Psychic TV Albums (67)
'Mr. Alien Brain Vs. the Skinwalkers'
Release Date 12/9/2008
Tracks 12
Label Sweet Nothing
See Album Tracklist and Review
'Hell Is Invisible...Heaven Is Here'
Release Date 6/12/2007
Tracks 10
Label Sweet Nothing/Cargo
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What The Critics Say
Psychic TV -- once renowned as one of the most prolific recording acts in history -- had gone a dozen years without releasing a new studio album prior to the appearance of Hell Is Invisible...Heaven Is Here (billed to Psychic TV/PTV3) in 2007. Despite the long (especially by their standards) gap, the sound of the record is not especially unsurprising, though it's perhaps more accessible to conventional rock listeners than much of the Psychic TV catalog. Psychic TV at this point was pretty much a front for the ideas of mainstay Genesis P-Orridge, and the lyrics reflective of his/her philosophy of "Pandrogeny," which aims to celebrate similarities among humans. Toward that end, P-Orridge had become, in the years prior to this album, more noted in the press for altering his body to a hermaphroditic state than for Psychic TV's past or present music. As outside of the mainstream as this philosophy is, this particular album really isn't that weird, at least by the standards of the underground/alternative rock community -- one to which P-Orridge/Psychic TV has always belonged, albeit usually on the fringes. Parts of the ten lengthy songs -- all of them falling in the five-to-ten-minute range -- are knotty, dense, almost punkish screeds of rather inscrutable rage, with some (but not an overwhelming amount) of the textured industrial soundscapes of the sort Psychic TV helped pioneer. At other points, however, there's an eccentric, almost lilting folk-psychedelic vibe, which in "I Don't Think So" in particular is a little like the solo output of one of P-Orridge's probable heroes, Syd Barrett. There are also more ambient, instrumental passages in which the mood is both placid and disturbing, "Milk Baba" fading with mad laughs and an excerpt from David Frost's introduction of the Beatles' 1968 TV performance of "Hey Jude." The vocals are usually in a croaking, wizened tone, and often mixed as if P-Orridge is trying to make Psychic TV's lyrics as indistinct as his gender. It's a varied record in all senses, with all sorts of combinations of instruments and electronically treated sounds, and never settles into a predictable mood. It's also long-winded and muddled, which should comfortably confine the record's audience to the cult one Psychic TV has attracted throughout its career. ~ Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide
'Live in Berlin, Vol. 2'
Release Date 9/23/2003
Tracks 13
Label Hyperdelic
See Album Tracklist and Review
'Live in Thee East Village'
Release Date 4/7/2003
Tracks 7
Label Temple
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
Peak Hour continues in the acid house vein that Psychic TV pioneered on Jack the Tab, though if anything the psychedelic elements are even stronger on this record. Electro beats and trippy electronic sounds conspire with weird vocal loops and other effects to make some of the most psychedelic dance music since early Funkadelic. Most tracks are upbeat full-throttle rhythm numbers, though not quite as fast on the bpms as the bone-crunching rhythms of the current techno rave music which grew out of acid house. Though Peak Hour is a little more cohesive in its blessed-out grooves than the pseudo-compilations Jack the Tab and Ultrahouse, it doesn't have quite as much bite and humor, though it still throws in a few curve balls. "Dreamlined" is a collage of weird noises and soundbites, with some electronic sci-fi blips and swoops thrown in. "Pain" has some heavily distorted singing, while "Re-Mind" starts off in dance-rhythm mode only to speed up at the end into hyper-rhythms. It makes for some interesting dance music that also works as "head" music, though maybe not the most innovative work that Psychic TV has done. ~ Rolf Semprebon, All Music Guide
