T.O.P.Y 丰2ॐ

[MrFigg]

Anybody on the forum ever involved with Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth in the mid to late eighties? Just wondered if there’s any Edens or Kalis out there using Reason. Wasn’t that always the point?

[Catblack]

I think I first heard about them around 86. Read about them at some point. My first roommate when I was 18 in 87 had found a big collection of industrial music cassette tapes in a dumpster, mail order ones I presume from someone who had died. That one album "played on human bones and skulls" was in there, and so much more. He had maybe 60 cassettes, things with handmade covers, but most of them unlabeled. It was amazing. I'm not sure if there was anything ToPY in there, maybe a Throbbing Gristle album. (There was a copy of "More Coffee For The Politicians" which took me a 15 years to track down what it even was.)

I picked up some ToPY related zines in the 90s. (Gave my whole zine collection to a cute girl in 2001. So dumb.) So I was aware of them. I probably bought a couple of Psychic TV albums around 99, but I was more into other music by then.

In 2002 I ended up living in an arts collective (Thought Crime/Firehouse) in Phoenix and the couple that ran it were very ToPY. I don't know if there's such a thing as 'official ToPY', but they met as Coyote and Kali at Burning Man in 98, married soon after. Thee 23 who ran the collective had written some of the zines I used to have.

I hope all this autobiography isn't too much. I've always felt the influence of ToPY (Burroughs and Gysin's cutup techniques, chaos magick, etc,) to be a common thread among interesting people. I've had a chaos star on my jacket for decades...

[MrFigg]

I hope all this autobiography isn't too much. I've always felt the influence of ToPY (Burroughs and Gysin's cutup techniques, chaos magick, etc,) to be a common thread among interesting people. I've had a chaos star on my jacket for decades...

Not at all. It’s really cool to hear. I started corresponding with Thee Temple around ‘84 when I was 14. Brought up on a diet of TG and the Velvet Underground. Always been interested in Crowley, Gysin and the like but TOPY gave me a sort of base to branch out from. Went to see PTV in ‘87 and ended up playing bass on stage with them while a load of Psychick youths danced around naked and crazy ha ha.
My friends started an Access Point in Glasgow and were down in Brighton a lot. They ended up getting expelled from Thee Temple for disagreeing with the direction Gen was trying to steer things. So much for individuality. When Gen and Paula escaped to the US I got a load of stuff in the post about a Transmedia Foundation but didn’t really pay much interest. That’s pretty much when Coyotes got their own name I think. Then after a bit Genesis decided to copyright Thee Cross and disband TOPY. Like he was the leader...usch. Oh well.
So that’s it really. Just wondered if there was any other folks out there who remembered.
I guess even though Gen’s a fanny you can’t deny the influence he’s had in art, music, counter-culture and Magick.
Thanks for writing. Was nice to hear your story.