Been Up So Long it Feels like Down to Me

I don't know how many of you follow trends in music making - Recently there has been something of an explosion in "home brew" electronica (by which I do NOT mean dance music, despite what i-tunes says). Benders (of circuits, speak and spell or sound enabled toys) are proudly waving their flags and soldering irons, long dirty hair and dodgy jeans waving in the air conditioning, demanding to be heard... (just kidding about the "dirty" part ,-)

In many ways this is a good thing - too many synths sound and look the same these days, and anyway the basic technology to make a hit record can most probably be found on the phone in your pocket - Quite apart from which, most of the equipment Coil or early TG records were made on, is already obsolete and broken, so it would be almost impossible to recreate Horse Rotorvator, for example, in the same way we did it in the first place. In some cases even some masters have degenerated beyond playability or even compatibility, these days...

What I'm saying is, we all need some new toys to fulfil that most basic of human urges to make a "damn fine racket" - The kind of racket which can Open the door for us all, Players and Listeners alike, to that Other Dimension - You remember - that Place you went to when you first heard Hamburger Lady, and the hair on your arms and the back of your neck stood up!

(In Thai, they call "the shivers" Con Luuk and it's a sure sign Something Special is going on, since it's too warm for people to ever to actually shiver, and round here Seriously Weird Shit like that happens all the time! That's one of the reasons I love it.)

Fortunately my old mates in TG, have risen to the Challenge, and, knowing no better now than we did then, have been putting together a collection of some of the weirdest boxes and machinery, this side of, well - Stephen Hawkin's basement, maybe?

His subconscious, even?

We just want to try to push forward this new Genre of homemade quarks, strangeness and charm, beyond the "here's a demo of some bleepy things I made, it's not a proper track yet" thing, which people normally post along with a SoundCloud bar or YouTube vid of the most god-awful, unlistenable soul-less knob twiddling I've ever heard.

Rich as that may be, coming from me, LOL ,-)

You see there's something different about TG and the "industrial process", that does the exact same thing for us, hearing our playing emerging out of the aether for the first time on stage, as it does for everyone present.

In my view this effect has nothing to do with fashion, or transgression, or sex or violence or personal loss (those all those things may be mentioned in passing). It has to do with the four of us transcending our complete lack of conventional musical knowledge, by mentally "going off on one", leading the way forward across the Threshold, and keeping our foot in the lift door, just long enough that you can jump in, and join us for an hour or so's journey Upward (or maybe down, who knows which way is really Up, these days?)

TG will be showcasing the results of our efforts a few times around Europe over the next few months, trying out a lot of new equipment, some being commissioned specially (or software written) for us by boffins, some of whom have the most severe cases of Asberger's Syndrome I have ever come across, but make gear that is literally unsurpassed, and others whose day-jobs are so dangerous that we are genuinely not allowed to tell you about them, for fear of our lives.

Please see the Throbbing Gristle website, for details of dates, and an excellent taster video by Chris and Cosey here.

If you can make it, especially to the first show in London on the 23rd (!), where things are most likely to go out-of-control, and I am still "discussing" insisting on all members of the audience signing a non-disclosure agreement, some tickets are still available here .

I guarantee it will not be like any DJ or laptop (ugh!) set you might see, and if you go just 'cos its the "place to be", and stand around talking and drinking to your trendy London friends, and being generally unaware of what's happening around you, you'll be missing out...

We all get the Goods we deserve! ,-)

My best to you from Bangkok, surrounded by the overwhelming smell of burning incense, hot solder, & boy sweat, and the sound of hammering metal, and Buddhist Mantras ...and that's just the upstairs!

tee hee

love unkle sleaz