Throbbing Gristle - Throbbing Gristle's Greatest Hits (Entertainment Through Pain) (LP) - Translucent Orange Vinyl

Throbbing Gristle’s Greatest Hits (Entertainment Through Pain) is one of those titles that makes you smirk before the needle even drops. A “greatest hits” set from the original industrial provocateurs sounds like a prank, but the 1980 Industrial Records release turns out to be a sharp primer on why this band mattered so much. Genesis P-Orridge, Cosey Fanni Tutti, Peter Christopherson, and Chris Carter had already carved out their own territory by then, shaping a sound at their Hackney base, the Death Factory, that fused home-built electronics, tape manipulation, and a feral sense of performance art. The subtitle borrows their long-standing motto, Entertainment Through Pain, and the selection proves they meant it as a promise, not a gag.

The magic of this compilation is the way it flips between sugar and scar tissue. “United,” their early single, still feels strangely radiant, its bright synth line and drum machine pulse edging toward pop. On the album D.O.A. they famously sped it up into a 16-second splinter, but here the song breathes, and you hear the subversive heart of Throbbing Gristle: a catchy loop that blurs into something queasy the longer you sit with it. “Hot on the Heels of Love” nods to the dance floor with a sinewy rhythm and Cosey’s whispered vocal, all cool glint and sly seduction. Plenty of people would come to industrial and techno through tracks like this, tracing lines from Carter’s machines to later bedroom producers and club alchemists.

Then the floor drops. “Hamburger Lady” remains a litmus test, an infamous piece built around a matter-of-fact description of a burn victim. The synths crawl, the voice detaches from comfort, and the whole thing presses on a nerve most bands would never lay a finger on. It is not shock for shock’s sake. It’s a reminder of the band’s original project, which was to drag real life into the room and keep you from looking away. That tension is what made Throbbing Gristle vinyl feel dangerous and necessary, even as it found its way into record shop bins alongside post-punk and synth-pop.

The through line on Greatest Hits is Chris Carter’s electronics and the custom effects that gave the group its signature grain, paired with Cosey’s guitar and cornet, Sleazy Christopherson’s tape work and visual sensibility, and Genesis P-Orridge’s lyrical provocations. These were not studio gloss merchants. Much of this material was assembled with disciplined tinkering and gnarly ingenuity, often at the Death Factory, which makes the fidelity of these cuts so striking. You can practically feel the oscillators breathing, the tape heads smearing, and the sudden cold clarity of a rhythm box that refuses to swing.

Packaging always mattered to TG, and the very idea of a “greatest hits” from them was a poke at industry logic. Yet the joke lands because the record works. If someone asks where to start with the band, you could hand over 20 Jazz Funk Greats, sure, but this compilation still might be the most honest handshake. It sketches the edges and the center, the pop feint and the wound, and it does it in a way that invites you further into the catalog rather than fencing off a nostalgia zone.

This album also has a practical life for collectors. Throbbing Gristle’s Greatest Hits vinyl has seen multiple pressings over the decades, with Industrial Records keeping an ear on the archives and, in the 2010s, bringing much of the catalog back to stores. If you collect Throbbing Gristle albums on vinyl, this is the one that tends to migrate between shelves, the record you put on when a friend is curious or when you want the band’s shapeshifting in one sitting. I’ve spotted it tucked into the industrial section at a Melbourne record store, and I’ve seen copies surface on vinyl records Australia sites with just the right amount of ringwear. It is an easy gateway if you’re looking to buy Throbbing Gristle records online without diving straight into the deep-end live documents.

What lingers after a full play is the sense of a group that built their own world and then used it to refract the one outside. The production is homemade yet precise, the moods swing from tender to terrifying, and the history weighs on the music without turning it into a museum piece. Greatest Hits proves the band could curate their legacy even as they twisted it, which is exactly what you want from Throbbing Gristle. It entertains, it hurts a little, and it leaves fingerprints on your speakers.