Way back in 1969, Led Zeppelin released their first album, Wes Anderson got ejected from a uterus, and Sesame Street had its television debut. As years go, it was pretty alright, except, of course, for the fact that nobody was really transmitting any coum. Zero coum transmitted. Zilch. Genesis P-Orridge took note of that fact, and late in the year, s/he founded the group COUM Transmissions while at school in Hull, Yorkshire. From there s/he set about transmitting all the coum that was humanly possible (not as gross as it sounds, I promise!) Between 1969 and 1976, with a rotating membership including John Shapiro, Cosey Fanni Tutti, and Spydeee Gasmantell, COUM Transmissions completed various tasks related to the effective transmission of coum, including being generally confrontational, making some pretty cool music, and opening for Hawkwind. In 1976, having deemed the amount of coum transmitted adequate, P-Orridge formed Throbbing Gristle alongside fellow members of COUM Transmissions.
Flash forward a whole bunch of years and everybody’s all ga-ga about Throbbing Gristle but about half of them are like “COUM Transmissions who?” because, turns out P-Orridge et. al. totally forgot to convert all the recordings they made way-back-when into MP3s, because, surprisingly, MP3s were not a thing in the 70s. But never fear, the kind folks at Dais Records have arrived to save the day! Back in 2009 they began what they said would be an ongoing process of making COUM Transmissions recordings a bit more widely available with The Sound of Porridge Bubbling, followed by Sugarmorphoses in 2011. Now they’re planning yet another release, which is entitled Home Aged & the 18 Month Hope. Out October 29, it collects material from between 1971 and 1975, and includes everything from live performances to poetry readings to radio interviews. It’s even got audio from that time the group played with Hawkwind! It’s limited to 1000 copies, so, in my professional opinion, you should hop on that preorder train yesterday.
Home Aged & the 18 Month Hope tracklisting:
01. Interview with Genesis P-Orridge on Arena Radio Humberside by Jim Hawkins for Fanfare Arts Festival, January 6, 1973
02. Doo Dah (Excerpt)
03. Prescott & Williams 1932
04. Edna and the Great Surfers in St. Georges Hall, Bradford, October 22, 1971
05. Cement Men - My Granny Goes Grave Digging
06. 18 Month Hope
07. Home Aged
08. Genesis P-Orridge talks with David Mayor at 5 Beck Road
• COUM Transmissions: http://www.brainwashed.com/tg/coum.html
• Dais Records: http://www.daisrecords.com
More about: COUM Transmissions, Throbbing Gristle
