MK Magazine News

Sun. 6/27 - Pittsburgh, PA The EYE

Sat. 7/3 - New York, NY Bowery Ballroom

(w/ Michael Gira opening doing a solo, acoustic set.)

The current lineup for Psychic TV being:

Douglas Rushkoff - keyboards, vocals (see www.rushkoff.com for more information)
Electric Eddie - drums (of "The Toilet Boys" and "Candyass")
Isaiah Singer - Lead Guitars, vocals
Alice Genese - Bass Guitar, vocals (also of "Candyass")
Lady Jaye Breyer P-Orridge - Sampling Keyboard (also of "Thee Majesty")
Genesis Breyer P-Orridge - lead voices, noise bass guitar (also of Throbbing Gristle and "Thee Majesty")

Psychic TV was first born in 50 Beck Road, Hackney in 1981. Guitarist Alex Fergusson was trying to convince his longtime friend Genesis P. Orridge to return to active duty making music following the “termination” of Throbbing Gristle, the seminal Industrial ensemble the latter had fronted. One day, he found P. Orridge’s poem “Just Drifting” lying on a water heater and challenged his friend to form a band with him if he could successfully set it to music – which was done within 24 hours. Adding Peter Christopherson, the group commenced a career of creating profoundly influential, highly innovative, and unflinching provocative music, with the details of its packaging, marketing and lifestyle of the musicians creators being crucial components of the aesthetic package.

Over some 14 odd years, Psychic TV recorded and released dozens of live and studio albums. Just recently they retrieved ownership to all this material and are currently preparing a systematic re-issue program as well as releasing previously unavailable material. When Psychic TV was terminated in turn in the mid 90’s Genesis would pursue further musical goals with like Thee Majesty, Cottom Ferox and so on. Recently, P-Orridge reunited with the other members of Throbbing Gristle working on a variety of new recordings, new compositions as well as reconstructions of older repertoire.

The full history of Genesis Breyer P. Orridge and his varied musical exploits of the past 3 decades as well as his socio-cultural (or should that be politico-sexual? Or all the above!) adventures would fill a book (in fact last year Soft Skull published Painful but Fabulous:

The Life and Art of Genesis P-Orridge ).

Further details are available at:

http://genesisp-orridge.com/
http://www.psychic-tv.co.uk

By forming the group Throbbing Gristle in the mid 1970's, Genesis P-Orridge created one of the most influential groups of the last 30 years. If you haven't heard their music, you will certainly have listened to someone who has. Their pioneering industrial sound and self-sufficient approach to record distribution set them apart from their more conventional contemporaries.

Adding the philosophies of influences such as the writer William S. Burroughs, poet and painter Brion Gysin, legendary occultist Aleister Crowley and various underground authors, thinkers and film makers, TG produced some of the most unsettling and thought provoking music of all time.

They made a number of fascinating albums and singles, often printing the sleeves themselves and releasing them into the wild in limited quantities. Their concerts were far from dull affairs, often resulting in direct confrontations between band and audience members. All of these live performances were recorded for posterity and still retain their impact to this day.

Deciding in 1981, that 'the mission is terminated', the members of the group went their separate ways. Keyboardist Chris Carter and brass specialist Cosey Fanni Tutti formed Chris and Cosey, while electronics expert Peter 'Sleazy' Christopherson (later of Coil) and vocalist/noise-maker Genesis P-Orridge founded Psychic TV.

Although at the beginning, PTV's output could at times be compared to Throbbing Gristle's experimental wall of sound; their music would quickly evolve over time, refracting a great many musical styles along the way. With the singles 'Roman P', a cover of the Beach Boys' 'Good Vibrations' and the stunning 'Godstar', they even touched upon the UK singles chart. Dreaming of ultimately creating their own TV station, the group produced many videos along the way, some of which were made commercially available and are well worth seeking out. Often repulsive, often beautiful, the images contained within these films would mirror the musical atmospheres the band was creating.

