How does one review such an expansive set?
The Pitiful Anonymous | the Acres of Skin | 11/06/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"First of all, it's definitely worth the money. If you love TG, this is 10 TG CDs for about $100. Most CDs are more than $10. Good deal.
There is very little in the box aside from the CDs... just a metal TG logo with several pieces, credit card sized. Cool, but not much.
Now to the "psychic rallys" themselves.
As you should know if you're here, this is TG's last 10 shows. The shows contain pieces from Heathen Earth and possibly 20 Jazz Funk Greats (I don't know, I don't have it, but they definitely do "Discipline"...a lot) and occasionally they do "Very Friendly". And in TG fashion, more than half of it is improvised. Since it's the same kind of improv they did in studio, this is kind of like having 10 new TG studio albums, except they're less polished and certain songs show up on multiple disks.
Songs that are played quite frequently in this period are "Something Came Over Me", "Cornets", "Heathen Earth (live only)", "Auschwitz (live only)", "Persuasion (live only)", "Spirits Flying (live only)" and "Discipline". They also do a strange, highly altered "The Old Man Smiled". Note that in different times playing a particular song, the result is rarely the same. The basic beat or synth of the song will loop, and then the band will spontaneously do something (anything) over it. Songs also typically go much longer than studio versions... up to 15 minutes.
The 10 disks can't really be measured by musical quality, only atmosphere and feeling. To see if you'd enjoy this, I'd recommend hearing Rafters (disk 6 here), Oundle School (disk 1), or Mission of Dead Souls (disk 10). The sound on disk 10 here is much better than "Mission", though.
The TG present in these recordings is much less one-dimensional than the one represented in Heathen Earth, many unidentiable metallic sounds present themselves. Screamed vocals echoed into oblivion are all over the place, sometimes singing, typical Chris Carter rhythmic synth lines and percussion, Cosey's guitar wails, and a hell of a lot of sampled stuff, but very little sampled dialogue (later industrial acts used almost all dialogue when sampling). They even sample earlier parts of the performance, it'd seem.
Disk 9, Veterans Auditorium, is a distorted mess, clipped all over the place. TG even admits this recording was distorted. Practically worthless. Other shows are very noisy occasionally as well, particularly Disk 2. I feel obligated to mention that much of the stuff here is unpleasant to the ears. The whole thing is devastating loud.
Kezar Pavilion (10), Rafters (6), Lyceum (8), and Heaven (7) are all totally awesome shows. The 3rd, 4th and 5th disks are great too. A very cold, spacious feel to the mixes, like being in a wind tunnel.
This is truly "psychic" music. Before purchase of any live TG, know this- TG were not musicians. They were a psychological force. They did not play their instruments in patterns that sounded "good". I believe the group that would enjoy something like this set is highly limited, but TG made no promises. Thus, hear some before you buy."
A better buy than TG24
Irony Value | BAYOU | 05/12/2006
(4 out of 5 stars)
"This is more than just a great addendum to the TG24 box set, it is, pound for pound (euro for euro, dollar for dollar) a better bargain for the simple reason that both the sound quality and live group cohesion (tightness) are both largely superior. This also features many of their most famous or infamous (i.e. most widely bootlegged) performances. The price is also much lower, of course. If you buy only one of the two "big box" live sets, make it this one.
I only gave it a 4 due to the flimsy packaging on the inside, which ripped apart and left the discs sliding around inside; the remastering quality is nice, and the content is excellent. If I were still dickering due to the price, I'd check out the previous 4 disc live box, which consists of the best four and a half hours of the 35-36 included in TG24 and TG+. My list "So you'd like to subject yourself to Throbbing Gristle" has a link and provides tons of other unsolicited opinions about all manner of other TG and TG-related product."
