As part of
Throbbing Gristle, P-Orridge invented industrial music and, by circuitous
route, is the great grand parent of all yer neofolk, martial folk, dark
ambient, power electronics, blah di blah, most of which yours truly finds as
dull as ditchwater, and significantly less creative than protozoa found within.
So perhaps
it’s best to view Those Who Do Not as a sonic window into the past, a past in
which a group of non-musician artists are pushing at the boundaries of what
constitutes music. In which the performance is as essential as the music it
produces, and both come together to create a ritualistic experience for
performers and audience combined. And maybe this glimpse of Psychic TV can be a
Rosetta Stone allowing us to make sense of the myriad offshoots spawned and
inspired by P-Orridge and their collaborators (the number of which is pretty
high, if not quite Mark E Smith-esque!).
To go track
by track through an album like Those Who Do Not would be pointless and dull in
the extreme. It also isn’t really the point of a recording like this. It stands
as a snapshot, a testament to who and what the band was at the time it was
recorded, what they did or didn’t achieve and what they created. So, while
Those Who Do Not may or may not be a good entry point into the Psychic TV
portfolio, repeated listening proved it to be a fascinating and intriguingly
hypnotic experience, entertaining, unsettling, and just plain befuddling in
parts.
