Genesis P-Orridge, a British avant-garde musician, performance artist and iconoclastic cultural figure best known as the co-founder of pioneering industrial music band Throbbing Gristle and experimental group Psychic TV, has died at 70.
P-Orridge, who identified as third gender and went by "s/he" and "he/r," died early morning Saturday (March 14) after battling leukemia for nearly three years; s/he was diagnosed with chronic myelomonocytic leukemia in 2017, according to Pitchfork.
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font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:550; line-height:18px;"> View this post on Instagram</div></div><div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"></div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"><div> <div style="background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"></div> <div style="background-color: #F4F4F4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"></div> <div style="background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"></div></div><div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style=" background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"></div> <div style=" width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg)"></div></div><div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style=" width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"></div> <div style=" background-color: #F4F4F4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"></div> <div style=" width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"></div></div></div></a> <p style=" margin:8px 0 0 0; padding:0 4px;"> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B9ulnEFJDzH/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" style=" color:#000; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none; word-wrap:break-word;" target="_blank">It is with great sadness we announce the passing of our friend, great influence and beloved artist and legend Genesis Breyer P-Orridge. The following message is from Caresse and Genesse P-Orridge: Dear friends, family and loving supporters, It is with very heavy hearts that we announce thee passing of our beloved father, Genesis Breyer P-Orridge. S/he had been battling leukemia for two and a half years and dropped he/r body early this morning, Saturday March 14th, 2020. S/he will be laid to rest with h/er other half, Jaqueline “Lady Jaye” Breyer who left us in 2007, where they will be re-united. Thank you for your love and support and for respecting our privacy as we are grieving. Caresse & Genesse P-Orridge #s/heisher/eforever</a></p> <p style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;">A post shared by <a href="https://www.instagram.com/daisrecords/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px;" target="_blank"> DAIS RECORDS</a> (@daisrecords) on <time style=" font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px;" datetime="2020-03-14T20:45:00+00:00">Mar 14, 2020 at 1:45pm PDT</time></p></div></blockquote> <script async src="//www.instagram.com/embed.js"></script>
Ryan Martin, who managed the artist and released and reissued P-Orridge's music on his Dais Records, confirmed the news over social media by sharing a statement from the musician's daughters, Genesse and Caresse.
"It is with very heavy hearts that we announce thee passing of our beloved father, Genesis Breyer P-Orridge," the daughters wrote. "S/he had been battling leukemia for two and a half years and dropped he/r body early this morning, Saturday March 14th, 2020. S/he will be laid to rest with h/er other half, Jaqueline 'Lady Jaye' Breyer who left us in 2007, where they will be re-united. Thank you for your love and support and for respecting our privacy as we are grieving."
In a separate post on Twitter, Martin's Dais Records wrote, "Rest in peace Genesis. For Dais, you really were the start of it all. Friend, inspiration, and legend. Love you forever."
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Rest in peace Genesis. For Dais, you really were the start of it all. Friend, inspiration, and legend. Love you forever.</p>— Dais Records (@daisrecords) <a href="https://twitter.com/daisrecords/status/1238933016916807680?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 14, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Born Neil Andrew Megson in 1950 in Victoria Park, Manchester, England, Genesis P-Orridge was a beloved and often controversial figure in avant-garde music and arts circles. Megson adopted the name and identity of Genesis P-Orridge after dropping out of university to focus on avant-garde and performance art, according to Rolling Stone.
P-Orridge's first group, a music and performance art collective called COUM Transmissions and founded in 1969, was widely known, and often criticized by the national U.K. press, for its controversial performance art, which often addressed topics like sex work and occultism in an attempt to challenge societal norms. COUM Transmissions featured Cosey Fanni Tutti and later members Peter "Sleazy" Christopherson and Chris Carter, who together formed Throbbing Gristle alongside P-Orridge, officially debuting the group in 1976.
Today, Throbbing Gristle are widely regarded as pioneers of industrial music, a heavy, abrasive genre that mixes elements of rock, electronic, noise and experimental music. The group is credited with coining the term "industrial music" via the founding of their Industrial Records label in 1976.
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The group's 1977 debut album, The Second Annual Report, is "hailed as one of the first industrial music records," according to Rolling Stone, while their "abrasive blend of rock, electronic, and punk ethos would go on to become the groundwork of industrial music," Pitchfork writes. Nine Inch Nails founder Trent Reznor, arguably the artist who mainstreamed industrial music and industrial rock in the '90s, cites the band as a major influence.
Throbbing Gristle, who broke up in 1981 and briefly reunited in 2004, released nine full-length albums, in addition to multiple compilations, live releases and box sets. The group dissolved following Peter Christopherson's death in 2010.
P-Orridge's other group, Psychic TV, formed in 1981 alongside Scottish musician Alex Fergusson, featured a rotating lineup of artists and creative contributors that included Throbbing Gristle founding member Christopherson, U.K. synthpop duo Soft Cell, British rock band The Cult, '60s counterculture icon and author Timothy Leary, electronic music legend Andrew Weatherall and many others. The group spawned multiple side projects and spinoffs, including Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth, "an 'anti-cult' network" that aimed to "facilitate discussion around 'chaos magic' and occult tradition," according to Pitchfork.
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A highly prolific project, Psychic TV released more than 100 albums that covered a wide range of genres, including experimental music and psychedelic rock. In an attempt to release a live album on the 23rd of each month for 23 months, the group secured its place in the "Guinness World Records" in the '80s for most records released in one year.
Psychic TV is also considered an influential group in the acid house genre, a subgenre of house music with roots in 1980s Chicago that exploded across the U.K. during the so-called Second Summer Of Love social movement in 1988 and 1989. A number of Psychic TV members and contributors, sometimes using pseudonyms, released fake tracks and compilations in an attempt to bolster the acid house sound and community in the U.K.
Genesis P-Orridge is survived by daughters, Genesse and Caresse.
