released: 04-01-2007label: mute records
The inventors or Industrial music are back with all jackhammers a-blazing with what is probably their most anticipated release: "Part Two: The Endless Not". Right away the listener is bombarded with terrible screeches and metallic scrapes with a rhythm track resembling the sound of an impending doom in "Vow Of Silence". With Genesis P-Orridge's heavily manipulated and sarcastic vocals sounding like little imps from a demented children's storybook thrown in for good measure (just in case you aren't scared yet), it is anything but silent.
And after all that noise we are treated with a jazz/avante-garde number with "Rabbit Snare". Mind you, this is not jazz music for the faint-hearted. I would even say it's not for the common jazz aficionado. It's about single note bass crawls, minimalist cornet courtesy of Cosey Fanni Tutti, and devilish, breathing piano licks and stabs. It also contains, in my opinion, one of their eeriest lyrics. Imagine atop all that horror-jazz music hearing P-Orridge's sinister voice singing "...do you love me...why are you scared...do you love me...are you scared...is this insidious...is this inside of us..." in all it's reverberated glory. Nothing really special lyrically you might say, but wait until you hear it coming out of P-Orridge's mouth.
One of the album's highlights here for me is the song "Almost A Kiss". It is so beautifully written that in the wrong hands this could easily be turned into a radio-friendly number. Luckily for us it fell in TG's hands. It is a ballad complete with mallets, lush strings and choir samples that seem like voices of weeping angels, empathizing with the author. It's the kind of song that can make all the small hairs on the back of your neck and arms stand on end. I wish I had written it acually.
Another great track is "Lyre Liar", a slow, heavy dirge of a song that sounds like it could be the musical score of purgatory. With this track, TG proves to their fans once again why they are the undisputed arbiters of industrial music. Simply no other band can do it the way they do. Of course worth mentioning is the title track with its nauseating backbeat and the metal-machine noises we have come to love from TG. And I'm pretty sure "The Worm Waits Its Turn" would be a fan favorite from this album. It starts of as an ambient sounding track with beat poetry by P-Orridge. Then halfway into the song a seemingly innocent drum beat appears that's no different from the drum loops we have heard so many times before...it could have easily been used in a Pizzicato5 song or an electro-clash track. But in a TG context, with Genesis declaring "...10,000 maggots feeding...", it does sound like marching music for the worms, preparing to take over us all.
Much thanks to Throbbing Gristle for patching and welding things up - nuts, bolts and all. I guess like lovers, all they needed was time apart from each other. Because it is apparent in this album that the several-years break did them all a lot of good. Another iPod staple.
visit throbbing gristle's official site
read pitchforkmedia's review
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