Audiobook18 hours
Art Sex Music
Written by Cosey Fanni Tutti
Narrated by Gabrielle Baker
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
()
About this audiobook
Art Sex Music is the autobiography of a musician who, as a founding member of the avant-garde group Throbbing Gristle and electronic pioneers Chris Cosey, has consistently challenged the boundaries of music over the past four decades.
It is the account of an artist who, as part of COUM Transmissions, represented Britain at the IXth Biennale de Paris, whose Prostitution show at the ICA in 1976 caused the Conservative MP Nicholas Fairbairn to declare her, COUM and Throbbing Gristle 'Wreckers of Civilisation' . . . shortly before he was arrested for indecent exposure, and whose work continues to be held at the vanguard of contemporary art.
And it is the story of her work as a pornographic model and striptease artiste which challenged assumptions about morality, erotica, and art.
Wise, shocking, and elegant, this is the life of Cosey Fanni Tutti.
Contains mature themes.
It is the account of an artist who, as part of COUM Transmissions, represented Britain at the IXth Biennale de Paris, whose Prostitution show at the ICA in 1976 caused the Conservative MP Nicholas Fairbairn to declare her, COUM and Throbbing Gristle 'Wreckers of Civilisation' . . . shortly before he was arrested for indecent exposure, and whose work continues to be held at the vanguard of contemporary art.
And it is the story of her work as a pornographic model and striptease artiste which challenged assumptions about morality, erotica, and art.
Wise, shocking, and elegant, this is the life of Cosey Fanni Tutti.
Contains mature themes.
Related to Art Sex Music
Related audiobooks
Everything Is Combustible: Television, CBGB's and Five Decades of Rock and Roll: the Memoirs of an Alchemical Guitarist Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Verse, Chorus, Monster! Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I Wanna Be Yours Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Re-Sisters: The Lives and Recordings of Delia Derbyshire, Margery Kempe and Cosey Fanni Tutti Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Why the Ramones Matter Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Excavate!: The Wonderful and Frightening World of The Fall Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Punk Avenue: Inside the New York City Underground, 1972-1982 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unknown Pleasures: Inside Joy Division Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5England's Dreaming: The Sex Pistols and Punk Rock Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5To Throw Away Unopened Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Nina Simone's Gum: A Memoir of Things Lost and Found Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Girl in a Band: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dirty Blvd.: The Life and Music of Lou Reed Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5There's No Bones in Ice Cream: Sylvain Sylvain's Story of the New York Dolls Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This Searing Light, the Sun and Everything Else: Joy Division: The Oral History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lipstick and Leather: On the Road with the World's Most Notorious Rock Stars Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Permanent Damage: Memoirs of an Outrageous Girl Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Joni Mitchell: In Her Own Words Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dreadnaught: King of Afropunk Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mutations: The Many Strange Faces of Hardcore Punk Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Grunge Is Dead: The Oral History of Seattle Rock Music Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Meet Me in the Bathroom: Rebirth and Rock and Roll in New York City 2001-2011 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Then It Fell Apart Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5On Bowie Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Why Patti Smith Matters Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Conversations Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Face It: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Eat Your Mind: The Radical Life and Work of Kathy Acker Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Doomed to Fail: The Incredibly Loud History of Doom, Sludge, and Post-metal Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Shock and Awe: Glam Rock and Its Legacy, from the Seventies to the Twenty-first Century Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Music For You
IT'S ALL IN YOUR HEAD Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Effortless Mastery: Liberating the Master Musician Within, Book & Includes Online Downloadable code Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Paris: The Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Storyteller: Expanded: ...Because There's More to the Story Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Heroin Diaries: Ten Year Anniversary Edition: A Year in the Life of a Shattered Rock Star Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Gold Dust Woman: The Biography of Stevie Nicks Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bad Fat Black Girl: Notes from a Trap Feminist Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Sing From Within: A guide to developing a dynamic singing voice using techniques used by the professionals Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sweat the Technique: Revelations on Creativity from the Lyrical Genius Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Dirt: Confessions of the World's Most Notorious Rock Band Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Hurricanes: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Music Lesson: A Spiritual Search for Growth Through Music Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5No Bull Music Theory for Guitarists: Master the Essential Knowledge All Guitarists Need To Know Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Killing the Legends: The Lethal Danger of Celebrity Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Inner Game of Music Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Perfect Union of Contrary Things Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Adversity for Sale: Ya Gotta Believe Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5My Effin' Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Philosophy of Modern Song Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin): A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Constitution of the United States of America, 1787 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Fail Until You Don't: Fight Grind Repeat Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Where Are Your Boys Tonight?: The Oral History of Emo's Mainstream Explosion 1999-2008 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Autobiography of Gucci Mane Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Me: Elton John Official Autobiography Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Song Maps: A New System to Write Your Best Lyrics Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Open Book Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for Art Sex Music
Rating: 3.899999964444444 out of 5 stars
4/5
45 ratings7 reviews
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5This is an autobiography, not to be confused with a book by a talented writer. Her world is not at all my world, and while this fact expands my horizons, it is not a world or a culture I want to live in or learn about.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Cosey Fanni Tutti is a British performance artist and musician best known for her artistic work with COUM Transitions and legendary avant-garde music act Throbbing Gristle.
I admit I mostly chose to read this book because I'm a huge fan of Coil. I was interested in Cosey's perspective on Sleazy (who was a member of TG) and to a lesser extent his partner Geoff. TG is a band I respect for its influence, which was immense. Personally, TG never did it for me. Maybe the reason is that I always found Genesis P-Orridge very repulsive and that impression kind of shadowed my experience of TG. This book confirmed my initial stance, although I do allow that it is just one part of the story.
