9. Throbbing GristleD.o.A: The Third and Final Report of Throbbing Gristle

A bit like The Fall, it’s difficult to talk about them without slipping into cliché. And like I said, I think The Fall and Throbbing Gristle are probably the two finest British groups. I mean, we were talking about The Stooges being unpleasant… this is really fucking unpleasant! I could have chosen any of their first three albums, and I love 20 Jazz Funk Greats, but this is just about my favourite. You can’t exactly accuse really accuse 20 Jazz Funk Greats of having too many songs, but there’s one thing they do on this one which is their treatment of ‘United’, where the song itself is over four minutes long but they condense it to 16 seconds.

Part of me can’t understand why people find anything that they do transgressive. I mean yeah, they’re writing a song about the Moors Murders that’s a blow-by-blow account of one of the killings, but it’s Throbbing Gristle, what do you expect them to do? There’s a real catharsis. What’s actually transgressing are the mores and norms of decent society that we’re being asked to look at – a ‘decent’ society that thinks it’s perfectly OK to send people out to kill and die for nothing. And again, just fucking listen to them. Listen to the sound – it’s beautiful!