ON THIS PAGE INFO ABOUT PTV3 AND GENESIS P.ORRIDGE


Websites :www.genesisp-orridge.com www.myspace.com/ptv3

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PTV3 comprises of Markus “Fabulous” Persson on keyboards, drummer Morrison Edley aka Edward ODowd (also of Toilet Boys), guitarist David Maxxx (developing from The Tadpoles), Alice Genese on bass guitar and vocals (formally of Pretty Boys), and Genesis Breyer P-Orridge - lead voices, noise bass guitar, electric violin (also of Throbbing Gristle and Thee Majesty).
Psychic TV was first born in 50 Beck Road, Hackney in 1982. Persuaded and encouraged by his cool friend guitarist Alex Fergusson of punk trailblazers Alternative TV, an initially reluctant. Genesis P-Orridge returned to active duty inventing new music following his termination of Throbbing Gristle in 1981. Six months later the duo completed the nucleus of the new unit with ex-TG’er Peter Christopherson.
By that time Genesis had already conceived, named and pioneered the genre “Industrial Music” with Throbbing Gristle. Along with the Velvet Underground, Throbbing Gristle is and remains one of the most influential rock groups of the last 30 years; if you haven’t heard their music, you will certainly have listened to someone who has. The group “TG” produced some of the most unsettling and thought-provoking music of all time. Their pioneering “Industrial” sound and self-sufficient approach to record distribution has had a profound impact, becoming key elements of underground music production and distribution ever since.
Right from the outset, Psychic TV in turn made highly innovative and unflinchingly provocative music, blending elements of psychedelia and dance with Industrial sounds (named “HYPERDELIC” by Genesis). As with TG, the details of Psychic TV’s packaging, marketing and the radical lifestyle of the musicians were all treated as equally crucial components of the final aesthetic statement. Psychic TV created the template for the current avant-dance stance popularly labeled “Electronica” as well as having an undeniable influence on the emergent “Rave” culture; the group released the world’s first 12 inch single with the words “ACID HOUSE” in the title, “Turn On Tune In To The Acid House.” The label depicted. For some 14 odd years, Psychic TV recorded and released dozens of live and studio albums ending up in the Guiness Book Of Records for releasing more albums in one year than any other artist (even Elvis!).

Over the last several years, Edward O Dowd of New York City’s legendary rock band Toilet Boys gently but persistently persuaded Genesis to rekindle her rock spirit and Psychic TV. As sincere and dogged as Alex Fergusson had been before him, Edward succeeded and Psychic TV was as PTV3 as of December 2003 when they played their first public show. Once PTV3 reached the recording studio, O Dowd played a crucial part in pushing Genesis and the other musicians to give their very best, and then some, getting stellar performances out of all. In addition Edward also art directed and designed the innovative and distinctive packaging for the release Hell Is Invisible, Heaven is Her/e. PTV3 and Hell Is Invisible, Heaven is Her/e are very much the product of the creative partnership of Genesis and Edward.
The full history of Genesis Breyer P-Orridge and her varied seminal musical exploits of the past three decades as well as her socio-cultural (or should that be politicosexual? Or all the above!) adventures would easily fill a book. The reactivated ensemble undertook a wildly successful North Americantour in 2004, followed by an equally tumultuously received European tour in 2005. A follow up tour in 2007 pre-ended in a debacle due to miss-management (now fired for their graceless activities). Since than the band appears incidentally on special occasions with spirit, energy and joy.



