THE SECOND ANNUAL REPORT

Hot on the heels of the recently ceased to exist performance group 'Coum Transmissions', newly formed Throbbing Gristle released their 'Second Annual Report' in '77 with a miserly run of only 785 vinyl copies. 15 years later good old 'Mute Records' released 6 of their earlier recordings on cd which got me into their music.

'Second Annual Report' is not very good if truth be told. The recording is awful. The first side is recorded direct to tape and the second side, a marked improvement, is made using using reel to reel.

A filthy, repugnant recording as you'd come to expect from these idiosyncratic reprobates. Of particular notoriety is the second track 'Slug Bait', which is full of grotesque visions of murder, flesh and pain. Fuzzy bass, scratchy droning guitar and simplistic drum machines are at the fore. It may be rubbish sounding these days, but at the time this spawned a hundred wannabees who went on to create the genre now known simply as 'Noise'.

Unlike the brilliant '3rd Annual Report' this is much more Lo-Fi and gritty. There's so much effect heaped upon everything that it kind of disguises the fact that its actually a very poorly conceived and recorded album. If anything, it sounds like the soundtrack to the original 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre' but more muffled.

'After Cease to Exist' is a 20 minute Charlie Manson inspired improvisation that just seems to drag on forever using warped echoing guitars, strange sound effects, warbling vocals and occasionally pulsing bass.

Even the much improved, somewhat 'poppy' and enormously better recorded bonus single "United" can't lift this one above two stars I'm afraid to say.

And surely to goodness they might have come up with a better sleeve? It's utter rubbish! One of them was a graphic designer after all...

Much better was to follow. This one is mostly for fans.