THROBBING GRISTLE Vinilo y CD

Review: When it was first released in 2007, "Part 2: The Endless Not / TG Now" was Throbbing Gristle's first studio album since 1982. The pioneering industrial band had been drawn together again in 2004 to mark the passing of friend John Balance with a rare performance, and spent the next two years sporadically recording new material. The set was produced slightly differently to the all-analogue early works, with greater use of sampling and digital instrumentation. Yet despite the new toys and techniques, the music remained as antagonistic, forthright, intense and otherworldly as it had been two decades before. In other words, it's a proper Throbbing Gristle album, made by the original members to their original ethos, with a slightly different production approach. For that reason it remains a must-have for all fans of industrial music past and present.

Review: Throbbing Gristle's second studio album is an essential work that conjures some of the most harsh and nauseating music you can imagine (not a surprise given "Hamburger Lady" is a piece about a patient burned from the waist up and forever contained in a hospital). It was pioneering in texture and technique, and mixes both live and studio recordings into one of the band's most stylistically varied works. Creeping and haunting, confrontational and challenging from front to back, the spoken word samples from children and mutated voices will probably haunt your dreams forever, so listen with caution.