Psychic TV
Encyclopedia
Psychic TV or PTV, is a video art and music group that primarily performs psychedelic, punk, electronic and experimental music. The band was formed by performance artist Genesis P-Orridge
and video director Peter Christopherson
(after the breakup of Throbbing Gristle
) with Alex Fergusson
, musician and producer (a key member of Alternative TV
for whom P-Orridge had played percussion).
The band began publishing a monthly series of 23 live albums in 1986, but stopped without explanation after only 17. The tenth, a picture disk most commonly referred to as Album 10
, could only be obtained by submitting tokens contained in each of the previous nine releases. The band subsequently earned an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records for most records released in one year.
Contributors to Psychic TV have included artists such as Coil
, Current 93
, Hafler Trio
, The Cult
, White Stains
, Soft Cell
, Fred Giannelli
, XKP, Master Musicians of Jajouka, Matthew Best, Daniel Simon Black, Bill Breeze
, Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson
, Derek Jarman
, John Gosling
, Timothy Leary
, Rose McDowall
, Stephen Kent, Vagina Dentata Organ, Andrew Weatherall
, Larry Thrasher
, Z'EV
, Zef Noi$e, and many others.
Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth
(aka T.O.P.Y.), was formed as an organisation at the same time as the band. T.O.P.Y. was intended to be the philosophical wing of Psychic TV, but also presented an image of being a cult-like fanclub for the group. P-Orridge left it in 1991.
Psychic TV released early albums of acid house
music in (1988) as fake compilations, such as Jack The Tab and Tekno Acid Beat
. After breaking up in 1999, Psychic TV reformed as PTV3 with a new line-up in 2003.
, upon whose 1978 album Vibing Up The Senile Man (Part One) P-Orridge had played percussion, and contributed the latter half of the name Psychic TV http://www.genesisp-orridge.com/index.php?section=article&album_id=58. Peter Christopherson got involved in 1982 and claimed that the 'TV' component of the name was intended to focus on the visual elements of the outfit.
P-Orridge once claimed that "Psychic TV is a video group who does music unlike a music group which makes music videos". Similarities can be seen in the artwork for Alternative TV and early Psychic TV releases, with a recurring pastiche on the 'as seen on TV' marketing style.
In the earliest live performances, Psychic TV maintained much of the noisy atmosphere as P-Orridge's previous band, Throbbing Gristle, although now with an increased use of exotic acoustic drums and other instruments. Psychic TV were signed to WEA Records
and subsequently CBS
based on the infamy of Throbbing Gristle.
Their first albums Force The Hand Of Chance
and Dreams Less Sweet
featured high production values, catchy pop songs written by Fergusson (with barbershop quartet vocals arranged by Andrew Pearson), and sound experiments primarily created by Peter Christopherson
and Geff Rushton, a.k.a. John Balance
- foreshadowing the pair's later work as Coil
. Marc Almond
was also involved.
The live shows continued to bear improvised noise elements until Peter Christopherson left the group and Fergusson implemented musicians capable of improvisational pop music, known as hyperdelic, such as that featured on the singles Godstar and Roman P. This led to an intended series of 23 live show recordings being released, which dominated most of Psychic TV's output until 1988. In the event only 17 were released. Towards the end of this period Fergusson/P-Orridge completed their third proper studio album Allegory and Self
: Thee Starlit Mire. It was at this point that P-Orridge became interested in acid house and techno. Alex Fergusson left and was replaced with techno artist Fred Giannelli.
, Dave Ball from Soft Cell, Richard Norris who later formed the Grid with Dave Ball, John Gosling, engineer Richard Evans and other techno artists released music not only as Psychic TV, but also a variety of 'fake' names. The idea behind this was to release 'compilations' of these imaginary artists, creating a sense that a healthy acid house scene existed in the UK. The key studio albums of this period were Jack The Tab, Tekno Acid Beat, Towards Thee Infinite Beat and Beyond Thee Infinite Beat (2x12" remixes which could be played at 33 or 45 rpm), as almost all of the live shows in this period were based around the songs on these albums. From '88-90 PTV was very stable as a live unit and did more gigs and touring than any other version of PTV before or after. A long tour of the USA and UK in 1988, Europe in 1989 and another long tour of the USA in 1990.
In 1990, Psychic TV released the song "I.C. Water" as a 7" and 12" single on the 10 year anniversary of the death of Ian Curtis. The sleeve was a hand drawn image of Ian Curtis derived from a famous photograph. The song was from the album "Towards Thee Infinite Beat".
In the early 1990s, Vice-President of Elektra Records, Howard Thompson took an interest in signing Psychic TV. He explained that he was going to take a one year sabbatical from the music industry and he had been asked to run a major independent record label and he wanted to sign Psychic TV to that label. The label was in fact, Herb Alpert's and Jerry Moss's new imprint Almo Sounds, after the sale of A & M Records. Studio time was booked and Genesis P-Orridge, Fred Giannelli and Matthew Best went in to Brilliant Studios in San Francisco to record demos. Four tracks were recorded and rough mixes delivered and were rejected by Almo Sounds. The songs were entitled: "Snowflake", "Intoxication", "E-Lusive" and "Avatar".
painting to Chris Stein from Blondie
for $10,000 US dollars which financed the trip. They also spent some time with Tibetan refugees, and instead of returning to the UK chose to go into "self-imposed exile". This was after a video he had created was falsely presented as evidence of Satanic ritual abuse
in an edition of Channel 4 TV's Dispatches
. The programme was later discredited, though not before his house was raided by the police and the allegations had been repeated in the tabloid press. He said that he felt he would not get a fair hearing if he returned to England, so the family moved to California.
