Throbbing Gristle - 24

The lavish box set 24 Hours of Throbbing Gristle presents the bulk of Throbbing Gristle's live concerts, from their first gig at the Air Gallery in London on July 6, 1976 to March 13, 1980 at London's Goldsmith's College. Genesis P-Orridge, Cosey Fanni Tutti, Chris Carter, and Peter Christopherson here raise a holy racket, a churning mass of metal-on-metal percussion, droning bass, and swirling, stabbing, unidentifiable noises. The set lists appear largely improvised (the lack of any sort of track listing for each disc does not help). Tracks which seem to reappear in new versions over the course of the set include the classic "Discipline," "Persuasion," and "single" "Hamburger Lady." The gigs were recorded live to cassette, and are presented here with little cleanup. So what we have here are bootleg quality recordings of improvised industrial noise. More accurately, what we have here is the audio equivalent of mud, with no discernible instruments and "singer" P-Orridge's screeching-cat "singing." Some recordings sound better than others, but for the most part, these are aggressively lo-fi recordings. So the questions is, is that okay? For the die-hard fans who will purchase this set, it probably is. The age of the original tapes and the attendant degradation in sound quality is audible and adds to the overall gestalt. Very few bands from this era have made the entirety of their live recordings available for sale, and even fewer so-called industrial bands. So as documentation of a scene, this set is important. For the casual listener, this is prohibitively expensive, and a daunting set to approach. There's 24 hours of music here! For the truly dedicated, the remaining ten live concerts are released in a follow-up set, TG+.