If you’re a music fan of a certain age, it becomes all too easy to give credence to Nietzsche’s theory of eternal recurrence. If you wait long enough, the most unlikely bands will get back together, often with underwhelming results (yes, I’m talking about you, Velvet Underground, Sex Pistols, Stooges…). For fuck’s sake, the fact that Jim Morrison had been dead for 30 years didn’t stop The Doors from getting back together – they just kidnapped Ian Astbury, glued him into leather trousers, then poked him with a stick till he went to the front of the stage and started singing ‘Light My Fire’. And now, after many promises and delays, here comes the new album from the cultiest of all cult bands, Throbbing Gristle, following their resumption of live performance in 2004. I guess it’s safe to assume that any frequent user of the Judas Kiss website knows all about TG and just how seminal and influential they were, so I won’t waste your time reiterating their historical importance. You just want to know what the new album sounds like, don’t you? Incidentally, TG’s press release claims that this is the first new album since 1980’s Heathen Earth, though I’m not sure where that leaves 1981’s In The Shadow Of The Sun or 1982’s Journey Through A Body. As ‘Vow of Silence’ opens the 67-minute odyssey of Part Two… with a shuddering, crunching rhythm, deranged cackles and distortedly burbling sampled vocals from Genesis P-Orridge, and random stabs of noise and feedback, you’re left in no doubt that this is Throbbing Gristle you’re listening to. Cosey’s fuzz guitar adds to the soundscape. I was strongly reminded of the TG live track ‘See You Are’. Its successor ’Rabbit Snare’ is much more unexpected and interesting – sleazy, smoky downbeat noir jazz, with Cosey’s cornet playing to the fore, a disjointed rhythm, and bluesy piano. It sounds something like Ô Paradis or Nurse With Wound, but what was undoubtedly foremost in TG’s thoughts when they recorded this was Martin Denny’s exotic jazz, frequently a notable influence on early TG (their Greatest Hits album is dedicated to him). ’Separated’ is a quiet ambient instrumental, unsettling rather than terrifying. ’Almost A Kiss’, a slow, mournful ballad with choral and orchestral backing, sounds a lot more like early Psychic TV than TG – think of ‘Stolen Kisses’ and ‘Just Drifting’ from Force The Hand Of Chance. ’Greasy Spoon’ and ’Lyre Liar’ sound just like classic TG such as ‘What A Day’, ‘Six Six Sixties’ and ‘Convincing People’ – chugging, bottom-heavy rhythm tracks overlaid with swooping, howling electronic noise and Gen’s unmistakable voice, laconic and tuneless. You’d know this sound anywhere – and therein lies a problem. Part of TG’s appeal always was that they were unpredictable and unsafe. They broke up in 1981 at least in part because they’d started to actually become popular and acquire a fanbase, rather than inspiring universal bafflement and hostility, and their fans had certain preconceptions about what TG should sound like. So here in the 21st century, a quarter of a century later, what does it mean for TG to revert to their ‘classic’ sound? Wasn’t that kind of safeness and predictability supposed to be exactly what TG originally intended to subvert? It would be expecting too much of the band, I think, for them to come out in 2007 with something really innovative and startling, but it’s a little depressing to find them so firmly entrenched in the musical comfort zones of both themselves and their fans. There’s no doubt that if you like TG, you’ll love these songs – but isn’t that a bit boring? In a sense, TG have become victims of their own success – the industrial music revolution that they were at the vanguard of has been so thoroughly assimilated into mainstream cultural discourse that it’s become effectively impossible for the band to sound truly disturbing now. ’Above The Below’ is another quiet ambient track like ‘Separated’, built around a creepy little flute melody sounding like the kind of incidental music they used on the old Universal horror films. ’Endless Not’ is urbane, abstract electro-pop dominated by Gen’s crooning vocals, again recalling Psychic TV or Marc Almond rather than TG. ’The Worm Waits Its Turn’ is another vocal-heavy track, with a backing of warm, intimate electronica leading into a really funky looped rhythm track. In the unlikely event you ever want to dance to TG, this’d be a good track to pick. Very nice, but a bit generic – Gen’s vocals aside, this could be anyone from Björk to Air. The closing track, ’After The Fall’, opens with melancholy, isolated piano phrases and a slowly intensifying NON-style looped drone. This is TG doing dark ambient, or sounding like Coil, which is interesting, and it’s over all too soon after four minutes – this could easily have been a really lengthy track. As comeback albums go, Part Two… is far from a disaster. I’m sure it’ll sell well, and fans will like it just fine. I’m just not sure what it’s supposed to be for, really, and I think the TG Now EP from 2004 was a more interesting release. The first 4000 copies of Part Two… come complete with a ‘totemic gift’, made of copper, rubber, bone, or wood. My copy has the copper version, so I don’t know what the others are like, but the copper gift consists of a small rod with red thread knotted around it, inserted into the spine of the clear jewel case, and looking like something Joseph Beuys might have made.

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