Shortly after moving to the US, P-Orridge underwent a divorce which traumatized him immensely. Most of the output during this period was made up of re-releases of earlier albums, especially by industrial music record labels who released the albums as a "paying of respects" to the founder of industrial music
.
(founder of Silent Records) introduced P-Orridge to Larry Thrasher
, co-founder of the mid 80's San Francisco experimental noise band Thessalonians. This began a new period with Psychic TV returning to its psychedelic pop roots with Thrasher co-producing and co-writing the critically acclaimed Trip/Reset
as well as the album "Cold Blue Torch" and new experimental explorations which centered around the spoken word poetry of P-orridge in releases like "Thee Fractured Garden" and "Breathe". "Thee Fractured Garden" was a seminal example of this period where Psychic TV blended ambient music
, samples and sound collages with spoken word
. This eventually led P-Orridge and Thrasher to the create several offshoot groups Splinter Test
and later Thee Majesty
, which focused on the spoken word and sonic experiments.
Other notable releases upon which P-Orridge collaborated with Thrasher were the Electric Newspapers, a series of open source
sample releases that blurred the sampling CD concept with a stream of consciousness listening experience. Material from the Electric Newspaper series of releases (there are six in total, but only four have been released) is mostly taken from the CDs PTV released with Thrasher along with contributors such as Skinny Puppy
and other notable musical allies of this time.
The original motivation for the Electric Newspaper series was to ensure that the PTV sample files were archived after the loss of the entire PTV sampling library in the dramatic five alarm fire at the Houdini Mansion on Laurel Canyon
in Hollywood. This fire, which burned down the 18000 sq ft (1,672.3 m²) mansion, left P-Orridge in the intensive care unit at Cedar Sinai hospital with life-threatening injuries after he (along with members of the band Love and Rockets
) jumped from their bedroom windows to escape the flames. Results of this event sent P-Orridge on a two-year health sabbatical to recover, during which he was involved in a million dollar lawsuit against Rick Rubin
, who owned the Houdini Mansion. P-Orridge won the case, but was left with a metal plate and eight screws in his permanently disabled and reconstructed arm.
In 1998 P-Orridge announced that he primarily wanted to move into spoken word, which is when Campagna left the band to pursue his own projects, and turned to focus on Thee Majesty
with musical lineup of Larry Thrasher and Bryin Dall. Thee Majesty continues to perform to large halls and galleries in Europe playing improvised sound sculpture to mostly improvised spoken word and they released a CD called "Time's Up" up 1999.
In 2005, the Voiceprint record label in England re-released several older Psychic TV and Genesis P-Orridge albums under the name Thee Majesty, and also a new album recorded with the band Cotton Ferox. Also, a 2005 release "Mary Never Wanted Jesus" credited to Genesis P-Orridge & Thee Majesty featured archive PTV material alongside new Thee Majesty recordings. PTV, as a rock entity, had a "final show" in 1999 at The Royal Festival Hall
in London
. This show also marked the end of P-Orridge's exile from the UK.
With encouragement from drummer Eddie O'Dowd (Toilet Boys
), Genesis reformed Psychic TV with an all new lineup, returning to the stage in 2003 with a concert in New York under the guise of PTV3. The concert featured video projections by Sam Zimmerman (Crash Worship
). In September 2004, an extensive tour of Europe (covering 16 countries) and North America was launched. 2005 saw the band return to the studio, recording their first album in over 10 years (P-Orridge also spent 2005 working with Throbbing Gristle
on their first album in over 25 years). Additionally, a few more dates were performed in Europe throughout the year. In January 2006, the new PTV album was announced by P-Orridge on his website. Hell is Invisible...Heaven is Her/E, the album, was recorded in New York and features Nick Zinner
(Yeah Yeah Yeahs
) and Gibby Haynes
(Butthole Surfers
) guesting on some tracks. P-Orridge describes it as "The Dark Side of the Moon
for the 21st century". Released in 2007 (Northern Hemisphere). http://www.genesisp-orridge.com/index.php?section=news&id=58&album_id=1 In February 2007 Side-Line
announced the news that the Fee Lee record label released a Psychic TV live album, "Live in Russia".
Concerts in 2006 included Sheffield, Birmingham and London, UK, as well as Brussels, Amsterdam and Moscow.
