Issue 119

This is something special. With an exciting new boxset in the shops any day now, the latest Electronic Sound cover stars are the magnificent Throbbing Gristle and we're bundling the issue with a limited edition red vinyl seven-inch featuring two previously unreleased TG tracks, including one of the last two recordings the industrial pioneers ever made. 

We're looking back over the story of Throbbing Gristle this issue, interviewing the surviving members of the band and others associated with TG. Genesis P-Orridge, Cosey Fanni Tutti, Chris Carter and Peter “Sleazy” Christopherson ripped up all the rules, both sonically and visually, both as a live act and a recording unit. They are widely recognised as the prime movers of industrial music, but their influence and impact stretches way beyond any particular genre. Their early gigs attracted everybody from acid-fried hippies and spotty anarcho-punks to oddball alt-funkateers and hot-wired electronics freaks. There has never been another group even remotely like Throbbing Gristle.  

Talking of unique artists, elsewhere in the magazine we also have interviews with The Orb, as Alex Paterson celebrates the release of a career-spanning collection, and one-time Virgin Prunes frontman Gavin Friday, who returns with his first solo album in more than a decade. Plus Field Music, Memorials, Jill Fraser, The Woodentops, The Go! Team, Xeno & Oaklander, Dreadzone and Public Service Broadcasting. Oh, and not forgetting Mirror System, Steve Hillage and Miquette Giraudy's blissed-out offshoot of System 7. Prepare yourself for maximum cosmic vibes! 

We have an amazing Throbbing Gristle seven-inch to accompany the magazine. Pressed on glorious red vinyl, neither of these tracks has been released before. The weighty and eerie 'Wotwududo', which features a hypnotic vocal performance by Genesis P-Orridge, is from one of the band's very last studio sessions, while 'Trumpet Herald' is a potent and inventive live piece built around Cosey Fanni Tutti's cornet work. The tracks were recorded in late 2005 and early 2006, during a trip to play two shows in Berlin on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.    

"Everything we did in TG had to be of the moment," says Cosey. "And if the moment wasn’t right, then it wasn’t going to work. So you just had to be patient. Wonderful things come from being patient."

As with all our music releases, this record is strictly limited and is only available to readers of Electronic Sound, so make sure you get your copy right away.