D.O.A. the Third and Final Report of Throbbing Gristle

this album is everything that punk pretends to be.

if someone tells you they are really in to throbbing gristle you've either accidentally walked in to a BDSM club or you're talking to someone who is such a music aficionado they've decided the way to keep themselves in their ivory tower is to listen to something extremely close to unlistenable because you proles don't get it. that being said, i'd rather listen to this than kanye or beyonce. what's the safe word again?

Just random noise. It's heartwarming to know that a complete lack of musical talent or ability is no barrier to creating an influential album. With that in mind, I hereby announce that my innovative pop duo 'Bumblecheek and the Reverb' is working on its debut album, to be titled 'Sexual Overcoat'. I fully expect inclusion in the next edition of the '1001 albums...' book. Rating: 1/5 Playlist track: AB/7A Date listened: 07/06/22

Massive banger after massive banger. Huge soaring choruses, exquisite melodies and perfectly polished pop hooks. An earworm if ever there was one.

Bad music. I hate anyone who likes this.

What the fuck 0/5

I'm surprised more people haven't taken the time to review this album, for good or for bad. Thumbs up to anyone who gave it a shot. Yes, it's a difficult listen, but it's also pretty fascinating. I doubt I would listen to this again in its entirety, but it was interesting. You'd be hard pressed to find many musical acts as adventurous as Throbbing Gristle is on this album. They really push the boundaries of what you can call music, and also for our tolerance as listeners. Their palette is noise - blips, feedback, guitar distortion, fragments of conversations. Sometimes the effect is oddly musical, sometimes it's aggressively grating. The lyrics, if you care to look them up, can get disturbing. The general vibe is definitely creepy, but in the middle, a bright, synth-y song like "AB/7A." Go figure. There are some interesting ideas here, but I think the arrangement of the songs could have been a little more precise, like ordering the the songs so they flow better. The way they're organized now, they come off as tonally a little haphazard. I also think they could have dropped a couple of tracks and had a much tighter album. As for my review, I've been back and forth between 2 and 3 stars. That's not because I think it's bad necessarily, but because it's really challenging (and I like challenging stuff). Intellectually I appreciate it, but it's also unsettling in a way I didn't enjoy. Fave Songs: AB/7A, Dead on Arrival, Weeping

I can feel the rhythm coursing through my veins. The remarkable thing about it is that some people think it's a joke and just random industrial noises, but those of us who are in the biz, know how powerful and influential this record is. It's breathtaking in its ruthlessness. It's not afraid to go to places you never knew you needed to go. A masterful triumph of heavyweight crescendos and thunderous beats. Danger lies around every corner. Beware.

This is some weird ass shit I'm grateful to have learned about today.

Honestly not bad. I cannot believe this is the lowest rated album on this entire website. Sometimes your brain needs to be challenged a bit, and this was a very interesting series of sound experiments. i can totally see how this is the grandfather to NIN.

Well that was a cheery start to Monday morning. It's not exactly Britney Spears. Pleasant, but you'd be hard pushed to call it music. More of a project.

Went into this with low expectations, but it turned out to be quite an interesting album. Experimental and unsettling at times, but it kept me intrigued.

If nothing else, this sounds like nothing else that had been put on record at that time. A real mix of styles, from Weeping to AB/7A, I love all aspects of this album. You could say AB/7A owes a debt to Kraftwerk, but Hamburger Lady sounds unlike any other artist (thankfully). In equal parts uplifting and downright scary, this is not an album I would sit down and listen to very often, but certainly one that has had a massive influence in my subsequent musical taste.

Wow. My first thought was thank god it wasn't more punk. My second was noisy! Really grew on me though as it poured its sinister sampling sound down my ears. Dark and sombre. I've never heard of Throbbing Gristle but will check out their other stuff now for sure. Amazing such a challenging sound got released. Definitely not dinner party music! Best tracks - Hamburger Lady, AB/7A, E-Coli. I need to listen to this again.