The 2006 line up:
The 2006 shows included an 'all new video light show' by Sterile Cowboys & Co. (a.k.a. Nicolas Jenkins) – three screens of heavily overlaid video with the middle screen overlaid by yet another layer of "analog" projections including moiréd overlays and liquid/oil effects performed by "something human" aka Caleigh Fisher a friend from the TOPY years. Videos from the upcoming album and DVDs were previewed as works in process. Much of the video work revolves around Breyer P-Orridges exploration of the 'pandrogyne'.
In 2007 Psychic TV played at the ZXZW festival.
Lady Jaye died suddenly on Tuesday 9 October 2007 at home in Brooklyn, New York from a previously undiagnosed heart condition which is thought to have been connected with her long-term battle with stomach cancer. Lady Jaye collapsed and died in the arms of her heartbroken love Genesis Breyer P-Orridge.
Psychic TV's current incarnation, PTV3, has recently released the new CD/DVD set, Mr. Alien Brain vs. The Skinwalkers. The album, which was released on December 9, 2008, was the first full length release since the death of Genesis' "other half," Jaye Breyer (best known as Lady Jaye), due to heart failure. The two had previously embarked on a years-long pursuit of pandrogyny, undergoing painful plastic surgery procedures in order to become gender-neutral human beings that looked like each other.
on Tuesday September 5, 2006. PTV3 performed several songs on WFMU
in Jersey City on Thursday September 7. The band were interviewed as well. This was the first time ever Psychic TV had played live on air.
To inaugurate the release of HELL IS INVISIBLE...HEAVEN IS HER/E, PTV3 hosted a five night residency in September 2006 at Galapagos Art Space in Williamsburg, Brooklyn
, USA, followed by the above mentioned tour.
On November 4, 2009 Genesis P-Orridge announced via his website, "Genesis Breyer P-Orridge is retiring from touring in any and all bands including TG to concentrate on art, writing and music."
Genesis P-Orridge
Genesis Breyer P-Orridge is an English singer-songwriter, musician, writer and artist. P-Orridge's early confrontational performance work in COUM Transmissions in the late 1960s and early 1970s along with the industrial band Throbbing Gristle, which dealt with subjects such as prostitution,...
and video director Peter Christopherson
Peter Christopherson
Peter Martin Christopherson, a.k.a. Sleazy was a musician, video director and designer, and former member of the influential British design agency Hipgnosis....
(after the breakup of Throbbing Gristle
Throbbing Gristle
Throbbing Gristle were an English industrial, avant-garde music and visual arts group that evolved from the performance art group COUM Transmissions...
) with Alex Fergusson
Alex Fergusson (musician)
Alex Fergusson is a Scottish guitarist / record producer.Fergusson formed the punk band Alternative TV with Mark Perry in 1977, and a few years later Psychic TV with Genesis P Orridge...
, musician and producer (a key member of Alternative TV
Alternative TV
Alternative TV were an English rock band, formed in London in 1976. Their punk rock and post-punk sound was influential for several musical artists.-History:...
for whom P-Orridge had played percussion).
The band began publishing a monthly series of 23 live albums in 1986, but stopped without explanation after only 17. The tenth, a picture disk most commonly referred to as Album 10
Album 10
Album 10 is the tenth album in the series of live albums by Psychic TV. Only 1,000 individually numbered picture disc LPs were available , to collectors of the previous nine albums in the series.Additional performers included: Caresse P-Orridge, Richard Evans and Vale.-Track listing:Side...
, could only be obtained by submitting tokens contained in each of the previous nine releases. The band subsequently earned an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records for most records released in one year.
Contributors to Psychic TV have included artists such as Coil
Coil (band)
Coil were an English cross-genre, experimental music group formed in 1982 by John Balance—later credited as "Jhonn Balance"—and his partner Peter Christopherson, aka "Sleazy". The duo worked together on a series of releases before Balance chose the name Coil, which he claimed to be...
, Current 93
Current 93
Current 93 is an eclectic British experimental music group, working since the early 1980s in folk-based musical forms. The band was founded in 1982 by David Tibet .-Background:Tibet has been the only constant in the group, though Steven Stapleton has appeared on...
, Hafler Trio
Hafler Trio
The Hafler Trio is a conceptual and sound art collaborative between Andrew M. McKenzie, the only permanent member, and guest musicians. The project has seen the release of numerous albums and CDs in experimental musical styles ranging from electronica, cut-up, ambient, environmental soundscape,...
, The Cult
The Cult
The Cult are a British rock band that was formed in 1983. They gained a dedicated following in Britain in the mid 1980s as a post-punk band with singles such as "She Sells Sanctuary", before breaking mainstream in the United States in the late 1980s as a hard rock band with singles such as "Love...
, White Stains
White Stains
White Stains is a poetic work written by English author and occultist Aleister Crowley under the pseudonym "George Archibald Bishop". It was published in 1898 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands....
, Soft Cell
Soft Cell
Soft Cell are an English synthpop duo who came to prominence in the early 1980s. They consist of vocalist Marc Almond and instrumentalist David Ball. The duo is most widely known for their 1981 worldwide hit version of "Tainted Love" and platinum debut Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret...
