33 1/3: 20 Jazz Funk Greats

Drew Daniel
Continuum
$10.95

Not only is Drew Daniel 1/2 of the sometimes San Francisco/sometimes Baltimore-based subversive and experimental electronic duo Matmos, he teaches in the English department at Johns Hopkins University. So by default he is literally the most qualified person on the planet to pen an insightful and intelligent review of one of the most aesthetically perplexing and compelling entries into the annals of early industrial music: Throbbing Gristle’s 1979 album, 20 Jazz funk Greats.

From Daniel’s research and personal editorials that reveal the subtle but profound secrets and dark ironies hiding in the album's cover art, a track-by-track vivisection and journalistic conversations with the group, this book is an easily digestible review of TG’s multi-layered M.O. Daniel’s workaday tone falls on TG’s spirit with the same superficial ambivalence and secretly fanatical tone with which Throbbing Gristle portrayed the grim aspects of the culture that compelled the original wreckers of civilization to churn out such a powerful album.

Shock value was a matter of interpretation and often times a side effect of TG’s societal and musical meditations and assaults.

Following Daniel’s narrative journey through angst-ridden teenage obsession into an adult and very intellectual examination of TG’s aesthetics is a fascinating examination in and of itself.

--Chad Radford