This December, 43 ago, Throbing Gristle released the album 20 Jazz Funk Greats. It was released in December 1979 by the band's own label Industrial Records. It is regarded as the band's best work, with music magazines naming it the best album of the 1970s, and the best industrial album of all time.

Actually it is the band's first real full studio album, as prior albums contained both live and studio recordings. The album was recorded on a 16-track tape recorder borrowed from Paul McCartney after Peter Christopherson had worked on some artwork for McCartney.

The album was produced meanly using effects units and instruments from Roland and Boss.

The album's cover photograph was taken at Beachy Head, a chalk headland on the South coast of England known as one of the world's most notorious suicide spots.

In a 2012 interview, Cosey explained the album cover and tongue-in-cheek title:

“We did the cover so it was a pastiche of something you would find in a Woolworth’s bargain bin. We took the photograph at the most famous suicide spot in England, called Beachy Head. So, the picture is not what it seems, it is not so nicey nicey at all, and neither is the music once you take it home and buy it. We had this idea in mind that someone quite innocently would come along to a record store and see [the record] and think they would be getting 20 really good jazz/funk greats, and then they would put it on at home and they would just get decimated.”

The 1981 issue of the album released on Fetish Records featured an alternate version of the cover art in which an apparently dead and naked male body is seen lying in front of the band. In 2013, Radiohead graphic designer Stanley Donwood selected the artwork as his favorite album cover.

20 Jazz Funk Greats

All tracks were written by Throbbing Gristle:

• Genesis P-Orridge – vocals, bass guitar, violin, vibraphone, synthesizer
• Cosey Fanni Tutti – guitar, synthesizer, cornet, vocals
• Chris Carter – synthesizer, album sequencing, drum programming, vocals
• Peter Christopherson – tape, vibraphone, cornet, vocals

DISCOGS

Public Image: First Issue is the debut studio album of Public Image Ltd, formed and fronted by Jonny Rotten aka John Lydon after he left the Sex Pistols in January 1978. First Issue was released by record label Virgin on December 8th the same year and it is still considered as one of the pioneering records of post-punk.

It entered the UK Albums Chart, where it stayed for 11 weeks and reached #22 on 23 December 1978. The single “Public Image” entered the UK Top 75, where it stayed for 8 weeks and reached #9 on 21 October 1978

In 1979, a court in Malta had stopped selling the album because the lyrics of “Religion” offended public morals and decency.

After hearing the test pressings Warner Bros records also decided not to publish the album in the United States because the sound of the record was considered as too uncommercial for an American release. PiL were asked to re-record parts of the album and although the band recorded new versions of some tracks the album was never released in the US. Only in 1980 Warners released the song “Public Image” on the compilation album “Troublemakers”, the only album track released in the US until the 2013 release of the entire album.

On 18 June 2013, the album was finally officially released in the US via Light in the Attic Records.

Upon its release, Public Image: First Issue received only 2 out of 5 stars review in Sounds and NME was similarly negative, quipping that "unfortunately the 'image', public or otherwise, is a good deal less limited than many of the more practical factors involved in this venture."

However, it is now considered as a groundbreaking post-punk classic. Pitchfork Media stated "First Issue's industrial-strength stompers anticipate the scabrous art-punk of the Jesus Lizard and Slint, while Levene’s guitar curlicues on “Public Image” are the stuff Daydream Nations are made of." It is, along with Metal Box, included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

Public Image: First Issue
1. Theme 9:05
2. Religion I 1:40
3. Religion II 5:40
4. Annalisa 6:00
5. Public Image 2:58
6. Low Life 3:35
7. Attack 2:55
8. Fodderstompf 7:40
Personel:
John Lydon – vocals, piano
Keith Levene – guitar
Jah Wobble – bass, vocals and fire extinguisher on "Fodderstompf"
Jim Walker – drums, vocals on "Fodderstompf"

DISCOGS

Today 79 ago Jim Morrison (December 8, 1943 – July 3, 1971) was born , his life like his music is very well documented, instead of running through his list of activities and of course each of the albums we can look at the last breath of greatness The Doors delivered.

LA Woman, the artistic height of the original Doors line up, whether at the time it was known or not, they had reached their height and before the wagon of fame rolled down hill, turning the band into a facade of what they originally were, there was one last album of splendor left in them and was to be a blues based affair with the twist of Morrison's lyrics and delivery.