, Fred Giannelli
Fred Giannelli
Fred Giannelli is an electronic musician born 1960 in Lowell, Massachusetts. He began experimenting with electronics in the late 1970s as Turning Shrines. In 1984, Giannelli met Psychic TV's Genesis P. Orridge while the group was in Boston for a gig. This led to Giannelli eventually flying to...
, XKP, Master Musicians of Jajouka, Matthew Best, Daniel Simon Black, Bill Breeze
William Breeze
William Breeze was born in Paris, France on 12 August 1955 and is an American musician and occultist, best known as a member of Coil and as the current international leader of Ordo Templi Orientis...
, Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson
Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson
Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson , also known as HÖH , is a musician, an art director, and allsherjargoði of Ásatrúarfélagið ....
, Derek Jarman
Derek Jarman
Michael Derek Elworthy Jarman was an English film director, stage designer, diarist, artist, gardener and author.-Life:...
, John Gosling
John "Zos Kia" Gosling
-Biography:John Gosling , currently known as Mekon is a British big beat and Industrial musician and electronica producer....
, Timothy Leary
Timothy Leary
Timothy Francis Leary was an American psychologist and writer, known for his advocacy of psychedelic drugs. During a time when drugs like LSD and psilocybin were legal, Leary conducted experiments at Harvard University under the Harvard Psilocybin Project, resulting in the Concord Prison...
, Rose McDowall
Rose McDowall
Rose McDowall is a Scottish musician, most notably as a vocalist in the pop band Strawberry Switchblade.-History:...
, Stephen Kent, Vagina Dentata Organ, Andrew Weatherall
Andrew Weatherall
Andrew Weatherall is a DJ, producer, and remixer.Andrew, Terry Farley, Cymon Eckel and Steve Mayes started Boy's Own initially as a fanzine commenting on fashion, records, football, and other issues...
, Larry Thrasher
Larry Thrasher
Larry Thrasher is an American experimental musician, remixer, and producer. [] Thrasher was an important member of Psychic TV, Thee Majesty and Splinter Test. In addition, Thrasher is in collaboration with Kim Cascone on the experimental noise project Thessalonians. He is credited under the...
, Z'EV
Z'EV
Z'EV is an American poet, percussionist, and sound artist. After studying various world music traditions at CalArts, he began creating his own percussion sounds out of industrial materials for a variety of record labels...
, Zef Noi$e, and many others.
Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth
Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth
Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth or TOPY was a fellowship founded in 1981 by members of Psychic TV, Coil, Current 93, and a number of other individuals...
(aka T.O.P.Y.), was formed as an organisation at the same time as the band. T.O.P.Y. was intended to be the philosophical wing of Psychic TV, but also presented an image of being a cult-like fanclub for the group. P-Orridge left it in 1991.
Psychic TV released early albums of acid house
Acid house
Acid house is a sub-genre of house music that emphasizes a repetitive, hypnotic and trance-like style, often with samples or spoken lines rather than sung lyrics. Acid house's core electronic squelch sounds were developed around the mid-1980s, particularly by DJs from Chicago who experimented with...
music in (1988) as fake compilations, such as Jack The Tab and Tekno Acid Beat
Tekno Acid Beat
Tekno Acid Beat is an album of material by Psychic TV released under the guise of a various artists compilation album. The album was later reissued alongside Jack The Tab - Acid Tablets Volume One on Wax Trax! as Jack The Tab/Tekno Acid Beat.-CD:...
. After breaking up in 1999, Psychic TV reformed as PTV3 with a new line-up in 2003.
History of the band
Since Genesis P-Orridge primarily wrote the lyrics instead of the music, he would assemble different groups of musicians together to create the music. This accounts for the changing musical nature of PTV. Thus the history of Psychic TV can be broken up into the periods of the main songwriter that was working with him at the time.1981-1987: Alexander Fergusson period
Psychic TV was formed with the core membership of Genesis P-Orridge and Alex Fergusson in 1981. Alexander Fergusson was a member of the punk outfit Alternative TVAlternative TV
Alternative TV were an English rock band, formed in London in 1976. Their punk rock and post-punk sound was influential for several musical artists.-History:...
, upon whose 1978 album Vibing Up The Senile Man (Part One) P-Orridge had played percussion, and contributed the latter half of the name Psychic TV http://www.genesisp-orridge.com/index.php?section=article&album_id=58. Peter Christopherson got involved in 1982 and claimed that the 'TV' component of the name was intended to focus on the visual elements of the outfit.
P-Orridge once claimed that "Psychic TV is a video group who does music unlike a music group which makes music videos". Similarities can be seen in the artwork for Alternative TV and early Psychic TV releases, with a recurring pastiche on the 'as seen on TV' marketing style.
In the earliest live performances, Psychic TV maintained much of the noisy atmosphere as P-Orridge's previous band, Throbbing Gristle, although now with an increased use of exotic acoustic drums and other instruments. Psychic TV were signed to WEA Records
Warner Music Group
Warner Music Group is the third largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry, making it one of the big four record companies...
and subsequently CBS
CBS Records
CBS Records is a record label founded by CBS Corporation in 2006 to take advantage of music from its entertainment properties owned by CBS Television Studios. The initial label roster consisted of only three artists; rock band Señor Happy and singer/songwriters Will Dailey and P.J...
based on the infamy of Throbbing Gristle.
