“Two contrasting sides of the TG coin”
– Electronic Sound
Throbbing Gristle’s reissues series relaunches today with the vinyl and CD releases of TGCD1 and The Third Mind Movements.
Throbbing Gristle’s TGCD1 is available for the first time on vinyl and on CD for the first time since The Grey Area of Mute’s release in 1986. TGCD1 comprises 42 minutes of studio recordings, recorded at TG’s infamous Martello Street studio on a TEAC 8-Track recorder on 18 March 1979. The release, which comes with a booklet featuring the original 1986 sleeve notes by the band, was an exclusive piece of unreleased material for Throbbing Gristle’s first-ever CD release, and today, the record’s dark sound stands as a significant chapter in their discography.
The Third Mind Movements – available for the first time on vinyl and commercially for the first time on CD – was initially an exclusive CD release for the band’s final US tour in 2009. The tour, which saw them perform in the US for the first time in 28 years, included their first shows in NY and an appearance at Coachella festival. The Third Mind Movements album – recorded during the Desertshore sessions at the ICA, London several years earlier – journeys through manipulated, time-stretched and distorted samples, with rhythmical breakbeats and hypnotic oscillations of electronics.
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 Primavera festival, Berlin’s Volksbühne, London’s Tate Modern & 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 still felt today across music, film, theatre, and fine art.
THE THIRD MIND MOVEMENTS
- The Man From Nowhere
- PreMature
- Secluded
- Perception Is The Only Reality
- Not That I Am
- The Third Mind: First Movement
- The Third Mind: Second Movement
- The Third Mind: Third Movement
