Growing from a conceptual art group into pioneers of experimental, industrial noise, Throbbing Gristle created some of the most abrasive, avant-garde synth music of the 1970s and became a huge influence on artists like Aphex Twin, Nine Inch Nails and Joy Division. When they initially split in 1981, group members Genesis P-Orridge and Peter 'Sleazy' Christopherson joined forces with Alternative TV's Alex Fergusson to form Psychic TV. With the idea of using William Burroughs' technique of cut-up sound collages, they created a mixed-media project which combined video, samples and live performance.
Sleazy left to form Coil after featuring on early records 'Force the Hand of Chance' (1982) and 'Dreams Less Sweet' (1983), but they went on to create a style of trippy, alien pop with singles 'Roman P' and 'Godstar'. In 1986 they released a new work every month, which earned them a place in the Guinness Book of World Records for most releases in a year. They collaborated with a vast array of writers, artists and musicians, using samples from a wide variety of people, including Derek Jarman, Timothy Leary and Marc Almond.
Inspired by the acid house movement in the late 1980s, techno producer Fred Giannelli joined the group to help create pulsating rhythms and trance beats that fitted in perfectly with the rave scene of the time. That period of the band produced landmark albums 'Jack the Tab/Tekno Acid Beat' (1990) and 'Towards Thee Infinite Beat' (1990) and sent them on tours of America and Europe but by the early 1990s the scene was coming to an end and Genesis P-Orridge had become embroiled in a controversy in which they were accused of satanic ritual abuse. Exiled to California, they reformed the group with Larry Thrasher and Lady Jae Breyer and returned to a more ambient, industrial, spoken word style on 'Trip/Reset' (1996) and 'Cold Blue Torch' (1996).
While staying at Rick Rubin's Houdini Mansion in Laurel Canyon in 1995, a fire destroyed a large amount of the band's work. They later re-booted the band with Toilet Boys drummer Edley O'Dowd for the 2007 album 'Hell Is Invisible. Heaven Is Her/e', which featured Nick Zinner from Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Gibby Haynes from Butthole Surfers.
In 2010, former member Peter Christopher died. Long-time and founding member Genesis P-Orridge died ten years later, in 2020.