Their first albums Force The Hand Of Chance
Force the Hand of Chance
Force The Hand Of Chance was the debut album of English group Psychic TV. The initial 5,000 pressings included Themes and a poster.The album spawned the single "Just Drifting".-Track listing:...
and Dreams Less Sweet
Dreams Less Sweet
Dreams Less Sweet is the second proper album by Psychic TV. The album was released in Holophonic sound.-1983 12" vinyl pressing:Side A:#"Hymn 23"#*Synthesizer : Andrew Poppy#"The Orchids"#*Oboe: Jessica Ilbert#"Botanica"#"Iron Glove"...
featured high production values, catchy pop songs written by Fergusson (with barbershop quartet vocals arranged by Andrew Pearson), and sound experiments primarily created by Peter Christopherson
Peter Christopherson
Peter Martin Christopherson, a.k.a. Sleazy was a musician, video director and designer, and former member of the influential British design agency Hipgnosis....
and Geff Rushton, a.k.a. John Balance
John Balance
John Balance , born in Mansfield, England, was the founder of the experimental music group Coil, along with his partner Peter Christopherson...
- foreshadowing the pair's later work as Coil
Coil (band)
Coil were an English cross-genre, experimental music group formed in 1982 by John Balance—later credited as "Jhonn Balance"—and his partner Peter Christopherson, aka "Sleazy". The duo worked together on a series of releases before Balance chose the name Coil, which he claimed to be...
. Marc Almond
Marc Almond
Marc Almond is an English singer-songwriter and musician, who originally found fame as half of the seminal synthpop/New Wave duo Soft Cell...
was also involved.
The live shows continued to bear improvised noise elements until Peter Christopherson left the group and Fergusson implemented musicians capable of improvisational pop music, known as hyperdelic, such as that featured on the singles Godstar and Roman P. This led to an intended series of 23 live show recordings being released, which dominated most of Psychic TV's output until 1988. In the event only 17 were released. Towards the end of this period Fergusson/P-Orridge completed their third proper studio album Allegory and Self
Allegory and Self
Allegory And Self is a LP released by Psychic TV in 1988 that comprises a varied selection of their work.Several versions have appeared, including the original picture disc and black vinyl versions in 1988 on Temple Records, Fundamental Records and on pink marbled vinyl...
: Thee Starlit Mire. It was at this point that P-Orridge became interested in acid house and techno. Alex Fergusson left and was replaced with techno artist Fred Giannelli.
1988-1992: Fred Giannelli period
During this period Fred GiannelliFred Giannelli
Fred Giannelli is an electronic musician born 1960 in Lowell, Massachusetts. He began experimenting with electronics in the late 1970s as Turning Shrines. In 1984, Giannelli met Psychic TV's Genesis P. Orridge while the group was in Boston for a gig. This led to Giannelli eventually flying to...
, Dave Ball from Soft Cell, Richard Norris who later formed the Grid with Dave Ball, John Gosling, engineer Richard Evans and other techno artists released music not only as Psychic TV, but also a variety of 'fake' names. The idea behind this was to release 'compilations' of these imaginary artists, creating a sense that a healthy acid house scene existed in the UK. The key studio albums of this period were Jack The Tab, Tekno Acid Beat, Towards Thee Infinite Beat and Beyond Thee Infinite Beat (2x12" remixes which could be played at 33 or 45 rpm), as almost all of the live shows in this period were based around the songs on these albums. From '88-90 PTV was very stable as a live unit and did more gigs and touring than any other version of PTV before or after. A long tour of the USA and UK in 1988, Europe in 1989 and another long tour of the USA in 1990.
In 1990, Psychic TV released the song "I.C. Water" as a 7" and 12" single on the 10 year anniversary of the death of Ian Curtis. The sleeve was a hand drawn image of Ian Curtis derived from a famous photograph. The song was from the album "Towards Thee Infinite Beat".
In the early 1990s, Vice-President of Elektra Records, Howard Thompson took an interest in signing Psychic TV. He explained that he was going to take a one year sabbatical from the music industry and he had been asked to run a major independent record label and he wanted to sign Psychic TV to that label. The label was in fact, Herb Alpert's and Jerry Moss's new imprint Almo Sounds, after the sale of A & M Records. Studio time was booked and Genesis P-Orridge, Fred Giannelli and Matthew Best went in to Brilliant Studios in San Francisco to record demos. Four tracks were recorded and rough mixes delivered and were rejected by Almo Sounds. The songs were entitled: "Snowflake", "Intoxication", "E-Lusive" and "Avatar".