Grinding, burbling synths and processed vocal samples. Yet surprisingly soothing. Maybe there’s something wrong with me.

I knew I would be in for some pearl-clutching reviews when this album was generated this morning and, 1001 albums generator users, god bless ya, you didn’t disappoint. I won’t pretend that this is an easy listen. It’s challenging and it’s not an album I see myself revisiting often, even though there are songs here that I did enjoy and I am currently on my second listen of D.o.A. It boils down to this: on a personal level, I’m not the type to shut down or shy away when faced with sounds, music or ideas that do not comport with generally accepted norms. Doing so is effectively placing yourself inside a box, limiting what music can be. There were undoubtedly purists who wrote off the electric guitar as an abomination or nothing but “noise” at its inception, just like many here write off Throbbing Gristle’s electronic experimentation as noise or unlistenable garbage. …and you know what? It’s not really your fault, your brain has been conditioned since birth to be wary of unknown and unconventional sounds. It’s not surprising that many shut down and want nothing to do with music like this in any way: it is the appropriate response based on your conditioning. Your body and mind are reacting as they are “supposed to”. These are sounds that you do not encounter in day to day life, so it makes perfect sense that would they make people uncomfortable. But it might be worth asking, “Why?”. After all, it is just sound on a disc. These sounds do not come from anything that represents an existential or harmful threat to us: they were made by machines we control and they literally only exist in the sonic ether, which you have chosen to temporarily engage with. When you stop engaging with them, they are gone, with no meaningful harm done to your person. It’s only sound.

I found this album to be quite interesting. While it's not something I would listen to regularly, I didn't find it to be the inaccessible barrage of noise a lot of "industrial" albums are. At times I found it to actually be almost relaxing, more akin to an ambient work. The use of spoken word recordings on a couple tracks such as Valley of the Shadow of Death and Hometime had the feeling of being in a cafe or watching someone's old home recordings. The punk-like tracks Hit By a Rock and Blood on the Floor are pretty standard of the time. Then there are the tracks in the middle that experiment more with the synth and vocal effects, to varying degrees of success, but some are actually quite good. There are also a few tracks that lean more towards the noisy/industrial side like I.B.M, Dead on Arrival and Walls of Sound that I could do without. Overall I think this is interesting piece of musical history. Very experimental, it gets a few things right and a few things wrong. I'm glad I got to listen. Fav Tracks: Hamburger Lady, AB/7A, E-Coli

Another bit of wierd serendipity, I get this the day after going to see cosey fanni tutti talking in my local library....this is pretty special and wonderfully odd. All the negative comments make me love it more. I'd rather listen to this back to back than more MOR classic rock that makes me want to claw my eyes out.

This is totally my jam

Protean horrors.

Would I listen to this or reach for it regularly? No - is it completely fascinating and an essential listen? Absolutely yes. Hamburger Lady for example is great. The abba one is a fun piece of krautrock. Some of the soundscapes created here elsewhere are just fantastic. I love that they stuck actual death threats from their answer machine onto the record, and effectively respond to them with a wall of noise.

Ok...what the F&^% was that? Most of the album isn't music. The tracks that can be called music are 'interesting' but does that make it good? Is this something I want to listen to?

