CHRISTIANE F | GENESIS P-ORRIDGE : film stills from Decoder
Released on standalone CD for the first time in 33 years, a complete edition of the groundbreaking cult industrial soundtrack for the film ‘Decoder’ is finally here.
A 1984 classic of sci-fi dystopia, ‘Decoder’ saw members of Einstürzende Neubauten working alongside Genesis P-Orridge (Throbbing Gristle, Psychic TV), Dave Ball (Soft Cell) and legendary author William S. Burroughs. One of the strangest (and most prescient) films of that decade, it was directed by Klaus Maeck and Muscha (who also directed several punk films) and shot in Hamburg and Berlin.
The lead roles were played by German actress Christiane Felscherinow (aka Christiane F) and FM Einheit (of Einstürzende Neubauten), who also contributed to the film’s score. Genesis P-Orridge, the kingpin of the English industrial scene, appears as a priest of the Black Noise faith, William S. Burroughs portrays an insurrectionist salesman of audio equipment (and contributes spoken word to the soundtrack) and cult US actor Bill Rice plays a detective.
For the soundtrack, Soft Cell contributed their classic ‘Seedy Films’, Matt Johnson aka The The wrote the frenetic ‘Three Orange Kisses Ffom Kazan’, while ‘Compressed Metal’ by Einstürzende Neubauten is sublime. The remainder of the music was composed by Dave Ball (Soft Cell), Jon Caffery and Genesis P-Orridge.
‘Decoder’ is both a futuristic film and a joyous application of William S. Burroughs’ ‘The Electronic Revolution’, which proposes a seditious and rather poetic method of subverting the masses and inciting them to rise up against the forces of order.
DECODER
TRACKLISTING
1 GENESIS P-ORRIDGE & DAVE BALL – Muzak For Frogs
2 THE THE – Three Orange Kisses From Kazan
3 GENESIS P-ORRIDGE & DAVE BALL – Dream
4 GENESIS P-ORRIDGE & DAVE BALL – Main Theme (Showdown)
5 GENESIS P-ORRIDGE & DAVE BALL – Sex & The Married Frog
6 SOFT CELL – Seedy Films
7 FM EINHEIT – Riots
8 GENESIS P-ORRIDGE – Information
9 FM EINHEIT, JOHN CAFFREY, ALEXANDER VON BORSIG – Muzak Decoding / Dream Machine / Pirates
10 EINSTÜRZENDE NEUBAUTEN – Compressed Metal
11 GENESIS P-ORRIDGE & DAVE BALL – Main Theme (Finale)
Recorded by Dave Ball and Genesis P-Orridge at Audio International Studios, London 1983.
Recorded by FM Einheit, Jon Caffery and Alexander Von Borsig at Rudas Studios, Dusseldorf 1983.
Engineered by Adam Moseley, Felix Beyer, Jason Stokes, Matthew Dabell, Stefan Kühne.
Mixed by Jon Caffery.
Produced by Klaus Maeck and Muscha.
Graphic design for Cold Spring by Abby Helasdottir.
Licensed from Interzone Pictures.