The Ballad Of Genesis And Lady Jaye Playing At Sun-Ray Cinema

If you like or even LIKE Movement Magazine, then you're sure to have at least a passing interest in industrial music. And if you have a passing interest in industrial music, then you sure as shit better have an interest in Genesis Breyer. P-Orridge.  P-Orridge is best known for his pioneering noise-concrete anti-music with Throbbing Gristle (1975-1981), alongside Peter Christopherson (later of Coil), Chris Carter, and Cosey Fanni Tutti. Throbbing Gristle, of course, coined the term “industrial music” and pretty much defined the genre’s sonic template, becoming a key influence on everyone from Skinny Puppy to Nine Inch Nails to KMFDM to Aphex Twin. Throbbing Gristle found peers in the likes of Joy Division, NON, and Cabaret Voltaire, and also found a friend in William Burroughs - they even issued a collection of his tape experiments on their Industrial Records label. The cut-up techniques pioneered by Burroughs and Bron Gysin would have a profound effect on P-Orridge, becoming a guiding principle of his work (and later his life) to the present day.

Throbbing Gristle broke up in 1981, at the height of their powers, with P-Orridge and “Sleazy” Christopherson moving on to create both the musical entity Psychic TV and the Temple Ov Psychic Youth organization, both kicking up quite a bit of trouble in the UK. Despite being in many ways a multimedia and cultural experiment, Psychic TV still turned out some insanely good records, first mixing punk and psychedelia, and gradually incorporating electronic music to the point that, of all things, Psychic TV became a force in the UK Acid House scene. Though it would be the eerie yet catchy love letter to the Rolling Stones' doomed guitar player Brian Jones called "Godstar" for which the band would be best known. It even became, improbably, a chart hit. But there was a growing sense of official outrage and hysteria building up over the controversial Psychic Youth communes, which culminated in P-Orridge basically being exiled from England! He landed in the US, where he reconvened Psychic TV, joined Pigface, and rubbed shoulders with the young musicians influenced by him. Then, in 1995, everything changed for P-Orridge when he met of his life, Lady Jaye. She would join him onstage in Psychic TV, but in 1995 they began their most radical collaboration yet, becoming human cutups, "the same person, a new gender" through plastic surgery. Even for P-Orridge, this was new radical territory.

Filmmaker Marie Losier recently chronicled the life, art, and undying love of Gensis P-Orridge in "The Ballad Of Genesis And Lady Jaye." Taking the intriguing move of filtering P-Orridge's creative life through the love story between P-Orridge and Lady Jaye, she conducted interviews with him and those close to him, and compiled footage from a lifetime's worth of outrage and boundary-pushing to tell his story.

The delightful Sun-Ray Cinema in Riverside will be screening this gem at midnight on Friday, June 20th and Saturday, June 21st. As an extra incentive, Tim Massett has raided the underground vaults beneath Sun-Ray and found a selection of Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV, performance footage, interviews, and assorted other nasties that will be screened before the move at 11:30. Support your chosen music! I have it on good authority that Max won’t be mad at you if you miss a couple hours of FACTORY to attend.