A Wordship comes a'sailin'

When Cotton Ferox began as an active project in the glorious year of 2000, Thomas Tibert and me had made the decision that we would work together with a diverse bouquet of talents when it came to the vocal contributions. As the first album grew, this also became the case. For First Time Hurts (originally released on CD in 2002), we collaborated with Krister Linder, Michael Moynihan and Genesis Breyer P-Orridge. A powerful mix, to say the least!

The sessions with Genesis turned into seductive lyrics and performances on the tracks Snake Hiss and Amenema. These were, however, basically recordings that were left over from material for our album number 2, Wordship, then already in progress. Not left over in a qualitative sense of course, but definitely in a quantitative one.

Wordship is an album that was made entirely together with Genesis in Stockholm in 2002 (originally released on CD in 2004). There was also a DJ set at Kulturhuset and a sold out lecture at experimental haven/venue Fylkingen, about a legendary career spanning from Coum Transmissions, Throbbing Gristle, Psychick TV and to the then active Thee Majesty. Genesis showed some rare archival footage and I think almost all those present were mind blown to some extent during what turned out to be an amazing evening...

Neil Megson was the person that I was born and named as by my parents, and in 1965 Neil Megson invented a game. He invented a character, Genesis P-Orridge, and he let him loose into the world. In the beginning Neil was being Genesis, and Genesis was responsible for what the Art was and for the creativity, but Neil was the puppet master of this alter ego and he was in control. But then, as Genesis took himself more and more seriously, or as Neil did, he changed his name, and people would meet him and it was only Genesis they were speaking to. And there was no Neil any more. There was a point then when Neil was actually forgotten by Genesis. It’s a strange question that puzzles me now: does Neil still exist? (from the 2002 Stockholm lecture)

Genesis at Studio Konst & Ramar, Stockholm 2002.

Of course we had the previous similar project in memory and mind: At Stockholm, by Genesis Breyer P-Orridge & White Stains (originally released 1990, now available through Highbrow Lowlife). But we wanted it to be different and more modern. If we succeeded or not I leave for today's discerning listeners to decide. But we were happy with the album. We still are.

What made me proud was when someone told me that the album was like nothing she had ever heard before. To me, that's the finest review one can get. Although distinctly in the spoken word-vein, Wordship does manage to transcend the definition and I, at least, feel compelled to just shut down that kind of simplistic genre-jockeying. The long pieces Soul Searching and A Debris Ov Murder are like two very throbbing and hard working gristles, flanked by recurring organic themes and twists, yet always with distinctly different poetries and paces. Genesis' lyrics and the overall performance on this album are still among the finest I've ever heard.

So it is with pride and joy I announce that the album is now available in the digisphere. Listen on Spotify and/or buy where you buy. Please buy from the Highbrow Lowlife web shop if you like (this would make us happy). No matter what, tune in, stay focused, and you will be immersed in a lovely, emotional, haunting, sad, desperate and disparate soul searching megatrip unlike any other. Safe journeys!

All material on this blog is copyright © Carl Abrahamsson, unless otherwise stated.

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PTV & White Stains: "At Stockholm" revisited

Genesis P-Orridge at around the time of recording AT STOCKHOLM. 

At Stockholm was the first full length album by White Stains. After a turbulent first year of existence, circa 1987-1988, the band had evolved from loud psychedelic rock to considerably more experimental vibes. A great instigator of this change was Thomas Tibert, who became an integrated member late 1988. This intersectional dynamic is clearly audible when listening to material from the era. Compare, for instance, the two final "93" singles (The Awareness and The Result) – essentially pop music in contemporary clothes – with the first ever White Stains performance at the Hultsfred festival of 1989: violent and experimental ad-libbing.

Other interesting things happened at the time too. I made plans with Genesis P-Orridge to set up a Scandinavian spoken word tour for a mini-version of Psychick TV, ie Genesis and then wife Paula. There were some poetry festivals occuring here at around the same time, so we traveled to Copenhagen and Gothenburg, and then also did one in Stockholm. The gigs were more like performances than readings, as there was backing music and live tape manipulations. In all, a very trippy mix of lightheadedness and heavy duty existentialist spiritual poetry.

