Search - Throbbing Gristle :: Dimensia in Excelsis

TG at their live coherent best

Charlie | Chicago, IL United States | 07/17/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Genesis P-Orridge once stated in an interview that the LA show was the most violent and chaotic shows TG ever performed. The city of angels literally seeps in the Gristle psyche and pounds them to their knees. I have both Mission of Dead Souls and this disc and I must say that this is TG at its live best. The LA show especially. It does not contain "Walkabout" or "Hot on the Heels of Love" or any other Abba excuse. What it does contain is the most nihilistic of its artistic visions. This is the disc I play when I have a bad day- just crank it way up- IS IT LOUD ENOUGH FOR YOU! LLLLOOOOOUUUUUDDDDDDD! It is about as nasty as Slug Bait off of 2nd Annual Report cd which is just as good. Not for the faint of heart or even the so-called open-minded, this music actually bludgeons the listener and I am glad to own a piece of history. Besides a video of Discipline (Cleopatra has this on one of their dvds) this is a full length (TG only played an hour at a time) sonic masterpiece. If there are any serious Throbbing Gristle fans out there, skip all the Kreeme Corn and Assume Power Focus...that eerily seems to be poorly remixed 2nd Annual Report and get something that shows TG at their best."

Wonderfully chaotic.

Andrij B. Kopytko | PA | 12/07/1998

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This CD, Throbbing Gristle's first US live show, at Veterans Auditorium in Los Angeles, CA in May of 1981, is an amazing disconcert in true TG style. This is, I believe, the first time this show has been available on CD (although, there _may_ have been a bootleg release of it a few years ago) and I can't express how glad I am to finally be able to own it. This is most certainly the most chaotic and truly noisey of the live recordings from TG I have ever heard, although this is partly due to the slightly sub-par quality of the recording (it sounds like it was possibly an audience recording), but honestly, the quality only -helps- in TG's case. Like the previous Dossier releases, the track-listing isn't exactly 100% on-the-dot "Still Walking" and "Principia Disciplinia" are the only songs that retain anything close to their original names. However, surprisingly for a Dossier TG release, Peter Christopherson's name finally appears in the credits! This CD is a must for anyone who is a fan of the chaotic "industrial" noise of Throbbing Gristle, but I really don't think I suggest it to a newcomer to the band."