(Clever Title)

I just listened to Throbbing Gristle's 20 Jazz Funk Greats and, well, it was something. Bleak, some of the bleakest, non-music, industrial sound I've ever heard. In many ways its unlistenable. The best way I can describe it is a apathetic, suicidal Kraftwerk. How's that for a selling point? I can see how this group would be influential, however, and one listen to both this and Kid A and you can hear the connection. They might not have invented computer music, but they revealed its dark side. And is it dark. Some of the songs are ridiculously offensive (see Persuation) and almost terrifying. A band like Nine Inch Nails owes its power to a group like throbbing Gristle, because without them, dark industrial pop wouldn't be what it is today. And, like most bands that are ahead of their time or the first of their kind, they are mostly forgotten today. In this case, however, I don't think its a bad thing.