Genesis P-Orridge & Dave Ball – Imagining October (Album – Cold Spring Records)
Genre/Influences: Experimental, Cinematic.
Format: Digital, CD, Vinyl.
Background/info: “Imagining October” was originally written in 1984 but never released. Genesis P-Orridge (Throbbing Gristle, Psychic TV) and Dave Ball (Soft Cell, The Grid) released this work as a Soundtrack for the Derek Jarman film “Imagining October”.
Content: You immediately recognize the Soundtrack approach of the production, but still an explicit Experimental approach characterizing the sound of both protagonists. The tracks are diversified, featuring classically trained male vocals next to choir chants. The tracks are recovered by dark strings.
+ + + : This work was composed by 2 legendary artists from the UK underground scene. I like the album’s diversity, but especially the more accessible second- and third cuts. The work has a strong visual appeal mainly emerging at both cuts.
– – – : This album remains pretty abstract and without the movie you probably miss an important part of the global production.
Conclusion: This previously unreleased work clearly is a sensational collaboration between two legendary artists.
Best songs: “Imagining October II”, “Imagining October III”.
Rate: 6½.
Artist: www.facebook.com/electricboydb
Label: www.coldspring.co.uk / www.facebook.com/coldspringhq Read the news on ‘Imagining October’.
Cold Spring issued “Imagining October” digitally on 4 February 2022 and followed it with a single-sided, etched vinyl LP on 14 October 2022. The four tracks are “Imagining October I”, “Imagining October II”, “Imagining October III” and “Imagining October IV”. The music was recorded in 1984 at DJM Recording Studios in London, with liner notes by James Mackay, graphic design by Abby Helasdottir and mastering by Martin Bowes.
Listen to “Imagining October”:
About Genesis P-Orridge and Dave Ball
Genesis P-Orridge was an English musician and artist who co-founded Throbbing Gristle in 1975 and Psychic TV in 1981, and who died in March 2020. Dave Ball was an English musician who formed Soft Cell with Marc Almond in 1978 and The Grid with Richard Norris in 1988. Ball died in October 2025 at the age of 66.
The pair recorded the music for Derek Jarman’s 1984 short film “Imagining October” at DJM Recording Studios in London that same year. The recording stayed unreleased for close to four decades until Cold Spring issued it in 2022, remastered by Martin Bowes.
Cold Spring has continued to work with both catalogues. In December 2022 the label announced a re-release of the 1983 Psychic TV live recording “Those Who Do Not”, and Ball appeared again on its 2023 label sampler “Arise”.
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