1992-1993: Exile
P-Orridge claimed initially that he was deported, although later admitted that he decided not to return to England from Kathmandu, where he and his family had been on holiday after selling an Austin Osman SpareAustin Osman Spare
Austin Osman Spare was an English artist who developed idiosyncratic magical techniques including automatic writing, automatic drawing and sigilization based on his theories of the relationship between the conscious and unconscious self...
painting to Chris Stein from Blondie
Blondie (band)
Blondie is an American rock band, founded by singer Deborah Harry and guitarist Chris Stein. The band was a pioneer in the early American New Wave and punk scenes of the mid-1970s...
for $10,000 US dollars which financed the trip. They also spent some time with Tibetan refugees, and instead of returning to the UK chose to go into "self-imposed exile". This was after a video he had created was falsely presented as evidence of Satanic ritual abuse
Satanic ritual abuse
Satanic ritual abuse refers to the abuse of a person or animal in a ritual setting or manner...
in an edition of Channel 4 TV's Dispatches
Dispatches (TV series)
Dispatches is the British television current affairs documentary series on Channel 4, first transmitted in 1987. The programme covers issues about British society, politics, health, religion, international current affairs and the environment, usually featuring a mole in an organisation.-Awards:*...
. The programme was later discredited, though not before his house was raided by the police and the allegations had been repeated in the tabloid press. He said that he felt he would not get a fair hearing if he returned to England, so the family moved to California.
Shortly after moving to the US, P-Orridge underwent a divorce which traumatized him immensely. Most of the output during this period was made up of re-releases of earlier albums, especially by industrial music record labels who released the albums as a "paying of respects" to the founder of industrial music
Industrial music
Industrial music is a style of experimental music that draws on transgressive and provocative themes. The term was coined in the mid-1970s with the founding of Industrial Records by the band Throbbing Gristle, and the creation of the slogan "industrial music for industrial people". In general, the...
.
1993-1999: Larry Thrasher period
In 1992 Kim CasconeKim Cascone
Kim Cascone is an American composer of electronic music who is best known for his releases in the ambient, industrial and electro-acoustic genre on his own record company, Silent Records...
(founder of Silent Records) introduced P-Orridge to Larry Thrasher
Larry Thrasher
Larry Thrasher is an American experimental musician, remixer, and producer. [] Thrasher was an important member of Psychic TV, Thee Majesty and Splinter Test. In addition, Thrasher is in collaboration with Kim Cascone on the experimental noise project Thessalonians. He is credited under the...
, co-founder of the mid 80's San Francisco experimental noise band Thessalonians. This began a new period with Psychic TV returning to its psychedelic pop roots with Thrasher co-producing and co-writing the critically acclaimed Trip/Reset
Trip/Reset
Trip Reset is a 1996 album credited to Genesis P-Orridge and Psychic TV featuring The Angels of Light.The title is a colloquialism of P-Orridge's...
as well as the album "Cold Blue Torch" and new experimental explorations which centered around the spoken word poetry of P-orridge in releases like "Thee Fractured Garden" and "Breathe". "Thee Fractured Garden" was a seminal example of this period where Psychic TV blended ambient music
Ambient music
Ambient music is a musical genre that focuses largely on the timbral characteristics of sounds, often organized or performed to evoke an "atmospheric", "visual" or "unobtrusive" quality.- History :...
, samples and sound collages with spoken word
Spoken word
Spoken word is a form of poetry that often uses alliterated prose or verse and occasionally uses metered verse to express social commentary. Traditionally it is in the first person, is from the poet’s point of view and is themed in current events....
. This eventually led P-Orridge and Thrasher to the create several offshoot groups Splinter Test
Splinter Test
Splinter Test was used as group name for Larry Thrasher and Genesis P-Orridge. The name was first used for a box set of reissue of the more experimental material by Psychic TV, and then it was used to issue the spoken words projects of Psychic TV or their instrumental music, before the foundation...
and later Thee Majesty
Thee Majesty
In 1998, Genesis P-Orridge was ending his association with the name Psychic TV, the band he created after the termination of Throbbing Gristle. At the same time, he began conceptualizing Thee Majesty as a spoken word-based project springing from his Splinter Test project with PTV alumnus Larry...
, which focused on the spoken word and sonic experiments.
Other notable releases upon which P-Orridge collaborated with Thrasher were the Electric Newspapers, a series of open source
Open source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
sample releases that blurred the sampling CD concept with a stream of consciousness listening experience. Material from the Electric Newspaper series of releases (there are six in total, but only four have been released) is mostly taken from the CDs PTV released with Thrasher along with contributors such as Skinny Puppy
Skinny Puppy
Skinny Puppy is a Canadian industrial musical group, formed in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada in 1982. The group is widely considered to be the founders of the electro-industrial genre....
and other notable musical allies of this time.
The original motivation for the Electric Newspaper series was to ensure that the PTV sample files were archived after the loss of the entire PTV sampling library in the dramatic five alarm fire at the Houdini Mansion on Laurel Canyon
Laurel Canyon, Los Angeles, California
Laurel Canyon is a canyon neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. It was first developed in the 1910s, and became a part of the city of Los Angeles in 1923 ....
in Hollywood. This fire, which burned down the 18000 sq ft (1,672.3 m²) mansion, left P-Orridge in the intensive care unit at Cedar Sinai hospital with life-threatening injuries after he (along with members of the band Love and Rockets
Love and Rockets (band)
Love and Rockets were an English alternative rock band formed in 1985 by former Bauhaus members Daniel Ash , David J , and Kevin Haskins . Former Bauhaus vocalist Peter Murphy had embarked on a solo career after Bauhaus split in 1983...