Congratulations, you experiment with what you could make music out of. And you do it in the worst way possible. Out of the first 4 tracks, literally only one of them has any melodic value. The only reason "I.B.M." is the third most played track on the album is that it's the opener and a good amount of people shut off the record before they get a minute in. Most of these tracks are nothing more than either shock value or an academic study into the extremities of meshing various sounds with abrasive electronic effects, but even then little to no worth could be found in comparison to their more refined follow-up "20 Jazz Funk Greats" which actually served as the primary influence of the industrial genre. As a fan of noise rock, I quite fancy the chaotic "Hit by a Rock", but really the album starts with "Dead on Arrival," one of the two tracks alongside "AB/7A" as a harsh response to Kraftwerk. "Weeping" is a personal favorite of mine if only cause they managed to make something that sounds like it came from The Madcap Laughs even more disturbing than anything Syd Barrett came up with. Good for a couple of listens but you get a bit tired of the 5.5-minute length. Next, we have "Hamburger Lady", and if you're wondering why it's the most popular song, it's cause it's actually quite notorious as being one of the most unsettling songs in music history. Personally, I find it intriguing but nothing more emotional, unfortunately. Only one of the next 5 tracks is actually melodic, the beforementioned Kraftwerk-esque "AB/7A", which has nice school cafeteria ambiance in the background and hilariously gruesome lyrics. Brilliant. Finally, we end with an ironically bad punk closer "Blood on the Floor". I fancy it. I give 1 star to albums that have no worth or interest at all. This is not a 1-star album. I'd listen to "Hit By a Rock" or "Weeping" again for pleasure. There's plenty to revisit for curiosity and to share with others, whether to shock them or show them something of note. However, I would advise never listening to the album in its entirety ever again. Favorites: Hit By a Rock, Weeping, Hamburger Lady

I hate that I have to give any stars to this. This is shameful to include on this list.

What a wonderful album, it has so many of Throbbing Gristles biggest hits like 'Hit By A Rock', 'Valley of the Shadow of Death', 'AB/7A' and the all time classic 'Death Threats'. They made such sweet sounds back in the 70's, you have to wonder how many babies were conceived listening to this timeless album. Everything about it is wonderful; the classic songwriting of Genesis P-Orridge and Cosey Fanni Tutti, the gorgeous vocal harmonies, the immaculate string arrangements, the sparkling production. I could go on and on. No seriously, this was terrible. It was like being sat in a dentist chair having all my teeth pulled out without anesthetic. How the F**k does this qualify as music??? There's nothing clever or ground breaking or artistic about it. It's just a pile of garbage. Stop wasting my f**king time with this nonsense!!!!!!

Creepy. Weird. Kind of cool? Maybe? Probably not. I thought I enjoyed industrial music. This album makes me feel like a schizophrenic. Fave tracks: AB/7A

Yeah, no.

A+ for the band name A+ for the confusion in the ratings/reviews A+ for really being an original album that should be listened to A+ for being experimental AF A+ for insane level of influence Guys, I had a great time. Y'all can go listen to another Britpop album.

For having the second-lowest rating on this site (as of writing this), I expected it to be a lot worse. It turns out it’s just…boring. It reminded of Boards of Canada but industrial. It was very light on any actual music or rhythm but I didn’t mind it at all. It’s interesting this is from the late 70s; I would have guessed mid to late 90s. Consider me confused why this is so hated.

This one didn't speak to me

Weird. I didn't enjoy this AT ALL! Would be a 1, but bonus star for badass band name! Ye must worship the THROBBING GRISTLE!

That sure throbbed my gristle.

Had given this album a try before out of curiosity but still do not see why this is an "essential" album - experimental pre-industrial 70s music that deliberately sounds ugly and lo-fi (it sounds exactly as what you would expect it to sound like). The follow-up "20 Jazz Funk Greats" is better (more pop) and would be a more appropriate choice for this list (i assume it is included as well).

I'm presuming they've been included as a joke. because there's NOTHING on display here of anything resembling musicianship or song craft. truly awful

Not sure where the music in this one was.... Its just some experimental sounds with dinner table chatter in the background

Err yeah, I've heard of them was quite excited to engage with their notorious avant garde sounds. I can't lie I really wanted to like this, in electronica they have this rep early pioneers and all. But it was a large bag of rat infested goats shit. Im sure they had cerebral laughs making it, I was just glad when it was over.

All I can say is - literally oh my days blud.

