & various TG sounds sneak in and out, together with new pitch-shifted FX, all combining into a weird combination of spoken word & Other-Worldly instrument, all fighting towards an almost sexual climax. Two more tracks are taken from the FACTORY, Manchester gig, the first being a live version of "Five Knuckle Shuffle", based on a simple but stark electronic rhythm, clean yet with the unconscious threat of potential usage connected with over-cleansed. A nice little version of the single track. The next piece is under the ever-useful title of "Wall Of Sound", growing out of the tail of the previous track - as might be guessed, this is a swirling, flanging, phasing mass of noise, a dense colossus of shimmering sound, formless & massive. The final track on this album & indeed on the entire collection comes from the OUNDLE PUBLIC SCHOOL, Peterborough 16th March '80 gig, again titled "Wall Of Sound". This version has what sounds like a sped-up version of "Discipline" hidden away in it's angry, massed noise carcass. Frantic & energetic, laced with the carillon of bells, this makes a neatly bright conclusion to this long-awaited collection, fading away to the crowd chanting in unison. GENESIS P ORRIDGE has the final word, promising all those at the gig a gift. Originally reviewed for Soft Watch.