While in Stockholm, we recorded readings of approximately the same texts that had been used live. This was in Thomas' wonderful home studio (called The Reality Studio, as a nod of appreciation to the 23rd mind of William Burroughs), where also all of the White Stains material was recorded, from The Awareness single up to the The Somewhat Lost Horizon soundtracks.

Genesis was ultra-professional (as always) and as far as I can recall most of the recordings were "first takes". After this wonderful and impressive experience, Thomas and me merged the voice and tape recordings with the White Stains tracks we had prepared before, during and after the visit. We also had help from the very talented Per Aronsson in the structuring of things.

Then the project took on a life of its own. My newly started publishing company Psychick Release also acted as a record label (or vice versa), and took on the challenge to release the album. In 1990, it came out and was very well received. The flow aspect with 70 minutes of non-indexed music was appreciated, as it facilitated/facilitates focused listening and not just impulsive track skipping.

Later on, the album was re-released on CD by Etherworld (US, 1995 approx) and Voiceprint (UK, 2004). It was even later on released as an LP by Vinyl On Demand (Germany, 2011, as part of a beautiful Psychick TV box set), and has always had a presence somewhere, somehow. I even saw a bootleg of the Psychick Release edition in Russia in 2007 – truly an honor, as it was so amazingly well made.

But now it's back to the old homestead again, as Highbrow Lowlife presents the full 70 minute flow version again, remastered by Thomas Tibert for your uninhibited listening pleasure.

To celebrate this release we have posted a classic video clip from the era, aptly called At Stockholm, at the YouTube Channel. It was made by Fetish 23 in 1990 for the Psychick Release Video Trance Mission, vol 1. It features Super-8 footage of our little Temple Ov Psychick Youth spoken word tour with Genesis in 1989, including meetings with Nick Cave and Freddie Wadling. There will be more videos from this era uploaded soon.

AT STOCKHOLM 2013 REMASTER is available all over the digisphere from September 19th, 2013. Purchase includes a PDF booklet containing all the lyrics. Why not get this album straight from Highbrow Lowlife's own web shop? If you'd like to listen before buying, try Spotify or other quality music streaming services. Thank you.

All material on this blog is copyright © Carl Abrahamsson, unless otherwise stated.

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The Best Album Ever?

The recent re-release on vinyl of Psychic TV’s 1983 album Dreams Less Sweet has made me ponder one of those very important questions in life… Could it be that this is actually the best album ever made? The more I listen to it, the more convinced I get.

In general, I’m conservative in terms of taste and it’s been very hard for me to realise that The Stooges’ Funhouse or Rolling Stones’ Exile on Main Street perhaps no longer fill the emotional voids of yesteryear. I can still enjoy them, and occasionally do, but not in the same compensatory way like when I was 15. But that is merely a personal perspective of course. Life changes. Musical tastes change with it.

Which albums are still flawless on every level 30 years after their release? Well, those two rock’n’roll classics certainly are, I’d say (and then we’re talking more than 40 years!). Probably a few others. But if we zoom back to 1983, what was going on that still remains fresh and interesting today? Not much, right?

Throbbing Gristle had already re-created or corrupted the concept of an album and made the experience as much an intellectual merry-go-round as a sensual one. Although existentially dark and steeped in harsh, late 70s UK life, TG brought revelation upon revelation to the generation that wasn’t satisfied with merely the three chord simplicity of punk. Not only was an element of intellectual adventure brought in. The very idea or concept of what an album could actually be was dropped like a smart bomb in the cesspool of clever and self-indulgent nihilism of the era.

This openmindedness in structure and magical planting was developed further on Psychic TV’s debut album Force the Hand of Chance (1982), but only to a degree. The focus here seemed to be to corrupt expectations post-TG more than anything else. Soft-sung pop ballads and quite conventional music surely made some die-hard TG fans twitch, but in general it was a pleasant new direction.

If Force the Hand of Chance was the smooth antithesis to TG in general, then the synthesis that followed turned out in every way perfect. Dreams Less Sweet is so well balanced in its content and form, so imbued with overt messages and esoteric secrets, so intricate in its concoctions and so simple in its totality that I fail to find a similarly perfect album.

