Description
The Quietus Reissue of the Week, February 18, 2022: Read it here
The Threshold HouseBoys Choir was a project by Peter “Sleazy” Christopherson. Operating out of Bangkok, Thailand, the Throbbing Gristle, Psychic TV, and Coil co-founder started this audio and visual endeavor following Coil’s end.
Despite the name, it was a solo project that relied heavily on computer generated vocals. The name was derived from a play on words, combining the terms houseboy, house of boys, boys’ choir, and Threshold House, which was Coil’s own label. “Form Grows Rampant” is the soundtrack of a film shot by Christopherson (a video capture at the GinJae Vegetarian Festival in the south of Thailand) and his first major musical project since the tragic death of John Balance and the subsequent demise of Coil.
The music is a suite of lengthy, dense atmospheric pieces combining shuddering electronics with sampled vocals, eerie digitalia, buried melodies and sinister undercurrents hinting at a gleaming heart of darkness, with a joyful melodic progression that sounds positively triumphant towards the end of the album. It’s both Coil-esque and quite different, and undoubtedly the worthy successor of the legendary group that Christopherson created with his partner John Balance.
First released in small quantities in 2007 as a CD/DVD set, this is the first time it is released on vinyl and stand-alone CD. This reissue, which does not include the video material from the original edition, has been mastered from the original files by Sidney Claire Meyer at former Deutsche Grammophon studios Emil Berliner in Berlin, using the half speed mastering process. The vinyl edition is pressed on 180 gram vinyl and packaged in a gatefold jacket, limited to 1,000 copies. The CD edition is presented in a gatefold digipak, also limited to 1,000 copies. Both editions feature still images from the film in chronological order (Warning: contains explicit graphic images depicting religious devotees in trance-like states, tongue slashing, partial skinning, impaling through cheeks, ears, etc). Includes original liner notes by Peter Christopherson.
Tracklist (double LP):
A1. The Threshold HouseBoys Choir – Part One: A Time Of Happening
A2. The Threshold HouseBoys Choir – Part Two: Intimations Of Spring
B1. The Threshold HouseBoys Choir – Part Three: So Young It Knows No Maturing
C1. The Threshold HouseBoys Choir – Part Four: So Free It Knows No End
D1. The Threshold HouseBoys Choir – Part Five: As Doors Open Into Space
Tracklist (CD):
1. The Threshold HouseBoys Choir – Part One: A Time Of Happening
2. The Threshold HouseBoys Choir – Part Two: Intimations Of Spring
3. The Threshold HouseBoys Choir – Part Three: So Young It Knows No Maturing
4. The Threshold HouseBoys Choir – Part Four: So Free It Knows No End
5. The Threshold HouseBoys Choir – Part Five: As Doors Open Into Space
