Genesis P-Orridge is accounted as being one of the originators of Industrial music through one of his earlier bands Throbbing Gristle. Throbbing Gristle lasted a short time period and garnered massive amounts of hatred in the British media. Upon it's demise Genesis and another member of Gristle embarked on an even more radical audio/visual experiment Psychick TV.
An Genesis' own words he recounts how he had met Derrick Carter or Derrick May (which one eludes me at the moment) spinning in the record shop he worked at and was immediately blown away by the beginnings of Acid, so much so that he and other concocted a plan to bring it to the UK and engineer a supposed massive underground scene, through the release of a few 'compilation' records featuring different Acid House artists, who were mostly a the same 4 or 5 individuals. Genesis also proclaims himself to be the one that coined to term Acid to the style that originated out of Detroit and Chicago in the end of the 80's.
Either way, me might have Genesis P-Orridge to thank for both Hardfloor and Ministry.
Over the years I have heard and read numerous accounts of his bizarre antics, some entertaining some outer limits. One of the best storied I had ever heard was of when he was living in San Francisco and had a tendency to sonically assault his neighbors at odd hours of the day.
My favorite anecdote is of he and his roommate digging up their backyard, putting together what they thought looked like a crashed space ship, with glowing lights and everything and playing some sound effect records through their amps in the middle of the night, trying to make everyone think a UFO did in fact crash in him back yard.
During the same time period they would play other records in the middle of the night to emulate police car chases and gun battles.
Genesis has also explored the realms of gender identity with his years long effort to make he and his late 2nd wife look exactly the same. 12 years ago was the first hint of this I had during a rave culture documentary, Better Living Through Circuitry, in which he looked like a cross between Mrs. Cleaver and Jaws from The Spy Who Loved Me. While off putting, many people in the audience laughed, because they didn't realize who he was and thought he was just some schmuck. It hit me because the last picture I had seen of him he looked like John Cleese with dreadlocks.
Even though the man is special, he has done some good things for electronic music.
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