If my mother had heard this record, she'd have thrown the bubbling porridge against the wall,and if she heard me listening to it, she'd have broke down in tears as a sign of failed parentage.
This was around 1973,the Hippie experiment had gone badly wrong,as had hairstyles and trousers; but a few brave souls were trying, in isolation, to take it forward.
All the world had then were The Residents,Suicide(the duo),and in the UK, Cabaret Voltaire and COUM Transmissions; who we all know evolved into Throbbing Gristle?
All resolutely Non-Musical,and all totally Ignored until the mainstream allowed Punk Rock to surface,opening the door to anything subversive.....sadly the last time this will ever happen.
(cue cut'n'paste stealing from an unnamed source for the factual history of COUM):
"COUM Transmissions was an transgressive performance art group, with inspiration stemming from Fluxus and the underground Mail Art scene, founded at the end of 1969 in Hull, U.K. by Neal Megson (soon to be known as Genesis P-Orridge) and "Jesus" Joheero. COUM expanded its members from 1970 to 1973 to include Cosey Fanni Tutti, Pinglewad, Spydee and Ray Harvey. During it's 10 year existence, the group featured a rotating cast of other members including Haydn Rob, Timothy Poston, Ian Evetts, The Very Reverend Lelli Maull, John Smith, Fizzy Paet, Foxtrot Echo and John Gunni Busck (a.k.a. John Lacey). In 1974 Peter Christopherson joined the group and had a strong influence on its direction. The last COUM performance was in May 1978.
The group was very involved in music throughout its history even appearing on a bill with Hawkwind in October 1971. However they were also very active with performance art, mail art, installations, video, and print publications. COUM performed across the U.K. as well as in Europe and the US. In September 1975, COUM members Genesis, Cosey and Peter joined up with Chris Carter and focused their musical energies on the parallel project Throbbing Gristle. This left COUM to focus more on performance art in its last years.
COUM Transmission were always controversial with such avant garde happenings such as Copyright Breeches, COUMing of Age and Marcel Duchamp's Next Work, but this peaked with the "Prostitution" art exhibit at London's ICA in October, 1976 - based around photos from Cosey's career as a model/actress for pornographic magazines and films. The "Prostitution" show was also the accepted premier of Throbbing Gristle. Tory MP Sir Nicholas Fairbairn decried the show as "a sickening outrage. Obscene. Evil. Public money is being wasted here to destroy the morality of our society. These people are the wreckers of civilization!"
The Non-Music is very 1973 DIY, with plenty of unaccompanied spoken word passages, found object percussion,some fine cassette to cassette overdubbing, with obligatory plunderphonia and verbalized quotes from pornographic literature.
Sort of like Amon Duul 1 meets Danny and the Dressmakers on Weed.
Little did we know, from this post-hippie abomination would spring probably thee most influential band since The Velvet Underground.
By the way, I can't smell Porridge bubbling anymore because years of welding sculptures together has caked my olfactory cells with inhaled dirt and can no longer smell anything; which has its obvious advantages like not smelling shit and farts,but has drawbacks like not smelling the lovely odours of cooking!
Happily, I still have the ability of smelling a shite record or groop at thirty paces!
Enjoy your bubbling Porridge.
Tracklist:
| A1 | Welcome To The Alien Camp | 1:56 | |
| A2 | Real Sure Alien Brain | 2:48 | |
| A3 | On The Count Of Three | 1:54 | |
| A4 | Dogs Are Funny People | 1:24 | |
| A5 | It's Easy With Kesey | 1:32 | |
| A6 | 73 Vibrant | 2:54 | |
| A7 | Magazine Illustration | 0:50 | |
| B1 | Magickal Variants | 5:15 | |
| B2 | Nude Supper | 9:45 | |
| B3 | The Sound Of Porridge Bubbling | 1:56 |
DOWNLOAD some cyber-porridge HERE!
