Grief

Throbbing Gristle

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4
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Grief Review

by Rolf Semprebon

One of the more strange entries in the Throbbing Gristle catalog, though not one of their best, Grief offers two LP-side-long collages of various rumblings and tweakings and other electronic noises, even half a minute of "Subhuman," with several interviews with Throbbing Gristle's leader, Genesis P-Orridge, and occasional interjections from other bandmembers. Most of the interviews are put though various effects boxes, lots of echoing, and other distortions that make them quite difficult to follow, and other times two different dialogues are going on at once. It's too bad, because at times what P-Orridge has to say is quite fascinating, like when he talks about censorship and his troubles of mailing pornographic postcards or going through William S. Burroughs' archives of old tape experiments. A bit less on the effects and sounds would have been an improvement. Everything is piled on top of each other haphazardly for one chaotic soup of noise that is really too confusing to be effective. This comes off too much like the work of stoned college sophomores with a multi-track and too much time on their hands.