William S. Burroughs and Throbbing Gristle's 'Nothing Here Now but the Recordings' Treated to Vinyl Reissue

BY Gregory AdamsPublished Nov 25, 2014

Beat icon William S. Burroughs' recording career included spoken word passages on his own, as well as collaborations with Kurt Cobain, Arthur Russell and Ministry, among others. One of the rarer efforts was 1981's Throbbing Gristle-assisted experimental tape recorder project Nothing Here Now but the Recordings, which has just been set up with a vinyl reissue that puts it back on wax for the first time since the early '80s.

A press release from Dais Records explains that the label will deliver a limited-edition, remastered version of the LP in January. The album had first been pressed by the since-shuttered Industrial Records imprint in 1981. While selections from the set were issued on CD, this will be the first proper reissue of Nothing Here Now but the Recordings.

The project began in 1980 when then Throbbing Gristle members Genesis P-Orridge and Peter "Sleazy" Christopherson travelled to New York to meet up with the writer at his apartment to sift through his experimental sound work, which had been unheard up to that point. The collection features "spoken word 'cut-ups', collaged field recordings from his travels and his flirtations with EVP recording techniques." P-Orridge, Christopherson and Burroughs' executor James Grauerholz were tasked with compiling various edits the artist had made over the years.

Burroughs made the move to Lawrence, KS, in 1981, with P-Orridge and Christopherson likewise travelling to his new home to finish the collection.

The revamped version of Nothing Here Now but the Recordings has been fully remastered from the original tapes and arrives in a limited pressing of 1,000 copies. Yuo can pre-order it here.

Nothing Here Now but the Recordings:


1. Captain Clark Welcomes You Aboard

2. The Saints Go Marching Through All The Popular Tunes 

3. Summer Will 

4. Outside The Pier Prowed Like Electric Turtles

5. The Total Taste Is Here – News Cut-Up

6. Choral Section, Backwards

7. We See The Future Through The Binoculars Of The People

8. Just Checking Your Summer Recordings

9. Creepy Letter – Cut-Up At The Beat Hotel In Paris 

10. Inching – "Is This Machine Recording?" 

11. Handkerchief Masks – News Cut-Up 

12. Word Falling – Photo Falling 

13. Throat Microphone Experiment 

14. It's About Time To Identify Oven Area

15. Last Words of Hassan Sabbah

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