This is definitely the worst album I’ve listened to yet. At least electronic music can be enjoyed and has direction. This is pure nonsense and a collection of noises. 0.0/10

Horrible. Many tracks didn’t even have lyrics, just noise on top of electronic noise “. When there were ‘lyrics’ it was spoken word garbage

Absolute trash. This isn't music. It is random noise and is an unorganized mess. Several songs were skipped. Burn it down.

I would like to send a bag of gummy dicks packed in glitter to the person who wrote this list for making me listen to such nonsense.

I do not like the space noises

What makes this good and not just complete nonsense? I have no idea but good it certainly is. Unusual, weird, noisy, and really really good.

This album is so ridiculously ahead of its time that it is absolutely staggering that they pulled this off in the 70s. It is disconcerting, perspective shifting industrial/experimental music that I hear in so much of what came later. As the originators of the industrial genre (even having a record label named Industrial), Throbbing Gristle's influence can be felt across genres. It may be an uncomfortable album, but it is certainly essential.

Äntligen något bra. Jag har fått lyssna på den ena dåliga plattan efter den andre. Hårdrock och Hip-hop. Blir förundrad över att den har så låga poäng. Folk har ingen kultur i kroppen. Har radar Throbbing Gristle med Genesis P-Orridge i spetsen hit efter hit. Ska jag försöka säga något negativt med plattan så ska det väl vara att de inte fick med singelversionen av United. 16 sekunder är lite för kort.

As clearly as much of this isn't music, it performs the same function. The formal elements have clearly been picked up by the modern ambient community, sans much ugliness. As interesting is the motorik sometimes present: Throbbing Gristle didn't come from nowhere. Deranged, though.

I went into this on high alert. Then I started letting my guard down after the extremely fun sped up rendition of the single “United”. A question came up: “Why do I not actively hate this?” Then it dawned on me. Nothing really overstays its welcome. The krautrock influence is apparent but this is still something completely new and groundbreaking - especially for a ‘78 release! I was equally curious, horrified and alienated - just as I believe was intended.

Maybe I am a bit damaged, but I was expecting something truly awful and unlistenable here. Instead there is a huge variety on this groundbreaking record with the common theme being snapshots of industrial Britain in a time where the British music scene was trying to find its way in a tumultuous musical decade. The most difficult part of the record was the final two tracks 'Walls of Sound' and ' Blood on the Floor' which were both difficult but by no means horrible. The road leading to the closing tracks is however truly entertaining and diverse. From the rhythmic and enjoyable 'I.B.M.' the record visits a moody atmospheric (and sometimes scary) place on 'Valley of the Shadow of Death' and 'E-Coli'. On 'Hamburger Lady', Throbbing Gristle also gives their idea for the imaginary soundtrack to a spaghetti western set in a rundown factory in northern England. The band is also surprisingly groovy at times, especially when channeling their inner role as direct descendants of krautrock as is evident on the groovy 'AB/7A' and 'Dead on Arrival' - an awesome combination of space lasers and machine throttles. Further listens are of course warranted, but I imagine it is more likely to yield and extra star than make me think less of this record.

The song titles pretty much had me ready for something that was way off the beaten path and I wasn’t disappointed. The first time through I thought I might cut myself. The second time through I think I did. The second time through I decided to put it on while I was working. I sort of fell into a zen-like state while I was working and it served perfectly to keep things interested as I focused on my various tasks. It lended a sinister darkness to my workday which proved surprisingly productive. Somehow this horror show wormed its way into my heart. I really like this and at some point may love it.

The name "Throbbing Gristle" makes me recoil and shudder every single time I encounter it. I think that's what they were going for. Well done. This was not a popular morning drive accompaniment, and the passenger kept turning the volume down during the first two tracks. I sort of appreciate this more that it's from 1978. It seems a little more daring in that context than even if it was from 10 years later. Was this an enjoyable listen? No. But did I have genuine reactions? Yes. Each track was a different experience! It must have been a good day because I was intrigued and engaged all through. Wow.