) jumped from their bedroom windows to escape the flames. Results of this event sent P-Orridge on a two-year health sabbatical to recover, during which he was involved in a million dollar lawsuit against Rick Rubin
Rick Rubin
Frederick Jay "Rick" Rubin is an American record producer and the co-president of Columbia Records. Along with Russell Simmons, Rubin was the co-founder of Def Jam Records and also established American Recordings...
, who owned the Houdini Mansion. P-Orridge won the case, but was left with a metal plate and eight screws in his permanently disabled and reconstructed arm.
In 1998 P-Orridge announced that he primarily wanted to move into spoken word, which is when Campagna left the band to pursue his own projects, and turned to focus on Thee Majesty
Thee Majesty
In 1998, Genesis P-Orridge was ending his association with the name Psychic TV, the band he created after the termination of Throbbing Gristle. At the same time, he began conceptualizing Thee Majesty as a spoken word-based project springing from his Splinter Test project with PTV alumnus Larry...
with musical lineup of Larry Thrasher and Bryin Dall. Thee Majesty continues to perform to large halls and galleries in Europe playing improvised sound sculpture to mostly improvised spoken word and they released a CD called "Time's Up" up 1999.
In 2005, the Voiceprint record label in England re-released several older Psychic TV and Genesis P-Orridge albums under the name Thee Majesty, and also a new album recorded with the band Cotton Ferox. Also, a 2005 release "Mary Never Wanted Jesus" credited to Genesis P-Orridge & Thee Majesty featured archive PTV material alongside new Thee Majesty recordings. PTV, as a rock entity, had a "final show" in 1999 at The Royal Festival Hall
Royal Festival Hall
The Royal Festival Hall is a 2,900-seat concert, dance and talks venue within Southbank Centre in London. It is situated on the South Bank of the River Thames, not far from Hungerford Bridge. It is a Grade I listed building - the first post-war building to become so protected...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. This show also marked the end of P-Orridge's exile from the UK.
2003-present: PTV3, Eddie O'Dowd Period
Toilet Boys
Toilet Böys are an American rock and roll band from New York City, USA. The band's original line-up is made up of Miss Guy, Sean Pierce, Electric Eddie, Rocket, and Adam Vomit. Toilet Böys have toured world-wide supporting musical acts such as Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nashville Pussy, Orgy, The...
), Genesis reformed Psychic TV with an all new lineup, returning to the stage in 2003 with a concert in New York under the guise of PTV3. The concert featured video projections by Sam Zimmerman (Crash Worship
Crash Worship
Crash Worship or ADRV was a San Diego based experimental-aktionist-industrial-noise performance group formed in 1986. Most renowned for its live shows in which three stand-up percussionists hammered out concussive poly-rhythms to abstract mutated guitar, synthesizers, effects and dualling vocalists...
). In September 2004, an extensive tour of Europe (covering 16 countries) and North America was launched. 2005 saw the band return to the studio, recording their first album in over 10 years (P-Orridge also spent 2005 working with Throbbing Gristle
Throbbing Gristle
Throbbing Gristle were an English industrial, avant-garde music and visual arts group that evolved from the performance art group COUM Transmissions...
on their first album in over 25 years). Additionally, a few more dates were performed in Europe throughout the year. In January 2006, the new PTV album was announced by P-Orridge on his website. Hell is Invisible...Heaven is Her/E, the album, was recorded in New York and features Nick Zinner
Nick Zinner
Nicholas Joseph Zinner is the guitarist for the New York rock band Yeah Yeah Yeahs. He is known for his "unmistakable" wild hair, skinny physique, and pale appearance...
(Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Yeah Yeah Yeahs are an American indie rock band formed in New York City in 2000. The group is composed of vocalist and pianist Karen O, guitarist and keyboardist Nick Zinner, and drummer Brian Chase. They are complemented in live performances by second guitarist David Pajo, who joined as a touring...
) and Gibby Haynes
Gibby Haynes
Gibson Jerome "Gibby" Haynes is an American musician, radio personality, and painter, and the lead singer of the group Butthole Surfers.-Early life and career:...
(Butthole Surfers
Butthole Surfers
Butthole Surfers is an American alternative rock band formed by Gibby Haynes and Paul Leary in San Antonio, Texas in 1981. The band has had numerous personnel changes, but its core lineup of Haynes, Leary, and drummer King Coffey has been consistent since 1983. Teresa Nervosa served as second...
) guesting on some tracks. P-Orridge describes it as "The Dark Side of the Moon
The Dark Side of the Moon
The Dark Side of the Moon is the eighth studio album by English progressive rock band Pink Floyd, released in March 1973. It built on ideas explored in the band's earlier recordings and live shows, but lacks the extended instrumental excursions that characterised their work following the departure...
for the 21st century". Released in 2007 (Northern Hemisphere). http://www.genesisp-orridge.com/index.php?section=news&id=58&album_id=1 In February 2007 Side-Line
Side-Line
Side-Line is an online music magazine specialising in electronic music, and electro-goth/industrial in particular. It was founded in 1989 as a print publication, and had a circulation of 6,000 in Europe and America...
announced the news that the Fee Lee record label released a Psychic TV live album, "Live in Russia".
