New Year’s Eve 2005 at the Volksbühne Berlin must have been a good one for the reunited Throbbing Gristle. At the end of their performance, Genesis P-Orridge announced an encore – the first since the formation of the British industrial band. The set list reads like a kind of greatest hits from their two creative periods: before the first breakup in 1981 and after the reunion in 2004. It even includes songs that were only released on Part Two: The Endless Not in 2007.
Although Throbbing Gristle gave their name to a genre in the 1970s with their Industrial Records label, they had little to do with the industrial frenzy that followed. They stand for the artistic processing of the subversive infiltration of the cultural sector – a task that punk once wanted to take on. In agonizingly slow pieces, the mechanical beat stoically plods along while nerve-wracking effects intervene. The world is fucked and Throbbing Gristle provide the soundtrack. The noise of »PA Destroyer« seems to destroy the sound system, »Almost A Kiss« seems like a ballad with barbs. The reunited band sounds like a perfect synthesis of Swans and The Fall.