Very influential album

I don't want to like this because I feel like only a pretentious music snob would like this just to prove they are smarter than everyone else. They "get it" and you don't. Well, I don't "get it" either, but somehow this "music" tickles my ADD infected brain just right. I listened to this 3 times, and it somehow got better each time. It somehow has a calming effect on me. I feel like I could sleep to this twisted shit. The only part I didn't like was when the kid yells "mama." That's probably just because I have PTSD from having a toddler. I don't know if or when I'll listen to this again, but I liked it. 7.5/10

Disturbing and strangely soothing at the same time. Those looking for songs will be disappointed but as a collection of industrial atmospheres, this does the job really well.

makes me feel sick in the head, i like it ### interesting listen! i can really see how this would've been a big inspiration for industrial and noise, it remind me of a lot of more modern stuff i've heard

Full marks for being different and influential and pushing the DIY envelope in arty ways. However, on substance, this is moderately interesting at best and often primitive-sounding. Much of it barely qualifies as music or, for that matter, a record. "Found sound" (especially answering machine content) jumped the shark quite some time ago, no? One might be just intrigued enough to explore a touch more of the catalog (liking soundscapes, obscurities and irrelevant artistic endeavors as much as one tends to do), but it’s certainly not a no-brainer and one’s skeptical about finding much else worthwhile.

D.o.A: The Third and Final Report is the second album by English industrial music pioneers Throbbing Gristle. In this album the band continued toying with industrial music - which is a genre of music that uses harsh, mechanical, transgressive, or provocative sounds and themes. Defined in simple terms, industrial music is the "most abrasive and aggressive fusion of rock and electronic music". The genre began as a blend of noisy patterns from electronic devices and punk rock. This album was one of the early works of industrial music and was an "essential, nauseating masterpiece". I'm not sure I would echo that previous sentence, but this was an interesting album. Less music and instead more random sounds strewn together in rhythmic patterns. It was definitely trippy, but not something I would ever go out of my way to listen to. Also, what's with the little girl on the album cover? I read they gave away a calendar of her with the first 1,000 album purchases. That's more than a little weird - but I guess it wasn't weird for the late 70's.

Is this album a collection of songs? Is this a song? Am I listening to a song or working in a factory in 1980? Is this reality? What I'm doing listening to it? Who am I? I need to give this album an extra star for predicting 1978 how AI-generated songs would look like in 2023. Impressive.

Not the worst album on the list, like reviews would suggest,but I do not think my family is going to let me choose the road trip playlist anymore

Ik vind chip-music wel leuk, maar dit is me toch iets teveel fabriek-music. *

A daring foray into experimental musical stylings. Bold. Brave. I absolutely hated it.

It may have been ground breaking from a production stand point, but’s to much of an art project to enjoy

I liked that song where the modems were talking about rising up against humanity, and the one where the little girl got run over by the garbage truck. The one where the scientists were conducting lab experiments about the effects of white noise and radio waves on rats with cancer was interesting, but didn't quite connect with me. 1 star.

Sorry, da fehlt mir das Verständnis. Kann mir nicht vorstellen, wie jemand das herstellen und verkaufen kann. Respektive kaufen...

cant say I’m feeling this one. It feels more in the realm of disturbed ambience, rather than industrial (with some exceptions like Walls of Sound). A bunch of it is just noise that isn’t necessarily irritating, but it’s also not interesting. It didn’t get much reaction from me other than boredom. A couple of the actually “songs” remind my of Chrome…but again, not really interesting. Do people like this for the challenging and subversive nature, or do people genuinely enjoy the way these sounds are arranged? I’m pretty open minded, but this ain’t it. AB/7A is a pretty rad track though.

Nr. 168/1001 I.B.M. 1/5 Hit by a Rock 1/5 United NR Valley of the Shadow of the Death 1/5 Dead on Arrival 1/5 Weeping 1/5 Hamburger Lady 1/5 AB/7A 2/5 E-Coli 1/5 Death Threats NR Walls of Sound 1/5 Blood on the Floor 1/5 Average: 1,1 That was unlistenable to me. I wouldn't call this music. Just random sounds.