Concerts in 2006 included Sheffield, Birmingham and London, UK, as well as Brussels, Amsterdam and Moscow.
The 2006 line up:
- Genesis Breyer P-Orridge – Vocals / Noise bass
- Lady Jaye Breyer P-Orridge - Samples
- Eddie O'Dowd aka. Morrison Edley (Toilet Boys) – Drums
- Alice Genese (Candy Ass / Pretty Boys) – Bass
- David Max (HIT) – Guitars.
- Markus Aurelius Cirkus Maximus Dangerous Fabulous Persson – Keyboards
- Zef Noi$e – Electric Violin
The 2006 shows included an 'all new video light show' by Sterile Cowboys & Co. (a.k.a. Nicolas Jenkins) – three screens of heavily overlaid video with the middle screen overlaid by yet another layer of "analog" projections including moiréd overlays and liquid/oil effects performed by "something human" aka Caleigh Fisher a friend from the TOPY years. Videos from the upcoming album and DVDs were previewed as works in process. Much of the video work revolves around Breyer P-Orridges exploration of the 'pandrogyne'.
In 2007 Psychic TV played at the ZXZW festival.
Lady Jaye died suddenly on Tuesday 9 October 2007 at home in Brooklyn, New York from a previously undiagnosed heart condition which is thought to have been connected with her long-term battle with stomach cancer. Lady Jaye collapsed and died in the arms of her heartbroken love Genesis Breyer P-Orridge.
Psychic TV's current incarnation, PTV3, has recently released the new CD/DVD set, Mr. Alien Brain vs. The Skinwalkers. The album, which was released on December 9, 2008, was the first full length release since the death of Genesis' "other half," Jaye Breyer (best known as Lady Jaye), due to heart failure. The two had previously embarked on a years-long pursuit of pandrogyny, undergoing painful plastic surgery procedures in order to become gender-neutral human beings that looked like each other.
Psychic TV on the radio
P-Orridge and Mo Edley performed a DJ set and were interviewed on New York's station WNYUWNYU
WNYU-FM is a college radio station owned and operated by New York University. Until 2004, it served lower Manhattan and surrounding areas, but thanks to a new booster, it now broadcasts to the tri-state region. The station can be heard on 89.1 FM at 8,300 watts from 4pm until 1am on weekdays,...
on Tuesday September 5, 2006. PTV3 performed several songs on WFMU
WFMU
WFMU is a listener-supported, independent community radio station headquartered in Jersey City, New Jersey, United States, broadcasting at 91.1 MHz FM, presenting a freeform radio format...
in Jersey City on Thursday September 7. The band were interviewed as well. This was the first time ever Psychic TV had played live on air.
To inaugurate the release of HELL IS INVISIBLE...HEAVEN IS HER/E, PTV3 hosted a five night residency in September 2006 at Galapagos Art Space in Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Williamsburg is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, bordering Greenpoint to the north, Bedford-Stuyvesant to the south, Bushwick to the east and the East River to the west. The neighborhood is part of Brooklyn Community Board 1. The neighborhood is served by the NYPD's 90th ...
, USA, followed by the above mentioned tour.
Psychic TV live
Psychic TV have performed countless times in their live career with an ever-changing and eclectic selection of musicians. Live releases account for about half of Psychic TV's discography and with one series of live releases they released fourteen live albums in eighteen months, enough to earn them a record in the Guinness Book of World Records.On November 4, 2009 Genesis P-Orridge announced via his website, "Genesis Breyer P-Orridge is retiring from touring in any and all bands including TG to concentrate on art, writing and music."
See also
- Thee Temple ov Psychick YouthThee Temple ov Psychick YouthThee Temple ov Psychick Youth or TOPY was a fellowship founded in 1981 by members of Psychic TV, Coil, Current 93, and a number of other individuals...
- Thee MajestyThee MajestyIn 1998, Genesis P-Orridge was ending his association with the name Psychic TV, the band he created after the termination of Throbbing Gristle. At the same time, he began conceptualizing Thee Majesty as a spoken word-based project springing from his Splinter Test project with PTV alumnus Larry...
- Splinter TestSplinter TestSplinter Test was used as group name for Larry Thrasher and Genesis P-Orridge. The name was first used for a box set of reissue of the more experimental material by Psychic TV, and then it was used to issue the spoken words projects of Psychic TV or their instrumental music, before the foundation...
- Throbbing GristleThrobbing GristleThrobbing Gristle were an English industrial, avant-garde music and visual arts group that evolved from the performance art group COUM Transmissions...
- CoilCoil (band)Coil were an English cross-genre, experimental music group formed in 1982 by John Balance—later credited as "Jhonn Balance"—and his partner Peter Christopherson, aka "Sleazy". The duo worked together on a series of releases before Balance chose the name Coil, which he claimed to be...