Then, in 1987 PTV were in crisis both financially and productively. They were without a record deal at the time but had a legion of fans, all eager for some new material. The band solved this by announcing a new project: over the next two years they would release a live album on the 23rd of each month for the next 23 months. Although they never finished the series (17 albums were brought out), they did succeed in annoying the record companies and journalists, whilst pleasing many fans who had a new cut-price album to look forward to every month. The albums each contained a written message from the band, almost like a monthly newsletter, and featured concert recordings spanning PTV's entire career. A selection of these albums has now been re-released for the first time on CD by Voiceprint Records, each in a strictly limited edition of 1000. Each is individually numbered, and reproduces the original cover and written content of the LPs, with the addition of a newly penned insert from Genesis himself.

Psychic TV was founded by ALEX FERGUSSON and GENESIS P-ORRIDGE in Hackney, East London in 1981. The actual story is that Genesis was so disillusioned with even the independent music scene and being in Throbbing Gristle by 1981 that he quit TG in Los Angeles prior to their last 2 live gigs. Alex Fergusson, was previously co-founder of Alternative TV with Mark Perry (of Sniffin' Glue fanzine infamy). A little known fact is that G. P-O was the first drummer in ATV! Genesis and Monte Cazazza had been planning an agenda for a Psychic para-military occult group in secret for 2 years or so. Alex continually told Gen that he should still write songs and "not waste his lyrical talents." One day Alex noticed a poem on the water heater in Gen's kitchen over a cup of tea, literally! "Hows about I take that poem and IF I can turn it into a song you like we'll start a band combining our two names? Psychic and TV?" said Alex. To get him off his back Gen said OK. A day later Alex returned and played a stunningly appealing ballad to Gen accompanying himself on acoustic guitar. That song was "JUST DRIFTING". Both the romanticism, and anti-Industrial style hooked Gen's aesthetic and emotional attention. Perfect irony to go acoustic, let's add an orchestra he suggested. Psychic TV was born and "Just Drifting" was the first track on their first album for WEA in 1982-3 "FORCE THEE HANDS OV CHANCE". Because in Gen's mind Sleazy (aka P. Christopherson) was associated with bad memories of the demise of TG it was not until almost a year later that Gen and Alex decided to sound him out about joining PTV as a band member conditional on Gen owning the name and having full control in the event of any disagreements. Too often Alex Fergusson has been wrongfully relegated to a minor role in the story of PTV and it is IMPORTANT, especially in the context of VOICEPRINT where legacies are carefully preserved to be clear that without ALEX FERGUSSON there NEVER would've been PTV and HE was the co-founder with Genesis, closely followed intellectually by Monte Cazazza who played guitar many times in Psychic TV and who is the ONLY person to have done an entire gig as the PTV vocalist, in Rotterdam, Holland when Gen was too sick to play!

Genesis P Orridge NY July 2003

During thee last few y-eras we have fought long, and costly, battles to retrieve ownership ov all our various recordings and master tapes. Coumtimes licencing deals ran out amicably and our music returned to us happily. At other times we have been forced to hire attorneys to fight for us to put an end to sub-standard bootlegs, pirates, cowboys ov every possible shade ov dishonest and shabby, greedy and immoral. Often these despicable types are invisible to you thee fans. You have no way ov knowing which CD in your local shop is legitimate and which is a phoney where not a penny goes towards our activities and our desire to continue to believe thee world, culture and humanE behaviour can be transitioned into what is possible and divine in our species, instead ov that which is base in thee origins ov thee species. For example, (whilst it is obvious to us at a glance) would you ever have guessed that we had NOTHING whatever to do with "ORIGIN OF THE SPECIES VOL. THREE". We did not give our permission for its release, or choose thee tracks. Some tracks are not by PTV at all, but about half thee tracks were by other bands who were never consulted before their music was paraded as PTV ( eg.Glen Meadmore). One look at thee artwork shows it is not up to our standards or properly part ov thee jigsaw puzzles ov our ACID design, and where was thee 30 page booklet written by Genesis? Naturally we are always looking for amicable ways to discourage these last few anomalies so that you, our public where music is concerned, can be sure that each release you see is OFFICIAL, endorsed directly by Genesis and thee other people concerned like THEE MAJESTY, COTTON FEROX and so on. We want every CD to be as PERFECT and DEFINITIVE as possible. Sometimes we have only a vinyl copy from thee archives to begin with, but our resident maestro BRYIN DALL can take snap, crackle and pop and turn it into thee musick ov thee spheres! Bless him mightily.

