I received Throbbing Gristle’s Live at Camber Sands this afternoon in the mail from Mute UK. After hearing TG Now studio recording from earlier this year I was impressed with the effort put into the recording from a band who hadn’t worked together in 23 years. Upon completing this last live gig, the band released a recording of the show 10 minutes after the end of the show; that is the CD that arrived today.

It was great to hear the chemistry of the Genesis P-Orridge, Cosey Fanni Tutti, Peter Christopherson, and Chris Carter meld after so many years of acrimony between them. Their feeling for the time is right on the mark; after hearing the new CD, I felt that they had taken the 70’s style of Industrial Music and brought it forward to 21st-century Industrial music. Instead of the manufacturing and grime of the ’70s, the soundtrack was transformed as an accompaniment to the service sector Kinko’s and Starbucks’s landscape of today.

Unfortunately, the group revisited old grounds when they performed a few songs from the old days; I suppose to keep the fans who attended the show feeling they got their money’s worth. For me, I would love to hear more of their interpretations of the current moment. From TG Now, the songs Splitting Sky, Almost Like This, and How Do You Deal are three of the best soundtracks I’ve heard this century; only X-Ray leaves me flat. On Live at Camber Sands, the band delivers a sobering show which, knowing that their good friend Geoff Rushton (Jhonn Balance of Coil) had recently died, is understandable. The mood of the performance was heavier than and not as focused as the TG Now studio or the live recording that was made immediately after TG Now was recorded. I still have a profound interest and great respect for the new recording as it is an absolute snapshot of our times via TG’s view of things but TG Now is more precise and far more prescient.

Camber Sands setlist is as follows as it is not printed on the CD and is not the easiest list to find: P-A D, What A Day, Greasy Spoon, Live-Ray, Hamburger Lady, Almost Like This, Splitting Sky, Convincing People, Fed Up, Wall of Sound.

My only wish is that this not be the last ever recording of Throbbing Gristle.