20 Jazz Funk Greats
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20 Jazz Funk Greats
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| 20 Jazz Funk Greats | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
Studio album by Throbbing Gristle | ||||
| Released | December 1979 | |||
| Recorded | August 1979 | |||
| Genre |
| |||
| Length | 42:23 | |||
| Label | Industrial | |||
| Producer | Sinclair/Brooks | |||
Throbbing Gristle chronology | ||||
| ||||
20 Jazz Funk Greats is the third studio album by British industrial music group Throbbing Gristle, released in December 1979 by the band's label Industrial Records. It has been hailed as the band's best work, with UK magazine Fact naming it the best album of the 1970s.[3]
Contents
1 Recording
2 Artwork and title
3 Critical reception
4 Legacy
5 Track listing
6 Personnel
7 Charts
8 References
9 Further reading
10 External links
Recording[edit]
20 Jazz Funk Greats is the band's first full studio album, as prior albums contained both live and studio recordings. The production is credited to "Sinclair/Brooks". The album was recorded on a 16-track borrowed from Paul McCartney after Peter Christopherson had worked on artwork for McCartney.[4]
The album was produced using electronic musical instruments and effects units, primarily from Roland and Boss.[5][6] Roland equipment included a SRE-555 Chorus Echo effects unit, SH-7 Synth, CSQ 100 music sequencer, CR-78 CompuRhythm drum machine, System-100M (M-191J) modular synthesizer rack, and 100M M-181 electronic keyboard. Boss equipment included a PH-1 phaser effects pedal, DR-55 Dr. Rhythm drum machine, KM-4 mixer, CE-2 Chorus pedal, and BF-2 Flanger.[7] Other equipment used include a Simmons ClapTrap, Auratone 5C speakers, JVC amplifier, TEAC cassette deck, Seck 6-2 audio mixer, and Casio M10 keyboard.[7]
Artwork and title[edit]
The album's cover photograph was taken at Beachy Head, a chalk headland on the south coast of England known as one of the world's most notorious suicide spots.[8] In a 2012 interview, Cosey explained the album cover and tongue-in-cheek title:
We did the cover so it was a pastiche of something you would find in a Woolworth’s bargain bin. We took the photograph at the most famous suicide spot in England, called Beachy Head. So, the picture is not what it seems, it is not so nicey nicey at all, and neither is the music once you take it home and buy it. We had this idea in mind that someone quite innocently would come along to a record store and see [the record] and think they would be getting 20 really good jazz/funk greats, and then they would put it on at home and they would just get decimated.[9]
The 1981 issue of the album released on Fetish Records features an alternate version of the cover art in which an apparently dead and naked male body is seen lying in front of the band.
Critical reception[edit]
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |  [10] |
| The Austin Chronicle |  [11] |
| Pitchfork | 10/10[12] |
| Q | [13] |
| The Rolling Stone Album Guide | [14] |
| Uncut | 8/10[15] |
Pitchfork characterized 20 Jazz Funk Greats as Throbbing Gristle's peak, writing that "it's in the pathos of their promiscuous liasions with the forbidden territory of various forms of "real music" that this album generates a weirdly gripping power of its own," and "20 Jazz Funk Greats finds the band waking up from D.O.A's dark night of the soul and feeling curiously frisky. Snacking on not only the titular funk and jazz, the band also takes touristic zig zags through exotica, rock and disco", ultimately describing it as a "kitsch detour toward mutant disco".[12]AllMusic writer Paul Simpson wrote, "Thoroughly exciting and immeasurably influential, 20 Jazz Funk Greats is easily Throbbing Gristle's crowning achievement, and one of the highlights of the post-punk era."[10] In a retrospective review of Throbbing Gristle's discography for Uncut, Michael Bonner stated that "Musically, it turned away from the precipice; not exactly jazz and funk, but sublimating TG’s noise elements within electronic rhythms and proto-exotica. Album highlight “Hot on the Heels of Love” is convincingly Moroder-esque disco, Cosey breathing sweet nothings amid bubbling synthesisers and whip-crack snare. Elsewhere, P-Orridge mines a lyrical seam of control and domination."[15]Dusted Magazine described the album as "a deliberate attempt to toy with the ideas behind marketing strategy and the purpose of musical genres."
Legacy[edit]
Pitchfork ranked 20 Jazz Funk Greats at number 91 in its list of the 100 greatest albums of the 1970s.[16] UK magazine Fact named it the best album of the 1970s, writing that "This album is a rupture. It’s an open crack into the unpronounceable dimensions into which tumble important streams of 20th century pop, art and underground culture, to seethe around each other, mingling, festering, sprouting new and unpredictable forms which in turn would ooze out to infest vast sections of what comes after."[3]
Track listing[edit]
All tracks written by Throbbing Gristle (Genesis P-Orridge, Cosey Fanni Tutti, Chris Carter, Peter Christopherson).
