From: awrc@dcs.ed.ac.uk (Al Crawford)
Newsgroups: rec.music.industrial
Subject: Re: chris & cosey
Date: 25 Jan 93 18:58:44 GMT
Reply-To: awrc@dcs.ed.ac.uk (Al Crawford)
Organization: The University Of Edinburgh - Department Of Computer Science

And lo, ke0w+@andrew.cmu.edu (Kenny Eng) spake unto the masses saying:
>
> a while back at a skinny puppy concert, i saw a video for a song by
> chris & cosey. if i remember correctly, it was kinda dancy.  is this
> representative of most of chris & cosey's works? can anyone tell me more
> about this group???

Although a brief summary has already been posted, I'll put in my 0.02 ecu
anyway...

Chris and Cosey are a duo of Chris Carter and Cosey Fanni Tutti (born
Christine Newby or Christine Carroll, depending on who you ask). Members of
the first industrial group to be referred to as such, namely Throbbing
Gristle. As has already been said, the Carter/Cosey axis of the group was
the one that came up with the dancey stuff for the most part, leaving the
weird/disturbing and downright noisy bits mainly to Genesis P. Orridge and
Peter Christopherson. Chris Carter did a lot of the synths/electronics work
whereas Cosey played guitar, sang a bit, took off her clothes and did
interesting and entertaining things with microphones.

After TG shut up shop, Chris and Cosey stayed together (their relationship
being more than a working one) and began releasing material as, erm, Chris
And Cosey. 0/10 for the original name, guys. There followed a number of
albums on Rough Trade, such as _Trance_ and _Heartbeat_ which bounce
between synth-pop and rather noisier, less structured pieces or ambient
stuff. In a way the formula echoes that used back in the TG days, but less
extreme. While they did occasional rebound into commercial territory
("October Love Song") it was really only after 1985/6 and the _Techno
Primitiv_ album that their music began to take on a more dance-oriented
approach.

In recent years their albums have largely been in a dance vein, never quite
getting into whatever the current trend was but very much ploughing their
own furrow. That doesn't necessarily mean the music was *good* though,
their recent output (roughly from _Exotica_ through to _Pagan Tango_) was
pretty samey and while there are moments of brilliance here and there, it's
not really up to the standards of their earlier work (IMHO).

Their most recent album _Muzik Fantastique!_ sees them dabbling a little in
techno and Cosey's vocals becoming rather more tuneful (while I won't deny
they've always been...distinctive and that they've fitted the music, it
used to be the case that at times it seemed she couldn't carry a tune in a
bucket). It also sounds amazing - it has a very "deep" sound with lots
going on.

There's also been various bits'n'bobs over the years, like Cosey's solo
album (and accompanying booklet), Chris's excellent _The Space Between_,
collaborations with all sorts of people, from Olde Style Industrialists
like Boyd Rice, through the likes of Robert Wyatt to the Eurythmics, live
albums, soundtracks...all sorts of things.

There's a bunch of compilations to choose from too. IMHO, the best is
probably _Collectiv Two_ (only ever released in Europe?) with _Reflection_
(on Wax Trax!) coming a poor second. The _Collectiv_ series are probably
the best intro of the lot - _Collectiv One_ collects some Chris Carter solo
material and some collaborations, _Two_ is a good "Best Of", _Three_
is...oh damn, I can never remember, oh, yeah, it's a soundtrack and a live
album bunged together, and _Four_ is rare archive material.

I would guess that by your description of the Chris And Cosey you've heard,
you might want to check out their later material first. I'd define
_Exotica_, _Trust_, _Pagan Tango_ and _Muzik Fantastique!_ as being their
dancey stuff, with the last being the best of the bunch with _Trust_ in
second place.

Hope this info is of use.

-- 
			Al Crawford - awrc@dcs.ed.ac.uk
	  Department Of Computer Science, The University of Edinburgh
   Rm 1410, JCMB, Kings Buildings, Mayfield Rd, EDINBURGH, EH9 3JZ, Scotland
	     Tel: +44 (0) 31 650 5165  Fax: +44 (0) 31 667 7209