Throbbing Gristle's 'TG Berlin' Box Set Is Out NOW! On Mute
The new lavish Throbbing Gristle box set chronicling unreleased work recorded around a series of live events at the Berlin Volksbühne, TG BERLIN, is out today via Mute.
The Throbbing Gristle-curated event saw the band perform a live set on New Year’s Eve and an improvised live soundtrack to a new 16mm print of Derek Jarman’s In The Shadow of the Sun (1981) on New Year’s Day and, while the band were in Berlin, they also recorded two final songs alongside a 48-minute piece of new music.
Listen to the final Throbbing Gristle single: “Scabs & Saws” / “Wotwududo”.
The box set, which is comprised of 4 CDs, a Blu Ray, a 10” vinyl and a booklet featuring unseen photographs from the time by Paul Heartfield as well as new sleeve notes by the award winning Scottish visual artist Lucy McKenzie, collates both of these performances, alongside the TG Berlin Studio Session, which includes the final Throbbing Gristle single (two unreleased tracks, “Scabs & Saws” and “Wotwududo”,) and an unreleased 48-minute piece titled ‘TG Berlin Studio Session 2005 - 2006’, recorded at Planet Roc studios during the time they were in the city.
TG Berlin also includes the “rehearsal” for In The Shadow of the Sun, recorded on New Year’s Day at the iconic Volksbühne (“people’s theatre”). The performance was improvised, so the two documents offer a different perspective on the soundtrack to Jarman’s work.
Listen to an excerpt of In the Shadow of the Sun rehearsal HERE.
The New Year’s Eve show previewed five songs from the band’s first album in 27 years, Part Two: The Endless Not, several years before its release, on a set list that included “Convincing People”, “Slug Bait”, and “Hamburger Lady” (their first encore in 25/26 years, and what an encore!), tracks that had lost none of their potency in the intervening years, plus the released track, “Splitting Sky” and more. The performance is also included as a Blu-ray.
Listen to “Convincing People” (Live at the Volksbühne Berlin, New Year’s Eve 2005) HERE.
In 2004, Throbbing Gristle, Chris Carter, Cosey Fanni Tutti, Genesis Breyer P-Orridge (1950-2020) and Peter 'Sleazy' Christopherson (1955-2010), regrouped and the following six years became a period of renewed creativity for the band. Back in the studio after 20 years, they found group intuition when performing was intact, and their ability to break down barriers and forge connections with an audience was more powerful than ever.
This new box set, the latest release in an ongoing collaboration with Mute, is a compelling document of Throbbing Gristle performing and recording as a four-piece with a renewed vigor. From the opening beats and serrated electronics of one of their final tracks recorded together, “Scabs and Saws”, it’s clear that TG are not revisiting ground already tread, but bringing two decades of individual experience back into the studio to create a new exploration of sound. The vocals have a different depth, the groove is deeper and the atmosphere has lost none of its potency.
Throbbing Gristle formed in 1975 and for the next six years they fully delivered on punk’s failed promise to explore extreme culture as a way of sabotaging systems of control. During that time, they released crucial records such as The Second Annual Report Of Throbbing Gristle (1977), D.O.A The Third And Final Report Of Throbbing Gristle (1978), and 20 Jazz Funk Greats (1979) and were infamously named “wreckers of civilisation” by the Conservative MP Nicholas Fairbairn in 1976.
From 2004, they embarked on a series of live performances that included the Coachella and Primavera festivals, Tate Modern, and Heaven, and returned to the studio to produce several albums, including TG Now (2004), and Part Two: The Endless Not (2007), as well as a 3-day “studio installation” at the ICA before disbanding in 2010. Their impact on music, culture and the arts has been immeasurable and is still felt today across music, film, theater and fine art.
TG Berlin Box Set Track listing:
CD1 - TG Berlin
Live at the Volksbühne Berlin, New Year’s Eve 2005
1. Trumpet Herald
2. Convincing People
3. Splitting Sky
4. Slug Bait
5. Rabbit Snare
6. Almost A Kiss
7. Greasy Poo
8. Endless Not
9. Vow of Silence
10. PA Destroyer
11. Hamburger Lady
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