Psychic TV - Dreams Less Sweet

After Throbbing Gristle's mission ended, Genesis P-Orridge and Alternative TV's Alex Fergusson brought Psychic TV to the world.

In 1983, they released their second lp. The first edition came with a free 12".

One of the better reviews is here and deserves your indulgence. The album was recorded using Zuccarelli Holophonic technology which basically means that the sounds arrive at you from all angles and often the least expected. It lulls you into a (very) false sense of security just before it tips you headlong into a nightmare world. It deserves to be heard via headphones for the maximum impact (SERIOUSLY...DO IT).

Even the serene elements within the work are disarmingly subversive! Whilst "Always Is Always" is sung by an angelic choirboy, it is a song written by Charles Manson and was basically the Manson Family anthem...and if that isn't enough, the song dissolves into the rip of machine-gun fire. "White Nights" contains the lines "Santa Claus is checking his list, going over it twice, seeing who is naughty and who is nice" sung by Genesis at his innocent best. The lines are actually re-appropriated dialogue from the Reverand Jim Jones' so-called “death tapes”. The "Santa Claus" chorus was a rhyme used by Jones to teach children the value of paranoia.

The "Reverand" was the founder and leader of the Peoples Temple, which is best known for the November 18, 1978 mass suicide of 909 Temple members in Jonestown, Guyana. Over 200 children were murdered at Jonestown, several of whom were forcefully made to ingest cyanide by adults. It adds a slightly different impact, let's say, to this superficially innocent song!

Even the beautiful cover alludes to a Prince Albert penile piercing...the messages are everywhere on this release...

It was quite simply unlike anything that I had heard before or have heard since. Psychic TV at their most magnificent, melancholic and malevolent best and it has lost none of its impact since its release almost 30 years ago!

Dreams Less Sweet

Dreams Less Sweet - Free 12"