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’.

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

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Out on May 6th via Cold Spring is the Genesis P-Orridge & Dave Ball OST release “Imagining October”.

The official soundtrack to Derek Jarman’s 1984 short film “Imagining October”, with music recorded by Derek’s friend and collaborator Genesis P-Orridge (Psychic TV, Throbbing Gristle), and Dave Ball (Soft Cell, The Grid) will be released on limited edition 12″ vinyl. The material was recorded at the DJM recording studios in Theobalds Road, London.

The vinyl features an etched B-side and includes liner notes by James Mackay (Jarman’s producer, collaborator and archivist).

The track-listing is as follows:

1. Imagining October I
2. Imagining October II
3. Imagining October III
4. Imagining October IV

Derek Jarman put together a program of films for the London Film Festival, reflecting the cutting edge of the London avant-garde of the time. Recorded at the same time as “The Angelic Conversation”, “Imagining October” was filmed in the Eisenstein Museum in Moscow, Vladimir Mayakovsky’s grave at Novodevichy Cemetery, the GUM department store facing red square, and the fire temples of Baku in Azerbaijan. The painting sequences with a group of soldiers (Angus Cook, Stephen Thrower, Peter Doig and Keir Wahid) was filmed in London. Jarman considered it one of the best, if not the best, of his shorter works. It was intended as an agit-prop work.

About Derek Jarman

Michael Derek Elworthy Jarman (31 January 1942 – 19 February 1994) was an English film director, stage designer, author and gay rights activist. He was outspoken about his personal struggle with AIDS. On 22 December 1986, Jarman was diagnosed as HIV positive and discussed his condition in public. His illness prompted him to move to Prospect Cottage, Dungeness in Kent, near the nuclear power station. In 1994, he died of an AIDS-related illness in London, aged just 52.

Although he made a long list of feature films and short films, you will know him best for the the following videos he also directed: Read the review of ‘Imagining October’.

• The Sex Pistols – “The Sex Pistols Number One” (1976)
• Throbbing Gristle – “TG Psychic Rally in Heaven” (1981)
• Marc Almond – “Tenderness Is a Weakness” (1984)
• Bryan Ferry – “Windswept” (1985)
• The Smiths – “The Queen Is Dead”, a short film incorporating the Smiths songs “The Queen Is Dead”, “Panic” and “There Is a Light That Never Goes Out” (1986). The “Panic” sequence from The Queen Is Dead was edited to form the video for that single (1986).
• The Smiths – “Ask” (1986)
• Pet Shop Boys – “It’s a Sin” (1987)
• Pet Shop Boys – “Rent” (1987)
• Pet Shop Boys – several concert projections (released as “Projections” in 1993)
• Pet Shop Boys – “Violence” (1995)
• Suede: “The Next Life” (1993)

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