Throbbing Gristle: Throbbing Gristle's Greatest Hits (orange vinyl) [MUTE]

Why you'll love it

Mute's edition is on orange vinyl with an 8-page booklet drawn from the band's own archives and a download code. It gathers the industrial pioneers' most approachable pieces, from "Hot on the Heels of Love" to "20 Jazz Funk Greats."

This edition

• Orange vinyl
• 8-page "Industrial News" booklet
• Download card included
• Stereo mix
• Pressed in the EU

About the album

Throbbing Gristle were a band that liked to take things apart and see what happened. Genesis P-Orridge, Cosey Fanni Tutti, Chris Carter and Peter Christopherson ran their own Industrial Records out of London and spent the late 1970s inventing a new kind of electronic music from tape loops, homemade gear and sheer nerve.

This compilation, cheekily subtitled Entertainment Through Pain, picks the moments where the group's sound came closest to song. "Hot on the Heels of Love" is a cool, pulsing synth-disco track that sounds years ahead of its time, "United" and "Adrenalin" have hooks you'd hum on the bus, and "20 Jazz Funk Greats" is as playful as its title. "Subhuman," "AB/7A" and "Six Six Sixties" show the harder edge, and "Hamburger Lady" remains one of their most haunting pieces. The booklet comes from the archives of Tutti, Carter and Christopherson, and the band put out their early albums on their own Industrial Records label, which is where the whole genre got its name.

Its influence runs through techno, synth-pop and electronic music of every stripe. Of all the greatest hits sets in our racks, this is the one least likely to turn up at a wedding, though we live in hope.

Also at Kops: more Throbbing Gristle on vinyl · browse Industrial & Goth

Tracklist

Listen

On Mute (cat# TGLP7), a reissue of the 1981 compilation.