If we stick to the non-postmodern approach first, ie rub off all the programmatic raisons d’être and just leave it to the ears (preferably snugly stuck in good headphones), we are sucked in by a church organ and into a serene… The Orchids… What a masterpiece! Genesis P-Orridge’s frail voice and exquisite lyrics are matched by a simple orchestral arrangement, with oboe and marimbas. How unlikely was that arrangement at the time?

On to Botanica, with violent drumming and musique concrète elements, sliding into Iron Glove, an almost Morriconesque backing track to a recorded telephone poem (read by TG- and PTV-collaborator Monte Cazazza)… Always is Always Forever, a choral ”arrangement” for solo voice, followed by a 60s-inspired pop ballad, White Nights, again centered around P-Orridge’s voice in a mi(d)st of Beach Boys vibes. Followed by another high contrast twist, Finale, with machine guns, fire, snarling dogs and martial trumpets.

Eleusis is another vocal piece, with added percussive glass-like elements, perhaps to accentuate frailty in power or vice versa. Medmenham brings in forceful Tibetan Thighbone trumpets, seductively swirling in stereo. Ancient Lights: a collage of vocals, telephones, traffic sounds, karate instructions and more. Proof on Survival…”Do not be deterred by little results… Persevere…” (with sounds of someone being buried, in this case the microphonic head called ”Ringo”)

Eden 1: A frenzied telephone collage turns into experimental minimalist ”rock”… And tattooing sounds… Eden 2: More chorals… Eden 3: TG-sounding aggression, soon to be pleasantly contrasted by Clouds without Water… The soundtrack to a 1920s stroll on the English counryside…? Black Moon sounds like Lou Reedish basic pop…”The little boy, a living ghost…”

Silver and Gold: Ethereal Tibetan singing bowls… Followed by the ”smash hit” (in the literal sense) In the Nursery… Inner spiritual visions recounted to violent music…”Without is without in the nursery…”

Circle ends the album… A single flute in emotional farewells, actually bordering on the sentimental… Not so much "El Condor Pasa" but perhaps "El Condom Plaza"…? Because when the music’s over and the album’s over your mind has truly and genuinely been boinked, severely and pleasantly so.

If we jump back on the postmodern bandwagon and take a look at what’s there on the programmatic level, we find a multitude of references that further thickens and makes potent the already beautiful structure. Always is Always Forever is the classic Manson Family song, here revamped into high seriousness. Clouds without Water is the title of an Aleister Crowley book from 1909. The emotional tone of Crowley’s poems surely resonates well with Dreams Less Sweet:

”All hope of life even from the rare sad seeds

It blows from sunnier vales and happier hills,

Though at best they be but worthless weeds.

I stand – I scan the infinite horizon

Of hopeless hope – yet I must travel on.”

(Clouds without Water, ”The Hermit”)

Medmenham was the place where Sir Francis Dashwood gathered his acolytes in the caves of his infamous Hell Fire Club. Incidentally the same caves where the Tibetan singing bowls of Silver and Gold were recorded.

The sounds of ”Mr Sebastian” (a pioneer of genital and other kinds of piercing in the UK) tattooing a young Geoff Rushton/Jhon Balance. Eleusis, the initiatory environment/temple in ancient Greece that allowed its chosen few to see beyond the veil of ordinary life, very likely through hallucinogenics. The ”Nursery” was the term for the ritual space/temple of the PTV related order/group Thee Temple Ov Psychick Youth. Burroughs-references are here too (and Burroughs’ ”second mind” Brion Gysin is thanked in the sleeve notes). And everything was recorded with ”holophonic” sound, an Ersatz kind of stereo that does indeed create quite an eerie presence (as mentioned before, listen in headphones). Et cetera.

In all, the form and the content add up to a shockingly wealthy impression of sub- and occultural magnificence. It’s not an ”experimental” album. It’s not a haphazard attempt at being clever either. It’s truly a sui generis piece of art that just happened to manifest in sounds and words. A journal of inner experimentation, an invaluable example of artistic courage.

Yes, now I can see (and hear) it clearly: Dreams Less Sweet is indeed my favourite album. Whether it's the best one ever, I leave to you to decide.

Dreams Less Sweet in now available on vinyl in a special 2013 edition from ANGRY LOVE!

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