Community hub
Recent from talks
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Psychic TV
Psychic TV (aka PTV or Psychick TV or several other aliases) were an English experimental video art and music collective, formed by performance artist Genesis P-Orridge and songwriter Alex Fergusson in 1981 after the break-up of Throbbing Gristle. They have released over one hundred full-length albums to date.
Contributors include artists such as Coil, Current 93, Monte Cazazza, Larry Thrasher, Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson, Soft Cell, Fred Giannelli, Hafler Trio, The Cult, Master Musicians of Jajouka, William Breeze, Derek Jarman, John Gosling, Timothy Leary, Rose McDowall, Andrew Weatherall, and Z'EV. Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth (a.k.a. T.O.P.Y.) formed as an organisation at the inception of the band, who conceived it as a magical order and the philosophical wing of Psychic TV. T.O.P.Y. functions as a cult-like fan-club for the group.
Psychic TV was influential in pioneering the acid house genre, releasing several fake compilations in an effort to popularize the sound, such as Jack the Tab and Tekno Acid Beat. According to some, acid house was given its name by Genesis Breyer P-Orridge. After breaking up in 1999, they reformed as PTV3 with a new line-up in 2003, but disbanded in 2020 when their core member Genesis Breyer P-Orridge died.
Since Genesis P-Orridge primarily wrote the lyrics instead of the music for Psychic TV, the history of Psychic TV can be broken up into the periods of the main songwriter that was working with them at the time.
Psychic TV was formed with the core membership of Genesis P-Orridge (ex-Throbbing Gristle) and Alex Fergusson in 1981. Alex Fergusson was a member of the punk/experimental outfit Alternative TV, with whom P-Orridge performed at one point throughout Throbbing Gristle's run.Band name derived for P Orridge use of the word Psychic and TV from Alex Fergusson’s old band Alternative TV. Later ex-TG member Peter Christopherson got involved in 1982 and claimed that the 'TV' component of the name was intended to focus on the visual elements of the outfit. P-Orridge once claimed that "Psychic TV is a video group who does music unlike a music group which makes music videos".
Psychic TV made their live debut in Autumn 1982 as a part of the "Final Academy", a multi-performance event dedicated to and featuring William S. Burroughs. In November 1982, Psychic TV's debut studio album, Force the Hand of Chance, was released by Some Bizzare Records and distributed by WEA International; its accompanying single, "Just Drifting", came out in the same year's December. Dreams Less Sweet, a follow-up to Force... was released in 1983. Lyrics were handled by P-Orridge while the music / pop songs was written by Fergusson and sound experiments by Christopherson and John Balance – foreshadowing the pair's later work as Coil. Marc Almond of Soft Cell also contributed vocals.
The live shows, such as those at the Berlin Atonal festival, continued to include improvised noise elements until Peter Christopherson left and Fergusson brought in new musicians.[citation needed] In 1986, Psychic TV began a series of 23 live show performances being recorded and released, each from a different nation, on the 23rd of each month for 23 months, earning an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records for most records released in one year (1986). though the series was discontinued after 17 albums, it earned the band an entry in The Guinness Book of World Records. Towards the end of this period Fergusson/P-Orridge completed their third proper studio album, Allegory and Self (1988, though recorded in 1986). Alex Fergusson left in early 1987 due to disagreements with band management.]
During this period Fred Giannelli, Dave Ball from Soft Cell, Richard Norris (who later formed the Grid with Dave Ball), John Gosling, engineer Richard Evans and other techno artists released music not only as Psychic TV but also under a variety of fake names. The idea behind this was to release fake "compilations" by imaginary artists, creating a sense that a healthy acid house scene existed in the UK. The key studio albums of this period were Jack the Tab – Acid Tablets Volume One (1988), Tekno Acid Beat (1988), Towards Thee Infinite Beat (1990; credited to Psychic TV) and Beyond Thee Infinite Beat (1992; credited to Psychic TV; 12" remixes of Towards tracks which could be played at 33 or 45 rpm). Almost all of the live shows in this period were based around the songs on these albums. From '88–'90 PTV was very stable as a live unit and did more gigs and touring than any other version of PTV before or after. They embarked on a long tour of the US and UK in 1988, Europe in 1989 and another long tour of the United States in 1990.[citation needed]
Hub AI
Psychic TV AI simulator
(@Psychic TV_simulator)
Psychic TV
Psychic TV (aka PTV or Psychick TV or several other aliases) were an English experimental video art and music collective, formed by performance artist Genesis P-Orridge and songwriter Alex Fergusson in 1981 after the break-up of Throbbing Gristle. They have released over one hundred full-length albums to date.
