Genesis P-Orridge: Early Excursions in Avant-garde Music with the Seminal Album ‘Early Worm’
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Genesis P-Orridge, who was born as Neil Andrew Megson, spent the summer of his 18th year in 1968, conducting sonic experiments in a humble loft. The outcome of this purposeful quest was the seminal album ‘Early Worm’, an enduring record of the incipient artistic potential of P-Orridge, long before they emerged as a bedrock in avant-garde music.
This influential English singer-songwriter, poet, and visual artist-led the Throbbing Gristle, an industrial band, and presided over the performance of COUM Transmissions, an artistic collective. Their groundbreaking work spanned across various themes like sex work, porn, serial killing, and occult practices, which outrightly countered societal norms. This daring stance led to their condemnation as the “wreckers of civilization.”
‘Early Worm’, documented in a lone acetate in 1969, painted a vivid picture of adventurous noise, unscripted music, and tape trials resembling iconic artists like John Cage and Fluxus, and the Bohemian beatnik and psychedelic cultures. P-Orridge’s early tryst to step over musical frontiers was thus affirmed with this album. The raw and organic sounds lent an exclusive sneak-peek into the building years leading to P-Orridge’s formations – Throbbing Gristle, COUM Transmissions, and the avant-pop rock band Psychic TV.
In a recollection from Genesis Breyer P-Orridge in 2008 about the ‘Early Worm’, they conveyed how this attic-inspired creation took place at Solihull, Warwickshire, England. They roped in friends to produce these songs, exhibiting a primitive sophistication unique to their style, and went ahead to form the group – Thee Early Worm. The only known acetate copy and the analog master tape were unearthed in the PorridgeWith Everything Archives amidst re-arrangement works. A direct master copy from the original tape was produced, a prized collectible for P-Orridge’s followers revealing crucial structures, themes, and audio themes that shaped their artistic journey.
Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, the trendsetter in the contemporary music scene, earned the moniker, the “Godparent of Industrial Music”. Having featured in over 200 releases, they notched up an iconic status in eccentric art and garnered a cult following. P-Orridge preferred to be recognized as third-gender and was gender-neutral.
Inextricably woven into P-Orridge’s life journey is their stint in the United States post an unfounded accusation of child sexual abuse. Moving away from their homeland, they located themselves in New York City, where they tied the knot with Jacqueline Breyer, also known as Lady Jaye. In their endeavor to become one entity, they took to surgical body modification to physically resemble each other – known as the Pandrogeny Project. After Lady Jaye’s death in 2007, P-Orridge carried forward this body-modification project.
There is no second thought about Genesis P-Orridge’s left-field approach to music since the inception of their career. Comparable to a more helter-skelter version of the Incredible String Band, their unique approach saw many improvisations and experimental renditions. Despite retiring from music in 2009, P-Orridge left an undeniable legacy in the world of avant-garde music. Consequently, musicians who share a fondness for the avant-garde genre, such as Brian Eno and John Cale, acknowledge the perceptible influences of Genesis P-Orridge in their work.
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