Photo by Cosey F Tutti
Chris Carter, one of the founding members of Throbbing Gristle, will soon return with his first solo album in 17 (!) years. It’s called Chris Carter’s Chemistry Lessons Volume One and slated for release on March 30th.
Chemistry Lessons spans a whopping 25 tracks, with titles such “Tangerines”, “Pillars of Wah”, “Lab Test”, and “Time Curious Glows”. It was recorded in Carter’s own studio in Norfolk, UK and finds the electronic/industrial artist tapping into retro radiophonic sounds and English folk music.
“If there’s an influence on the album, it’s definitely ‘60s radiophonic,” he explained in a press statement. “Over the last few years I’ve also been listening to old English folk music, almost like a guilty pleasure, and so some of tracks on the album hark back to an almost ingrained DNA we have for those kinds of melodies. They’re not dissimilar to nursery rhymes in some ways.”
Also incorporated into the LP is material that Carter and the late Throbbing Gristle member Peter “Sleazy” Christopherson had crafted together prior to his death in 2010. “Sleazy and I had worked together on ways of developing a sort of artificial singing using software and hardware,” said Carter, who, since Throbbing Gristle’s disbandment in 2010, has also played as part of Chris & Cosey and Carter Tutti. “This was me trying to take it a step further. I’ve taken lyrics, my own voice or people’s voices from a collection that I’d put together with Sleazy, and I’ve chopped them up and done all sorts of weird things with them.”
As a first look at the forthcoming solo collection, Carter has shared the meandering opening track, “Blissters”. Check it out below.
Chris Carter’s Chemistry Lessons Volume One Artwork:
Chris Carter’s Chemistry Lessons Volume One Tracklist:
01. Blissters
02. Tangerines
03. Nineteen 7
04. Cernubicua
05. Pillars of Wah
06. Modularity
07. Field Depth
08. Moon Two
09. Durlin
10. Corvus
11. Tones Map
12. Dust & Spiders
13. Gradients
14. Lab Test
15. Shidreke
16. Uysring
17. Ghosting
18. Noise Floor
19. Post Industrial
20. Rehndim
21. Roane
22. Time Curious Glows
23. Ars Vetus
24. Hobbs End
25. Inkstain
In related news, Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, co-founder of Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV, recently shared their diagnosis of chronic myelomonocytic leukemia. In response, fans have started a GoFundMe campaign to help Genesis pay for rent, food, and medicine while they undergo treatment.