Contributors include artists such as Coil, Current 93, Monte Cazazza, Larry Thrasher, Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson, Soft Cell, Fred Giannelli, Hafler Trio, The Cult, Master Musicians of Jajouka, William Breeze, Derek Jarman, John Gosling, Timothy Leary, Rose McDowall, Andrew Weatherall, and Z'EV. Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth (a.k.a. T.O.P.Y.) formed as an organisation at the inception of the band, who conceived it as a magical order and the philosophical wing of Psychic TV. T.O.P.Y. functions as a cult-like fan-club for the group.
Psychic TV was influential in pioneering the acid house genre, releasing several fake compilations in an effort to popularize the sound, such as Jack the Tab and Tekno Acid Beat. According to some, acid house was given its name by Genesis Breyer P-Orridge. After breaking up in 1999, they reformed as PTV3 with a new line-up in 2003, but disbanded in 2020 when their core member Genesis Breyer P-Orridge died.
Since Genesis P-Orridge primarily wrote the lyrics instead of the music for Psychic TV, the history of Psychic TV can be broken up into the periods of the main songwriter that was working with them at the time.
Psychic TV was formed with the core membership of Genesis P-Orridge (ex-Throbbing Gristle) and Alex Fergusson in 1981. Alex Fergusson was a member of the punk/experimental outfit Alternative TV, with whom P-Orridge performed at one point throughout Throbbing Gristle's run.Band name derived for P Orridge use of the word Psychic and TV from Alex Fergusson’s old band Alternative TV. Later ex-TG member Peter Christopherson got involved in 1982 and claimed that the 'TV' component of the name was intended to focus on the visual elements of the outfit. P-Orridge once claimed that "Psychic TV is a video group who does music unlike a music group which makes music videos".
Psychic TV made their live debut in Autumn 1982 as a part of the "Final Academy", a multi-performance event dedicated to and featuring William S. Burroughs. In November 1982, Psychic TV's debut studio album, Force the Hand of Chance, was released by Some Bizzare Records and distributed by WEA International; its accompanying single, "Just Drifting", came out in the same year's December. Dreams Less Sweet, a follow-up to Force... was released in 1983. Lyrics were handled by P-Orridge while the music / pop songs was written by Fergusson and sound experiments by Christopherson and John Balance – foreshadowing the pair's later work as Coil. Marc Almond of Soft Cell also contributed vocals.
The live shows, such as those at the Berlin Atonal festival, continued to include improvised noise elements until Peter Christopherson left and Fergusson brought in new musicians.[citation needed] In 1986, Psychic TV began a series of 23 live show performances being recorded and released, each from a different nation, on the 23rd of each month for 23 months, earning an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records for most records released in one year (1986). though the series was discontinued after 17 albums, it earned the band an entry in The Guinness Book of World Records. Towards the end of this period Fergusson/P-Orridge completed their third proper studio album, Allegory and Self (1988, though recorded in 1986). Alex Fergusson left in early 1987 due to disagreements with band management.]
During this period Fred Giannelli, Dave Ball from Soft Cell, Richard Norris (who later formed the Grid with Dave Ball), John Gosling, engineer Richard Evans and other techno artists released music not only as Psychic TV but also under a variety of fake names. The idea behind this was to release fake "compilations" by imaginary artists, creating a sense that a healthy acid house scene existed in the UK. The key studio albums of this period were Jack the Tab – Acid Tablets Volume One (1988), Tekno Acid Beat (1988), Towards Thee Infinite Beat (1990; credited to Psychic TV) and Beyond Thee Infinite Beat (1992; credited to Psychic TV; 12" remixes of Towards tracks which could be played at 33 or 45 rpm). Almost all of the live shows in this period were based around the songs on these albums. From '88–'90 PTV was very stable as a live unit and did more gigs and touring than any other version of PTV before or after. They embarked on a long tour of the US and UK in 1988, Europe in 1989 and another long tour of the United States in 1990.[citation needed]