| Side A | ||
|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Length |
| 1. | "20 Jazz Funk Greats" | 2:51 |
| 2. | "Beachy Head" | 3:42 |
| 3. | "Still Walking" | 4:56 |
| 4. | "Tanith" | 2:20 |
| 5. | "Convincing People" | 4:54 |
| 6. | "Exotica" | 2:53 |
| Side B | ||
|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Length |
| 1. | "Hot on the Heels of Love" | 4:24 |
| 2. | "Persuasion" | 6:36 |
| 3. | "Walkabout" | 3:04 |
| 4. | "What a Day" | 4:38 |
| 5. | "Six Six Sixties" | 2:07 |
| Bonus tracks | ||
|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Length |
| 12. | "Discipline (Berlin)" | 10:45 |
| 13. | "Discipline (Manchester)" | 8:06 |
| 2011 remastered edition bonus disc | ||
|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Length |
| 12. | "Weapon Training" | 1:35 |
| 13. | "Convincing People" | 6:12 |
| 14. | "They Make No Say" | 5:28 |
| 15. | "Five Knuckle Shuffle" | 6:27 |
| 16. | "His Arm Was Her Leg" | 3:51 |
| 17. | "See You Are" | 5:46 |
| 18. | "What a Day" | 6:17 |
| 19. | "Discipline" (Manchester) | 8:11 |
| 20. | "Discipline" (Berlin) | 10:47 |
Personnel[edit]
Genesis P-Orridge – vocals, bass guitar, violin, vibraphone, synthesizer
Cosey Fanni Tutti – guitar, synthesizer, cornet, vocals
Chris Carter – synthesizer, album sequencing, drum programming, vocals
Peter Christopherson – tape, vibraphone, cornet, vocals
- Technical
- Sinclair/Brooks – production
Charts[edit]
| Chart (1980) | Peak position |
|---|---|
UK Indie Chart | 6[17] |
References[edit]
^ S. Alexander Reed (2013). Assimilate: A Critical History of Industrial Music. p. 259. ISBN 0199832609..mw-parser-output cite.citationfont-style:inherit.mw-parser-output qquotes:"""""""'""'".mw-parser-output code.cs1-codecolor:inherit;background:inherit;border:inherit;padding:inherit.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-free abackground:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Lock-green.svg/9px-Lock-green.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-registration abackground:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-gray-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-subscription abackground:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-red-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registrationcolor:#555.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription span,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration spanborder-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-errordisplay:none;font-size:100%.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-errorfont-size:100%.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration,.mw-parser-output .cs1-formatfont-size:95%.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-leftpadding-left:0.2em.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-rightpadding-right:0.2em
^ Vladimir Bogdanov, Chris Woodstra, Stephen Thomas Erlewine. All Music Guide to Rock: The Definitive Guide to Rock, Pop, and Soul. 2002.
^ ab "The 100 Best Albums of the 1970s". Fact Magazine. Retrieved 14 July 2014.
^ Licht, Alan. "AND THAT'S HOW WE GOT DEPORTED: PART TWO OF OUR EXCLUSIVE, NEVER-ENDING INTERVIEW BETWEEN GENESIS P-ORRIDGE AND BLACK DICE". self-titled. Retrieved 2 June 2015.
^ Throbbing Gristle – 20 Jazz Funk Greats, Discogs
^ The Black Madonna, Hudson Mohawke, and More Reflect on the Life of TR-808 Developer Ikutaro Kakehashi, Vice
^ ab Industrial music pioneer Chris Carter with gear, 1980, Boing Boing
^ Daniels 2007.
^ "Hot On The Heels: An Interview With Cosey Fanni Tutti". Red Bull Music Academy. 5 November 2012. Retrieved 17 September 2014.
^ ab Simpson, Paul. "20 Jazz Funk Greats – Throbbing Gristle". AllMusic. Retrieved 2 November 2017.
^ Winkie, Luke (10 February 2012). "Throbbing Gristle". The Austin Chronicle. Retrieved 1 February 2013.
^ ab Daniel, Drew (7 December 2011). "Throbbing Gristle: Second Annual Report / D.O.A. / 20 Jazz Funk Greats / Heathen Earth / Greatest Hits". Pitchfork. Retrieved 1 February 2013.
^ "Throbbing Gristle: 20 Jazz Funk Greats". Q (60). September 1991.
^ Malley, David (2004). "Throbbing Gristle". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian. The New Rolling Stone Album Guide. Simon & Schuster. p. 814. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
^ ab Bonner, Michael (14 February 2012). "Throbbing Gristle: The Industrial Pioneers, Reissued". Uncut. Retrieved 13 July 2013.
^ Stosuy, Brandon (23 June 2004). Staff Lists: Top 100 Albums of the 1970s. Pitchfork. Retrieved 7 June 2013.
^ Lazell, Barry (1997). Indie Hits 1980-1989. Cherry Red Books. Archived from the original on 8 June 2011. Retrieved 5 September 2014.
Further reading[edit]
Daniels, Drew (2007). 20 Jazz Funk Greats. 33⅓. Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN 0826427936.
External links[edit]
20 Jazz Funk Greats at Discogs (list of releases)
Categories:
- 1979 albums
- Throbbing Gristle albums
- Industrial Records albums
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