throbbing gristle: music from the death factory: a reflection press tape: stuttgart (germany) 1976: their first official release

in 1974 the german postfluxus artist albrecht/d. had been part of the "art into society - society into art" exhibition at the london ica; and though no evidence revealed until today, he probably met genesis and/or cosey as part of the coum operation group at this show. only a few weeks later, when coum conquered europe in 1975, he met and worked with them in kiel, gross-gerau, antwerpen and stuttgart, where coum were part of one of his many mail art exhibitions. 

just when coum had changed their name to throbbing gristle in the summer of 1976 albrecht/d. stayed with them for some weeks in their studio and home at 10, martello street in london. there he recorded two of their early versions of "music from the death factory" on his old tape recorder on the 12th and 18th of june 1976; and a few weeks later he released a tape of these performances as part of his reflection press edition, along with two other tapes he had recorded with them playing the drums in july 1976.

so this tape of "music from the death factory" in 1976 was the first ever official release with the name throbbing gristle written on it, and also the two following tapes were officially available long before their first record. and please note: these were no limited editions, no hidden treasures: albrecht/d. would copy, sell, or simply give away these tapes to everybody who asked for them at any time until his untimely death in 2013. 

so for today we got two versions of "music from the death factory", one recorded on the 12th of june 1976, the other on the 18th of june 1976, both featuring of course cosey fanni tutti and genesis p-orridge, probably sleazy and/or chris carter, and, though proven on the july recordings, an uncredited appearance of albrecht/d. on drums. both performances are about half an hour long, and can be heard here as they were released on tape. and for your pleasure you may listen to an excerpt of the session from the 12th of june directly in your browser. (and please be sure: the july tapes will appear right here in the not all too distant future)

download some music from the death factory 1976

(mp3 / all scans included / direct download)