Morrisons voice was strained by the alcohol abuse and the hefty lifestyle which had left him sounding three times his 27 years, like an old blues man hollering in a bar;
'I've been down do goddamn long...'

Looking at the front photo of the album a dead giveaway is noticed as this was the true group effort, Morrison in height looks less than any of his band members, bearded and blended into the album where the focus was not entirely on him, unlike the debut album and subsequent releases.

The journey to this point had only been a mere four-years, the same time most modern bands leave between albums, but The Doors managed to tour, write and release five other albums, this was to be their sixth and this is where it had all been leading, the compass of their art had led them to this very point.

A workshop was built for the recording, a two-story building at 8512-Santa Monica Boulevard.
Long time producer Paul Rothchild walked out early on in rehearsals, as legend goes, describing the studio rehearsal of 'Riders On The Storm' as cocktail music and a step back from all that was accomplished on Morrison Hotel
With Bruce Botnick now at the helm, recordings began at the workshop in December 1970 and would last right through until January ‘71.

The added in-house bass player for that extra live dynamic whereas guest bass players were nothing new to Doors albums, LA Woman was no exception.
For that one Jerry Scheff rounded out the band and played on every song, giving it that live as possible feel and adding to the roundness of the overall sound.
The blues numbers grooved and listening back now you hear the sound of musicians and the height of their game, effortless music flowing making every melody line memorable.

This raw sound created by the band made the final mix with very little overdubs used, except for keyboard lines and of course the thunder and lighting affect on “Riders On The Storm” the second single released, the first was the keyboard driven rocker “Love Her Madly”.

Both were well received as was the album in its entirety, the maturity and Morrisons deep immersion in the blues on tracks such as “Crawling King Snake” and of course the title track, this was the record to end on, to bow out with the same style that had steered their career.

While the mixing took place in February '71, Morrison went to France to take time out, there was going to be no tour for this album, morning he never returned, he died as mysteriously as he lived, found in a bathtub on the third-of July 1971 and buried three days later in division-six of Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris, sharing space with Oscar Wilde and Edith Piaf.

“Lions in the street and roaming
Dogs in heat, rabid, foaming
A beast caged in the heart of a city
The body of his mother
Rotting in the summer ground
He fled the town

He went down South and crossed the border
Left chaos and disorder
Back there over his shoulder

One morning he awoke in a green hotel
With a strange creature groaning beside him
Sweat oozed from it's shining skin
Is everybody in?
Is everybody in?
Is everybody in?
The ceremony is about to begin!”

DISCOGS

On 7th December it is 30 years ago that Nine Inch Nails released their Fixed EP (HALO6). Fixed is the sequel (remix) disc to the Broken EP (HALO5) which was released on 22nd September 1992. Guest remixers include Danny Hyde from Coil, J. G. Thirlwell (Foetus), Butch Vig (Garbage) and Chris Vrenna and James Woolley who both were members of the live band at the time.
The different, unusual, harsh and eclectic remix techniques used on this EP makes it sound like ear-candy for the noisy industrialists amongst us but it's also aneasy listening EP for the hard of hearing!

DISCOGS

"Future Rock" band, Rabbit Junk has just unleashed their new LP, 'Apocalypse For Beginners.'

Rabbit Junk draws subtle parallels between the challenges facing our species as a whole and the challenges facing our own personal lives. These challenges are characterised as foreseeable and yet tragically unavoidable. As such, the album communicates the fatalism and frustration of modernity alongside the lack of control we often feel over our own lives.

The album’s lead track “Stone Cold" (Feat. Amelia Arsenic) exemplifies Rabbit Junk’s willingness to take risks and defy genre norms. “Stone Cold” is a gender-fluid and genre-mashing anthem with an infectious sing-a-long chorus. The song featuries lyrics in both German and English delivered by masculine and feminine vocal textures floating over a mélange of punk, drum & bass, metal, and hip hop.

Other standout tracks include “Nostromo”, a sci-fi influenced art-metal meets synthwave track which is quickly becoming a fan favourite, and “Love Is Hell”, a decidedly danceable and gritty homage to everyone’s broken hearts.

'Apocalypse For Beginners' is available NOW on CD via Bandcamp and on all major digital platforms everywhere.

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