Review Dusted 8-8-2007


Psychic TV, the genre (and gender) bending musical conundrum headed by Genesis P-Orridge, was on hiatus for nearly a decade, starting in the mid-1990s through a couple of years ago. That's a long time, for the band that holds the current Guinness Book of Records notch for most albums recorded (14 in 18 months!), but it doesn't seem to have done the band much harm.
Hell Is Invisible...Heaven Is Here has more than a whiff of the past about it – clanking post-punk bass lines, rave-kid hedonistic choruses, new wave Cure-ified keyboards, fey gothic horrors and world-y fusion – but it also exists quite vehemently in the here and now.
P-Orridge, in his long career, has been gleefully all over the map, from his early days with industrial forefathers Throbbing Gristle, through his multi-media experiments to his brief reign as an oddball pop star (with 1986's "Godstar"). He invented the term "acid house" in 1988, and became a fixture in the London rave scene of the late-1980s and early 1990s. But then in the middle of the last decade, he tired of it all and left music to focus on his spoken word projects.
It was only with the strong and steady persuasion of ex-Toilet Boys drummer Edward ODowd that P-Orridge began to consider reviving Psychic TV. The core group – P-Orridge, Persson, ODowd, David Maxxx and Alice Genese – began performing in late 2003 and recorded this material in 2005 and 2006.
The new songs are strong and varied, tracing a sort of loosely defined story arc about death and resurrection.
"Higher and Higher" starts with the dissolution of the body, lyrics like "Depraved, corrupted, deflated, inducted…worms crawl and worms fall," snaking around a harsh, metallic post-punk groove. Yet despite its rather dark lyrical content (besides the worms, there are rotten cadavers and demons carving bodies with knives), the cut has a decadent, dance-like feel. Your feet twitch, your hips move, a strobe-lit disco-ball would not be at all amiss.
With "In Thee Body," things turn even darker, the cut opening with echoing wind tunnel blasts, howling dogs and ominous spoken word. ("In this barren land / men become dogs / dogs become wolves.") There is still a clangorous rhythm at the bottom of the track, but it is muted by hazy clouds of drone and noise; it’s like Gang of Four through the last shreds of a waking nightmare.
With "Maximum Swing," a still more frightening element enters the picture. The Butthole Surfers' Gibby Hanes growls and mutters over a tribal drum line, with vast swathes of distorted guitar drifting by, unanchored. It is primitive, threatening, hallucinogenic, and yet somehow physically enticing. You can lose yourself in the beat, throw your hands up to the falsetto "Whoo-ooos,” but there's danger in the crevices. Later, the long
"Hookah Chalice" has the same sort of mesmerizing allure, insistent rhythms, drone and harsh clatter coalescing into a body-moving whole. Not that P-Orridge isn't capable of the odd moment of beauty.
The ballad "New York Story" reminds you where Califone’s Tim Rutili found the prettiest song on his last album; the cut is as liquidly clear and simple as "The Orchids." Vocals are reverb’d to an unearthly polish and drenched in cynicism: “Life is a vacuum pump / always sucking me dry." It is so lovely that you float right over shocking imagery. ("Your body is so cold / It's turning blue / You look so cold / Not human anymore.")
The second half of the album consists mostly of longer tracks, songs that are interrupted mid-cut by a firestorm of seemingly unrelated noise. For instance, "I Don't Think So" seems almost embarrassingly stripped and personal with its wavering keyboard line and slow clank of rhythm –a creepily vulnerable Syd Barret. It is broken in the middle by a howl and barrage of drumming, all distorted, ugly sounds that rip through the child-like melody and then, just as suddenly, subside.
This happens again in "Hookah Chalice," as mad strings and echoing feedback create a separate, more chaotic space within what has, up to then, been a fairly accessible cut. Not all the cuts fit easily into a death, dissolution, redemption and revelation storyline, but the album clearly progresses from darkness to light.
Redemption comes in the last two cuts, the wah-wah laced "BB" with its orgiastic hymns to Pandrogeny, and the luminous, folk-blues-raga tinged meanderings of "Milk Baba." This last cut is bodiless, beatless, absolutely rooted in the spirit rather than the body. It feels like an end, its samples of children's voices melting into hanging guitar notes, the light streaming through both tone and silence. It's lovely, timeless and utterly set off by the chaotic sensuality that's preceded it, a sort of coda to P-Orridge's own imagining of the Divine Comedy.

By Jennifer Kelly


GENESIS P.ORRIDGE


Born in Manchester, England 1950. Member of Kinetic action group EXPLODING GALAXY/TRANSMEDIA EXPLORATION, 1969-70. Conceived and founded seminal British “performance art” group COUM TRANSMISSIONS, 1969; pioneer co-founder (with Cosey Fanni Tutti,Peter Christopherson, Chris Carter) of THROBBING GRISTLE, 1975; co-founder (with Alex Fergusson) of hyperdelic acid house innovators PSYCHIC TV, 1981; founded spoken word/ambient music performance group THEE MAJESTY 1999. Invented the term/genre INDUSTRIAL MUSIC (with Monte Cazazza) September 3rd 1975, releasing more than 200 CDs of experiments in music to date. Has worked and collaborated with Beatnik writers WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS and BRION GYSIN (champion of “Cut-Ups”); radical queer filmaker DEREK JARMAN; psychedlic guru DR. TIMOTHY LEARY and many other luminaries. Early pioneer/innovator of Acid House/Rave Movement in UK and USA from early 80’s-mid-90’s. Early champion of internet and commentator on it’s media virus cultural implications, often collaborating with DOUGLAS RUSHKOFF, RICHARD METZGER (of Disinformation) and other leading figures in CYBERIA. He has published thousands of articles, texts, interviews covering the functional and metaphysical implications and strategies of popular culture. Also explored human behaviour, ritual, and personality modification through splintering of expectation in private magickal situations to create neo-shamanic collaged paintings called “SIGILS”. Currently resides in New York area as an author, cultural engineer/commentator and fine artist. Has performed his improvised "Expanded Poetry" as THEE MAJESTY (with guitarist Bryin Dall, guitarist Lady J. and tabla player Larry Thrasher) at arts festivals and music venues all over the USA and Europe since 1998. Current work includes a monograph on his fine art “PAINFUL BUT FABULOUS” (Soft Skull Press, NYC 2003) and exhibitions, installations and lectures across Europe and the USA.