I’ve been on a bit of a Chris & Cosey kick lately. Or is it more a Carter Tutti kick? Either way, I was doing some six degrees of separation on Chris Carter and Cosey Fanni Tutti and ran across this one-off project called The Genetic Terrorists, which they put out under the pseudonyms Todd Steele and Sadie Teslar (along with Brian Williams credited as Les Derringer). I knew immediately I needed to check it out.
I’ve read that T.G.T. was formed as a sort of joke to poke fun at the direction industrial music had taken. Is that true? I don’t know. I mean, I enjoy it… but maybe I’m just a dupe. White Stains has one odd characteristic – many of the vocal samplings on the A side sound like they’re actually somewhere between 33 1/3 and 45 rpm. 45 is clearly too fast… but 33 1/3 makes me wonder if I’ve been drinking too much sizzurp. I double-checked against some recordings online and even timed my damn turntable, and clearly 33 1/3 is right. Go figure. The B side feels perfectly normal.
If you’re looking for serious industrial, this isn’t it. Even calling it IDM would be a stretch. It’s probably best described as straight techno given the bpms on five of the six tracks range from 116-122, with only “TGT (Anthem)” clocking in at the more robust 132 bpm. That being said, I still like it, especially “Deactivated”.