Sounds like a test CD from a HiFi magazine for calibrating your system.

This album is abysmal. I’m sad I’m the only one doing this right now since I have no one to complain to about this.

Groupe inconnu. Mais où est la musique ? Il faut attendre le 9eme morceau pour écouter quelque chose qui y ressemble (AB/7A). C'est tellement barré que je me suis laissé emporter par ma curiosité et suis allé au bout ... mais absolument rien me donnerait envie de subir une seconde fois cette torture. => 1/5

There's nothing about this album that can redeem it from its cover art. The music may be influential in industrial circles, but child exploitation is neither edgy nor provocative, it's disgusting.

This was a great surprise. Odd and very interesting. Understandable that they show up in the lineage of industrial music.

Un trabajo sumamente interesante por el colectivo de arte experimental Throbbing Gristle. Con unos tintes de Noise, otros de No-Wave y muchos de Industrial, el proyecto nos transporta por paisajes apocalípticos, sacados directamente de películas de terror. Esto queda evidenciado en el track “Hamburger Lady”, y “E. Coli”. Un indispensable de la música alternativa.

All hail Breyer P-Orridge!

Bloody hell what a strange one, so happy to come across it though…. Totally unlistenable though😂

Nice find

This is such a good album..

not my kind of music

I think this is great. Fuck it -- five stars.

I love this, and I wonder why I've never dived more deeply into their catalog before. Easy peasy 5 stars!!

This album caught me in the right mood. I was all ready to join the pile on, but then I discovered it was a fascinating listen. I found myself groping for images to accompany each track in a way few, if any, albums on this list have made me do. I loved the garbled voices on Hometime and Valley of the Shadow of Death - so evocative of 1970s Britain - which may be lost on many listeners. It's not an album I'll return to frequently, but I'm amazed to say I'll be back. In a list of 1000 albums there should be at least one the goes down this path to explore the limits of the medium.

The timing of the albums you get on here has a big influence. This one came up not long after I watched The Zone of Influence, and I can't help wonder if Throbbing Gristle were a big influence on Mica Levi's work. It has a lot more in common with ambient than a lot of the industrial music that followed. I love the northern voices, the repetitive rhythms, and pretty much everything about it. Best listened to with headphones walking around a city.

Ok you can say what you like about this album but it won't be 'it's bland' or 'very unoriginal'. It's not a joke. It's people trying to produce the most uncompromising unpleasant sounds. 20 Jazz Funk Greats is the same too. I've tried listening to this a few times over the years but it's pretty disturbing and you tend to find other things to listen to. If you want to listen to only one track it's Hamburger Lady. Read the lyrics then tell me I'm wrong.

Chaotic bunch of noise that rips through the norm. Not a comfortable listen but not all music needs to be. Bonus points for just how influential this is, even for the bands that have listened to Throbbing Gristle

Not normally my scene, but I get it. Pretty cool! B

Aan de hand van de reviews verwachtte ik vervelende drukke herrie (een soort Black Midi - Hellfire) en dat is het helemaal niet. Het is redelijk minimalistisch en rustig juist. Dit bevalt me onverwacht goed. De meeste nummers klinken alsof ze uit soundtracks komen van films/games die ik goed vind. Misschien dat het me daarom bevalt. "Hit by a Rock" past in de film 'The Sound of Metal'. "Dead on Arrival" past in 'Requiem for a Dream'. "Hometime" en "AB/7A" zouden zo toegevoegd kunnen worden aan 'The Fountain'. En "E-Coli" zou mooi passen bij 'The Last of Us'. Als het album was gestopt na track 11 had ik zelfs 5 sterren gegeven, maar de laatste twee nummers zijn kut, dus wordt het een 4.