After reading this I can say I like Cosey, I find her refreshingly down-to-Earth, especially when you take into account the kind of art she's produced. There were emotional scenes in the book, but they were breezed over, almost like an item on a shopping list. I expected more of an insight into her emotional world, and the influences that made TG so special.
The insight this book offers stays very much on the surface. It was very documentary-like, factual in nature, which some fans of TG may appreciate. But, this was a rather dry read. It could've used better editing as it is really long.
Cosey is indeed a free spirit and has resisted all labels. I just wish a little bit more of that translated into this book. - Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I came to Art Sex Music as a fan of industrial music, generally familiar with Throbbing Gristle albums and Industrial Record's reputation but not well acquainted with band members or history. My tastes track more closely with Ei'bauten, Coil, and Wax Trax! bands than with TG, Chris & Cosey, or Psychic TV. From this vantage, Art Sex Music does not disappoint: Cosey narrates the birth of the genre and TG's albums and live performances, and thereby outlines the origins and influences on industrial music generally, all while weaving in Cosey's extensive art work. It was gratifying, too, reading of the occasional crossed paths with SPK, Boyd Rice / NON, Monte Cazzazza, Robert Wyatt, Clock DVA, Cabaret Voltaire, WSB. A huge void in my genre history: the infamous ICA "Prostitution" exhibit -- unknown to me, at which TG debuted and Cosey's sex worker project first saw public light.Along with this musical journey, a parallel narration of the European art world, mostly that in England but clearly linked to Continental galleries and happenings, and to a lesser extent to the U.S. Cosey's own extensive art work outside TG, whether the sex worker pieces or others. The mail art. The overlap of galleries and exhibits and counterculture.Well worth reading, and I suspect would pair well with Kim Gordon's recently published memoir.//Evidently Simon Ford's Wreckers of Civilisation served as Cosey's motivation or negative inspiration. She sees in it much distortion or outright fabrication, presumably deliberate on the part of Genesis P'Orridge. Cosey kept diaries throughout her work with TG and after, these provided a basis for her narrative. For all that, Cosey's text comes across as subjective but level-headed, not whining or full of invective. Though I strongly suspect I would have profited from the book without knowing its provenance, I appreciate that it was noted rather than kept in shadow.This ARC omits photos, typical but unfortunate.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cosey Fanni Tutti, an apt pseudonym for the Author of this fascinating autobiography and key personage of the Throbbing Gristle (TG) music group. This well-written discourse takes the reader back to the tumult of the beginnings of the post-war rebellion by the counterculture youth of the UK and rockets you through the ages to today. Cosey holds nothing back - the raw edges rasp at your consciousnesses, the struggle for sense and expression is transferred with a gut wrenching imperative as the reader turns the pages. A work of art itself, those living through that time will understand the depth of the challenges faced by a pioneer of artistic expression as she crashes through her life. You revel at the success of a TG concert only to be saddened by a loss or setback. This is real life - not sugar-coated pablum. Art Sex Music is literature to read - a timely book as a generation begins to fade into memories with each person's passing. This book will stand the test of time.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.This is a difficult book to review. It's not for everyone. I don't know a lot about the bands that Cosey Fanni Tutti was in, or the art she's produced. The first 100 pages did not really pull me in. But by the end of the book, I was happily reading as quickly as possible, and I found myself listening to music from her bands and others that she discusses. In fact, this book has led me to additional books, music, and art, and I know that I will continue to explore the music made by this author and her friends. The author's struggles to create art, have healthy relationships, and just survive were inspiring, even though I was often horrified at the situations she put herself into (and sometimes was forced into) as a young woman. She is an indomitable person, a true artist, and an inspiration. That said, the book is long, and contains a lot of detail that might not be as interesting to people who don't follow this kind of music or art. The end of the book is often frustrating, due to the difficult behavior of a bandmate. This is Cosey's side of the story, and I think some readers might be put off that there is no attempt to present both sides of the case. That wasn't an issue for me - this is Cosey's book about her life.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I requested this early review book since I recognised the band name Throbbing Gristle in the quick author summary.She kind of races through childhood, giving an "and then.. and then.." litany of events but rarely lingering over them with any degree of descriptiveness when I really wanted to hear more. It does give a base of how hard she had to be growing up scrapping in Hull. She mentions a lot of friends by first name but doesn't hang a lot of description on them so it's hard to keep track. I didn't realise for pages that Gen was Genesis P-Orridge, oops. She seems to assume a lot of familiarity with the members of COUM and other bands, and it was confusing since a lot of them had many names. It was also super stressful to read about her abusive relationship with Gen. I did love reading about her creative process, especially how she did nude modelling to collect magazine images to include in her art work. The musical collaborations were amazing too, barring Gen messing them up. She's brutally honest about medical scares as well (she was involved with a hospital scandal after a miscarriage) and open with sharing her love for her various collaborators and family. The financial burdens of producing music and touring were exposed as well, I remembered when a few labels/distributors folded but didn't hear how that affected the bands on them.A quote that jumped out at me: "There's nothing worse than wanting to do something but having a 'maybe' hanging over you." I've been burning out a bit on making plans with people and that resonated. I felt like I should have made up a soundtrack to listen to while reading this, so many good bands were mentioned!
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Autobiography of Cosey Fanni Tutti, a musician and performance artist. Although she states the book was "tough" to write it appears to be written in a comfortable, easy to read format, using the diaries she kept through the years to provide much detail. Like she says it was written not as a rose-tinted view of her past!