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Carter Tutti Plays Chris and Cosey CTI/Cargo

24.02.15

A brief history lesson for anyone who’s a little confused right now. Chris Carter and Cosey Fanni Tutti were one half of Throbbing Gristle, the same TG branded “wreckers of civilisation” by one Nicholas Fairbairn, a Tory MP later arrested for indecent exposure.

Despite recent claims he ‘never left the band’, vocalist and general scourge-of-humanity Genesis P-Orridge almost certainly did split from TG in 1981, leaving Carter and Tutti to their own devices under the Chris and Cosey moniker. Since then they’ve renamed themselves Carter Tutti, and have spent the last few years touring the globe, playing the kind of EBM and new wave they were associated with as Chris and Cosey. These shows were so good that demands for a live album prompted the duo to go one better and head back to the studio to revisit the material.

Tracks like Driving Blind, Obsession, and Workout all go under the knife. Whilst the originals were characterised by a spirit of close-quarter confrontation, the sleek production on these favours a far wider sound that lends proceedings an almost spiritual intensity, with individual synth-stabs carrying weighty significance. Tutti’s vocals soar throughout, emerging from depths unknown to deliver feel-good lines like “Lay me down on a bed of sin / Lashing, writhing, tasting, dying”. Enormous fun. Extremely worthwhile.