Fax noises at first but improves to something interesting

Fantastic sound, love the noise.

4.2 - I'm a young boy again, laying in bed, feeling my eyes get heavy with sleep. My window is open and I can hear the cool summer breeze rushing through the trees, as well as the occasional car creeping by on the street. In the next room I hear the sound of a sitcom playing on the television, characters talking unintelligibly over a laugh-track. I'm hyper-aware of my surroundings and I haven't yet learned how to tune things out so I'm dazzled by how the strange, disparate sounds create a messy symphony in mind. That's sort of how I feel listening to this record.

i rather enjoyed this. I wasn't exactly sure what to expect, what with the industrial label being attached to these blokes and whatnot. I was startled by how varied the whole affair was, and yet there was definitely an overall aesthetic at work. Some of the tunes reminded me of Pere Ubu. Some sounded like "Revolution 9" meets Eraserhead. More surprising still, I found myself nodding along with some of these tracks. In fact, I was openly singing Blood On the Floor for several minutes after the song was over. I say, bravo, Throbbing Gristle!

I’m perplexed how this album is currently the second lowest ranked on the whole list. I get that industrial is not for everyone, and I’ve never considered myself a fan, nor do I now, but this thing is actually just a captivating listen. Throughout D.O.A. the band creates so many moods ranging from confusion to discomfort to tranquil to overwhelming, and each is executed really quite well. I may not come back to listen a second time but I’m damn sure happy to have heard this album at least once. 7/10

It kinda made my head hurt, but like, in a good way? There were only two tracks I could do without (Valley of the Shadow of the Death and Dead On Arrival). The rest of the album was interesting, and I’d happily listen to it a few more times.

I'm surprised at the sound of this album. For an Industrial album, I expected something loud, abrasive and noisy. And while there are moments like that, such as in the tracks Hit by a Rock and Walls of Sound, what underpins this album is an understated, unsettling ambience. Opener I.B.M is a great introduction, setting the tone with lots of random noises building tension around an underpinning signal. Weeping starts oddly serene with an echoing guitar, before quickly turning to that muted sinister sound. Most understated sounding song goes to Hamburger Lady, which somehow is the most famous song from this album as the lyrics are gruesome. It's this variety of sound that makes this album influential. I get flashbacks to Boards of Canada in Hometime, with its explicitly homely, childlike veneer over something dark, as well as Kraftwerk in AB/7A with its simultaneous chirpy and cold sound. And Steve Albini must've surely listened to those chainsaw guitars on Dead on Arrival. It's that focus on almost homely horror, instead of the baroque operatic shocking the genre would (d)evolve to in the 90s, that makes this album great and probably made Throbbing Gristle hit too close to home for all the conservative haters calling in in Death Threats. (Still, it still feels that with the original album art (and that includes more than the cover) it does cross a line like those acts in the 90s did. And a cursory Wikipedia read about it's members is... not reassuring) Light 4

These are they types of weird experimental albums I hope to find once and a while. I haven’t heard this one yet, but I recognize some of the things that they do and wonder how much that influenced bands that I’ve listened to.

interesting experimental sounds - I liked better than I thought.

A name I knew of but didn't really pay attention to. Controversial artwork aside, some of these tracks could be tracks done by bands like Kraftwerk and other Krautrock groups. Surprisingly some of the more aleatoric tracks still are a cohesive listening experience. I'm curious to listen to more, but I always associate industrial music to be a bit more heavy sounding and some of this was downright pleasant, although I'm a weirdo.

