Thee Majesty was a British
industrial music
Industrial music is a genre of music that draws on harsh, mechanical, transgressive or provocative sounds and themes. AllMusic defines industrial music as the "most abrasive and aggressive fusion of rock and electronic music" that was "initiall ...
group.
History
In 1998,
Genesis P-Orridge
Genesis Breyer P-Orridge (born Neil Andrew Megson; 22 February 1950 – 14 March 2020) was a singer-songwriter, musician, poet, performance artist, visual artist, and occultist who rose to notoriety as the founder of the COUM Transmissions arti ...
was ending their association with the name
Psychic TV, the band they created after the termination of
Throbbing Gristle
Throbbing Gristle were an English music and visual arts group formed in 1975 in Kingston upon Hull by Genesis P-Orridge, Cosey Fanni Tutti, Peter Christopherson, and Chris Carter (British musician), Chris Carter. They are widely regarded as pi ...
. At the same time, they began conceptualizing Thee Majesty as a
spoken word
Spoken word refers to an oral poetic performance art that is based mainly on the poem as well as the performer's aesthetic qualities. It is a late 20th century continuation of an ancient oral artistic tradition that focuses on the aesthetics of ...
-based project springing from the Splinter Test project with PTV alumnus
Larry Thrasher
Larry Thrasher (born 1959) is an American experimental musician, remixer, and producer. Thrasher was a member of Psychic TV, Thee Majesty and Splinter Test. In addition, Thrasher was in collaboration with Kim Cascone on the experimental noise pr ...
. The first major Thee Majesty performance was in 1998 in Stockholm, Sweden at an international spoken word festival that included
Michael Gira
Michael Rolfe Gira (; born February 19, 1954) is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, author and artist. He is the main force behind the New York City musical group Swans and fronted Angels of Light. He is also the founder of ...
and
Wanda Coleman
Wanda Coleman (November 13, 1946 – November 22, 2013) was an American poet. She was known as "the L.A. Blueswoman" and "the unofficial poet laureate of Los Angeles".
Biography
Wanda Evans was born in the Watts, Los Angeles, California, Watts ...
amongst other notable spoken word artists. That first Thee Majesty lineup for the Sweden show included P-Orridge, Larry Thrasher, Bachir Attar, and Chandra Shukla. Later in New York, P-Orridge met
Bryin Dall (4th Sign of the Apocalypse, A Murder of Angels, Dream Into Dust) and began doing live performances in New York and San Francisco and tours with the industrial band
Pigface
Pigface is an American industrial rock supergroup formed in 1990 by Martin Atkins and William Rieflin.
History
Pigface was formed from Ministry's ''The Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Taste'' tour, which produced the ''In Case You Didn't Feel Lik ...
. Thee Majesty's second major performance was at the
Royal Festival Hall
The Royal Festival Hall is a 2,700-seat concert, dance and talks venue within Southbank Centre in London. It is situated on the South Bank of the River Thames, not far from Hungerford Bridge, in the London Borough of Lambeth. It is a Grade I l ...
in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
on 1 May 1999, which was also the "final" show of PTV. The show was called "Time's Up" which was also the name of the new project's debut CD, released on the same date by Dall's label The Order of the Suffering Clown via
World Serpent Distribution
World Serpent Distribution was a British record label and music distribution house formed in the 1990s by David Gibson, Alan Trench and Alison Webster. Douglas Pearce of Death In June coined the company name in 1991, ''World Serpent'' being anot ...
. Since then, Thee Majesty has remained an intermittent project, only playing sporadic festivals, art events, and intimate venues in Europe and the US, and releasing very few original studio albums. In 2009 Thee Majesty played a critically acclaimed show expounding on a transgender creation story theme at the
Centre Pompidou
The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the Centre national d'art et de culture Georges-Pompidou ( en, National Georges Pompidou Centre of Art and Culture), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English, is a complex building in the Beaubourg area of ...
with P-Orridge, Thrasher, Dall and Edley in the lineup.
Members
Besides P-Orridge and Dall,
Larry Thrasher
Larry Thrasher (born 1959) is an American experimental musician, remixer, and producer. Thrasher was a member of Psychic TV, Thee Majesty and Splinter Test. In addition, Thrasher was in collaboration with Kim Cascone on the experimental noise pr ...
has performed several live shows including two tours of Europe. They were joined in 2004 by P-Orridge's wife, Lady Jaye Breyer P-Orridge, and briefly by Morrison Edley (
Toilet Böys
Toilet Böys are an American rock and roll band from New York City, United States. The band's original line-up is made up of Miss Guy, Sean Pierce, Electric Eddie, Rocket, and Adam Vomit. Toilet Böys have toured world-wide supporting musical ac ...
). The project remains a vehicle for P-Orridge's semi-freeform rants and concepts, supported by Dall's guitar and sample soundscapes along with Thrasher's tabla playing and noise soundscapes, at times augmented by some combination of other players. Edley, now known as "Electric Eddie", has focused mainly on PTVII, the latest incarnation of Psychic TV. Lady Jaye died on Tuesday 9 October 2007.
Discography
Thee Majesty's discography is a bit confusing. As noted above, ''Time's Up'' was the name of multiple releases and events including the debut album. P-Orridge has also opted to use the name on reissues of works predating the band's inception. ''A Hollow Cost'', ''
At Stockholm'', and ''Thee Fractured Garden'' were originally Psychic TV or Splinter Test releases, but in reissues they were given new artwork and credited to both Genesis P-Orridge and Thee Majesty. ''Mary Never Wanted Jesus'' was a special
Christmas
Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus, Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by country, around t ...
-themed limited release that contains some different tracks and running orders on the
vinyl
Vinyl may refer to:
Chemistry
* Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a particular vinyl polymer
* Vinyl cation, a type of carbocation
* Vinyl group, a broad class of organic molecules in chemistry
* Vinyl polymer, a group of polymers derived from vinyl m ...
and
CD versions. ''Vitruvian Pan'' is the band's second proper full-length studio album, though it contains elements from live recordings.
Note: releases marked with
‡ are dual-credited reissues of older material.
*''Time's Up'' (1999)
*''Time's Up Live'' (2001)
*''A Hollow Cost'' (2003)
‡
*''At Stockholm'' (2004)
‡
*''Thee Fractured Garden]'' (2004)
‡
*''Mary Never Wanted Jesus'' (2005)
*''Vitruvian Pan'' (2007)
See also
*
Psychic TV
*
Splinter Test
Splinter Test was used as a group name for Larry Thrasher and Genesis P-Orridge. The name was first used for a box set of reissues of the more experimental material by Psychic TV, and then it was used to issue the spoken word projects of Psych ...
*
Throbbing Gristle
Throbbing Gristle were an English music and visual arts group formed in 1975 in Kingston upon Hull by Genesis P-Orridge, Cosey Fanni Tutti, Peter Christopherson, and Chris Carter (British musician), Chris Carter. They are widely regarded as pi ...
References
External links
Official myspace{{Authority control
British electronic music groups
British techno music groups
British industrial music groups