SO..as thee stream ov knock-offs seems endless, their source ever changing like a river in flood cutting through fertile land...we have made an agreement with VOICEPRINT RECORDS in England to slowly but surely release all our back catalogue in it's best possible form so that we never have to concern ourselves with quality of sound or second-rate design again. Thee live series is often from cassette tapes, so it is patchy at times! However we try to choose thee significant, or unique gigs that a collector would want anyway, rather than just thee tightest performance or best sound on tape. In a very real way we release thee recordings that WE would want to have and that WE wish to have preserved, in however fragile an Astorical way. To make things simpler we have split thee releases into various series. Then if you are more into having a completist collection ov PTV live you can focus on THEE LIVE SERIES. At least 30 are planned, butter who knows? Only 1000 numbered copies ov each gig are made. If you want to follow THEE MAJESTY and thee great L-ov-E ov Genesis NOW! unfolding there is a SPOKEN WORD SERIES, already up to four releases by June 2004. Thee newest release is "WORDSHIP" by THEE MAJESTY and COTTON FEROX, recorded in Stockholm by Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, Carl Abrahamsson and Thomas Tibbert. All thee music and poems are new decompositions. Lady Jaye adores this so much she quite literally plays it every night as a ritual preparation for rest and sleep. Genesis feels that it is thee most precise prose poem S/he has received ever up until this T.I.M.E.

To order any CDs go to

www.voiceprint.co.uk

Buy them directly, online as this is now thee ONLY official and sanctioned source ov Psychic TV back catalogue, ov THEE MAJESTY and ov various other musical projects ov Genesis Breyer P-Orridge.

To encapsulate thee various series we have made a brief description ov each to assist you:

PSYCHIC TV – THEE DIRECTOR’S CUT SERIES

Each release in this series will include never before released extra tracks, alternate mixes and definitive edits from the specific project celebrated. There will be a lavish 20-30 page booklet packed with detailed anecdotes and rare, unpublished photos and images directly culled from the PTV archives. All music will be digitally rescued, de-clicked and re-mastered under the supervision of Genesis Breyer P-Orridge. The distinctive slip case design by Edward ODowd will be a different metallic color for each release with a Psychic Cross window cut in the center.

Thee first release in May 2004 will be "GODSTAR - Soundtrack to a Film Based Upon Thee L-if-E And Times Ov Brian Jones". This is a double CD with thee hyperdelic era PTV songs, instrumentals, previously unreleased sequences and rarities finally arranged as Genesis always intended in thee order they would be to illuminate each scene in thee film. There is a large booklet with never before seen photographs and facts about thee project, Brian Jones, why Genesis became obsessed with Brian and then how Brian came to represent one ov thee pantheon ov growing Icons ov PANDROGENY. This is an amazing release, If you are a fan ov BRIAN JONES, ov thee SIXTIES, ov thee STONES or anything to do with thee journey ov L-if-E revealed by Brian's tragedy and triumph. For thee first time too you can hear, first hand, Brion Gysin describe to Genesis Brian Jones' first visit to Jajouka and thee events that followed with Anita, Keith and thee others. A unique "publication".

THEE GENESIS P-ORRIDGE SPOKEN WORD SERIES:

This series aims to be the CD equivalent of Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s “Pocket Poets”books from the 60’s that made Beatnik poetry so accessible and influential. The first 4 CD’s center on THEE MAJESTY both itself, and in collaboration with Swedish experimentalists COTTON FEROX and WHITE STAINS. Three are definitive re-releases with the entire poetic text in each accompanying booklet as well as previously unpublished rare, related photos. The most recent release “WORDSHIP” is entirely new, original psychedelic ambient dub music with an amazing prose poem series that has been compared to T.S. Elliot’s “Wasteland” in it’s complex genius. Future releases will feature Beat poet Brion Gysin set to music by invited artists. Gradually more writers and poets will be added into this series combining spoken word and music uniquely curated by Genesis Breyer P-Orridge.

PSYCHIC TV – THEE LIVE SERIES