About this episode

This episode explores the story of tapes sent to Industrial Records, focusing on Val Denham's artistic journey and connections within the industrial music scene.

From 1978-1980, Throbbing Gristle's Industrial Records published a newsletter called Industrial News. With a philosophy of exchange and transparency, they listed attendance numbers at their concerts, future label plans, and a list of contacts who had mailed them tapes of their own music: the “Tapes Received” list. Capturing a cultural watershed moment where the bedroom bands of the DIY Punk scene gave way to something new: ambitious, experimental, abstract, industrial . Making music using the newly available technology of synthesisers, with tape media and looping as part of the creative process. In this episode of Cassette Culture we begin to unravel the story of those tapes sent to Industrial Records - what was on them, and what became of the artists who sent them? At the centre of this episode is Val Denham - painter, singer and tape experimentalist. We hear how a deliberately provocative letter to Genesis P-Orridge loaded with insider references, led to a invitation to London and the beginning of a friendship that would influence her creative life. Her early tape recordings won fans in Genesis and Peter Christopherson and almost became a release on Industrial…

People in this episode

Guest: Val Denham

Topics covered

• industrial music
• DIY punk
• tape experimentalism
• cultural history
• art and music
• synthesisers

Keywords

• Throbbing Gristle
• Industrial Records
• Val Denham
• tape music
• experimental music
• DIY culture
• synthesisers
• artwork

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Industrial Records, Some Bizarre Records, Royal College Of Art

Books & works: Tapes Received, Psychic TV, Throbbing Gristle

Places: London

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