Ce n’est pas harmonieux, c’est à peine mélodieux, ce sont des sons assemblés, des voix monotones, mais une exploration cohérente qui brosse un portrait de nos environnements sonores

Oh baby, here comes controversy. I'd never heard of this group or album before, at least not until constantly seeing it on the global "worst rated albums" list on this site, it's either the absolute worst or close to it. I was expecting some putrid filth, but...well, it's an electronic noise type of album, and I actually really like it. Granted, I enjoy some heavy noise stuff here and there (Pharmakon's Bestial Burden is a favorite album of mine that belongs on a list like this), and this one is probably very early in that genre. 1978, can you imagine? Hearing this in an era still dominated by, like, Van Halen? Truly groundbreaking, and I don't even think this was their first album (title suggests otherwise). I really dig it though, it's cacophanous and unsettling, but it's also really cool. I understand why many people would rate it low--I have to remember how many people participating in this 1001 album project are probably just somebody's friend or relative. Most people have never heard anything like this, and in the absence of this list, most would never be FORCED to listen to something like this either. But hell yeah to Throbbing Gristle, this is tight. Favorite tracks: IBM, Valley of the Shadow, Dead on Arrival, Weeping, Hamburger Lady, E-Coli. Album art: Just a kid sitting by some shelves full of musical equipment. It's a nice photo, very unassuming and in no way suggestive of the visceral audio hell that this album subjects people to. 4.5/5

It's been a while since I've heard Throbbing Gristle's "20 Jazz Funk Greats", but from my recollection, I don't remember it being nearly as mind-altering and proto-industrial and noisy as this album is. Aside from that, I'm familiar with TG member Peter Christopherson's later endeavors with the great post-industrial band Coil but that's about the extent of my knowledge of TG. If I had to say anything about this album, it's that I think the most mind-blowing thing about it is its release date. I think a lot of the songs on the album blend to form one large directionless void. It's all unsettling, there's not a single earwormy or straightforward track here. The electronic, glitch, distortion effects, and sheer power electronic vibe of this album may not sound so impressive today in the era of post-industrial electronic giants, but it's not hard to pinpoint just how many artists this record could've influenced. When paired with the technological limitations of the time, this album's existence alone is quite a feat and makes it worthy of praise. As for the individual songs, they're still pretty enjoyable and distinct. Again the drones and walls of noise are all there, most notably on "Hamburger Lady" which has these vocals drenched in bizarre vocal effects paired with these strange piercing and high-pitched shots of noise. "Dead on Arrival" may be one of the most direct tracks here, it has several facets and phases and has an electronic groove that sounds so modern it's uncanny. "Wall of Sound" is probably the most haunting and bone-chilling track here, you can probably infer why purely based on its title. The thing I love about this album is how it's influential yes, but it's not "watered-down influential"; that is, the music it inspired doesn't outshine or overshadow it, and its potency is still prevalent even in retrospect. Too many times with influential albums, you can tell that they're very much "prototypes", that's not the case here. It's not clunk or aged in any way. The more "serene" and less noisy tracks with hazy, detuned blushes of noise like "Weeping" and "Hometime" are just as enjoyable as the noisy songs. Many of these songs are paired with either bizarre singing or interesting and uncanny field recording snippets or tapes that are seemingly random, but also tell a story. The tapes on "E. Coli" are probably the most unsettling, it feels like you're listening in on some forbidden memo about some super-mutant bacteria over these uneasy string-sounding synths. "AB/7A" may be the easiest song on the ears here, with a gorgeous ambient proto-EDM groove driving the entire thing, it's a gorgeous moment on the album. While not perfect by any means, this album's existence alone I think is worthy of praise. It's not music for everyone and I understand hating every second of this, but for my ears, I think it's a very cohesive and enjoyable electronic experience.

Uncompromising

I really enjoyed the experimental instrumental parts of this album. It was almost like listening to a piece of art instead of music. I didn't care much for the vocals of the lead singer, but most of the tracks used this type of vocal work sparingly or not at all. Overall, an interesting album from a genre I'm curious to learn more about.

It's the incredibly difficult but also incredible boy enjoyable if you can get past it's intention to push away the squares who just want to hear a white man doing plodding songs about love or rawk and roll. This is the balance I needed after being forced to listen to Clapton and U2.