When Throbbing Gristle disbanded in 1981, Genesis Breyer P-Orridge and Peter ”Sleazy” Christopherson moved on to Psychick Television/PTV. Armed with some major deals (Warner for the ”Force the hand of chance” LP in 1982 and CBS for ”Dreams less sweet” in 1983) and a whole lot of enthusiasm, this strangely clad and coiffed collective (which included the magical order-cum-network Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth/TOPY) set about creating some really groundbreaking music.
The strength of PTV from this early era is that they ruthlessly challenged any conventions, be it in terms of concerts, recordings or how an album should be put together. This had all been researched by Throbbing Gristle earlier on, but then under a banner of existentialist reasoning and often desolate feelings rather than under one of encouraging magical potential and pro-active change.
Magic was, it seems, all permeating. In their lives, being full time members and administrators of TOPY. But also in the music, much of it produced either as reflections on magical/occult aspects of life or as very concrete soundtracks for ritual situations (”occult ambient”, if you will). Much of this material has now been assembled in a great CD box by Cold Spring UK. It’s called, quite fittingly, ”Themes”.
With the first pressing of ”Force the hand of chance” came a bonus LP called exactly that: ”Themes”. Where the main LP was reminiscent in structure of TG albums like ”D.O.A” (1978), ie containing distinct tracks quite disparate in style but still creating quite a spellbindning unity, the ”Themes” LP was more stripped to the core. From the Eno-esque piano-improvs with an almost Nino Rota-fragrant clarinet on top, over Tibetan thighbone trumpet walls of sound, over improvised percussive pieces beautifully kept together by a vibraphone traveling a minor scale, to heavy ritual drumming bordering on impromptu voudon, the ”Themes”experience is one of heavy duty psychic music indeed.
”Themes 2” was an album in its own right (Temple Records, 1985), featuring more of the same in spirit but not in style. Here, the harsh PTV live sound and the studio experiments came to a full throttle blend, which is also interrupted by serene pieces like ”Part two”, a tarck that reminds me of Durutti Column’s finest moments (courtesy of Alex Ferguson’s Lou Reed-romantic fingerpicking). ”Part Three” is very much ”PTV live” at the time, containing the iconic Crowley-reading-Enochian-sample, the echoes of Scriabin, the vibraphone, the dissonant collages and occasional drumming. It still packs a powerful punch.
Additional material on the box’s ”Themes 2” CD is the group’s anti-Christian anthem par excellence, ”Unclean”, and its a capella mix, ”Unclean Monks”. Plus the piano-improv piece ”Mirrors”. The third CD in the box is the album ”A prayer for Derek Jarman”, which contains remixes/alternate versions of the ”Themes 2” material plus some really sonic sound collages that constitute the best of PTV, early 80s style (”Rites of Reversal” is one good example of this, complete with the almost trademark sounds of snarling, growling dogs).
”Themes 3” goes deeper still. Divided onto two discs it takes you on a trip into the experimental musical magics of Breyer P-Orridge and his cohorts at the time: Christopherson, wife Paula, David Tibet, Geoff Rushton (aka Jhon Balance), Monte Cazazza and others. Is it essentially a soundtrack or a documentation? The answer is of course: both. It’s live, it’s in the studio, and it’s also totally beyond both. This really is music that transcends every style as well as all preconceptions. Magic in the shaking, documentation in the taking and, lest we forget, art in the making.
To hear Cazazza and Breyer P-Orridge goof around over Balinese Gamelan and Tibetan thighbone trumpets, with cassettes of Charles Manson’s and Jim Jones’ voices ad libbing somwhere in the distance is not only weird or ”totally 1984”. It’s also very much an audio freeze frame of some really seminal art in transit. The moment passed away as moments do, but Breyer P-Orridge has always been clever in assuming that the documentation sooner or later takes on new seed-shape (”Thee process is thee product”, and vice versa). It is clear beyond all doubt that this material still sounds very, very up to date, and I dare say it is in many ways timeless. A textual and highly Breyer P-Orridge-related companion to this perspective would be ”Thee Psychick Bible”, published by Feral House in 2009.
OK, on to time then. Time passes. Zoom on to the 21st century and, yes, PTV still exist in new shapes. One of these shapes carried the fruits of the multifaceted labour shared between Genesis Breyer P-Orridge and wife Jackie Breyer P-Orridge (deceased 2007). The ”Themes 4” CD carries on in the same spirit as the previous records, but the sounds have indeed changed. Miss Jackie here recites poetry over various musical backgrounds/soundscapes. This is more an exercise in experimental psychedelia – sometimes funny and mind-boggling (”I like the holidays”), sometimes on a grand Badalamento scale (”Gobbledegook”). The sound collage-y ”Candy Factory” evokes the stern sounds of the mid-80s, as does ”I love you, I know”. The last track of the final CD, ”This is the final war”, has Jackie declaring poetic cut up war à la Brion Gysin and hubby Breyer P-Orridge (apparently commissioned by Bruce LaBruce for one of his films), to the jazzy sounds of some Lower East Side hipster hang out.
Needless to say, this ”Themes” CD box is quite a trip. Is there a consistency? Absolutely. The later CD 4 material, stemming as it does from an American period approximately two decades younger than the 80s experiments of the original Hackney rebels, carries the same will to evoke and provoke, although in stylistically different ways. As a counterpoint to the quite heavy early stuff, and, not least, as a tribute to Jackie Breyer P-Orridge, ”Themes 4: Lady Jaye” becomes the icing on a cake which is not only tasting great but which also contains many useful calories to be burnt up by magical practice, OV power by the bucketfull, sigilizing to the sounds of wolf packs, meditating by lonely flickering candles in ritual chambers (”nurseries”) worldwide, scaring and scarring yourself and, not forgetting, defusing Control by cutting up ALL sensory impressions. Quite a heavy task contained between the lines and sounds in this box of Psychick Cross-adorned CDs!
PTV in all of their guises and phases will leave a varied, perhaps even schizophrenic, legacy. This ”Themes” box undoubtedly contains some of the most beautiful and magical music Breyer P-Orridge has ever laid his hands and spells on and in. It’s a box to cherish and keep. And, for the would-be psychonauts out there, one to dive right into with a very open mind.
Psychic TV: Themes
Also available on Spotify: http://open.spotify.com/album/7hnUnNU2Sib64Bzr9QtPLF
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