TOPY (Temple Records)

About

Temple Records, the sonic limb of Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth, operated as an interdisciplinary conduit for the experimental and the esoteric from 1978 to 1993. Emerging from the United Kingdom's fertile post-industrial landscape, the label manifested a fractal approach to music and media, intertwining the aural and the visual, the recorded and the lived. At its core, Psychic TV, led by the alchemical Genesis P-Orridge, sculpted a dense, exploratory soundscape that redefined the process-driven nature of music production. The label's catalog, a formidable archive of 66 releases, embraced cassette culture and vinyl experimentation, capturing the liminal spaces of live recordings with a tactile immediacy. Notable releases include "R.U. Xperienced?" by Caresse & Sickmob and "Live At Thee Pyramid" by Psychic TV, both of which serve as pivotal moments in the label's narrative. Each format, whether cassette, LP, or VHS, was a vessel for the evolving sonic rituals of its artists. Temple Records was not merely a label but a living, breathing entity within an underground network, where every release was an act of defiance against the mainstream's sanitized soundscape. Works like "Thee Films" featuring William S Burroughs, Brion Gysin, and Ian Somerville, transcended traditional boundaries, engaging listeners in a multimedia dialogue that was as much about the process as the product.