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Skinny Puppy is an influential post-industrial band, formed in 1982 by core members cEvin Key (Kevin Crompton) andNivekOgre (ohGr) (Kevin
Ogilvie) in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Inspired by the groundbreaking music of Chrome, Kraftwerk, Cabaret Voltaire, Throbbing Gristle, Portion Control,TheLegendary Pink Dots, and
others, Skinny Puppy experimented with electronic recording techniques and methods. thebandcomposed multi-layered music generally using
keyboards, synthesizers, found sounds, drum machines, live percussion,tapesplices, samplers, and conventional rock music instrum ...read more
Skinny Puppy is an influential post-industrial band, formed in 1982 by core members cEvin Key (Kevin Crompton) andNivekOgre (ohGr) (Kevin
Ogilvie) in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Inspired by the groundbreaking music of Chrome, Kraftwerk, Cabaret Voltaire, Throbbing Gristle, Portion Control,TheLegendary Pink Dots, and
others, Skinny Puppy experimented with electronic recording techniques and methods. thebandcomposed multi-layered music generally using
keyboards, synthesizers, found sounds, drum machines, live percussion,tapesplices, samplers, and conventional rock music instruments.
Whereas many contemporary remixes and re-edits ofsongswere created in order to make a song more suitable for dancing or different radio
formats, Skinny Puppyapproachedremixing and re-editing as an artistic process of reinterpreting compositions, often using remixes to push
theirsound intostyles of ambient, dub and techno. Skinny Puppy’s often informal, improvisational approach to musical compositionisindicated by
use of the term brap, coined by them and defined as a verb meaning “to get together, hook upelectronicinstruments, get high, and record”.
Skinny Puppy’s first two proper releases, Bites and Remission, fall somewhere between the found-sound chaos ofearlyCabaret Voltaire and the
abrasive, futuristic synthpop of the Units or Crash Course in Science. While the intensesynthprogramming, abstract rhythms, and surreal samples
—all Puppy trademarks—are present here, the albums owe asmuch tonew wave as to industrial.
A subsequent EP, Chainsaw, featured a remix of Bites’s “Assimilate” that earned the band some attention from clubDJs.1986’s Mind: The
Perpetual Intercourse earned Skinny Puppy greater attention, as “Dig It” and “Stairs and Flowers”becamealternative club and college radio hits;
the video for the former was played occasionally on MTV. The album isarguably lessclub-friendly than its predecessors, as the band continues to
refine a claustrophobic, almost surreal sound thatburies rhythmand melody. The follow-up, Cleanse, Fold, and Manipulate treads similar territory.
VIVIsectVI was a breakthrough for the band, with “Testure” becoming their biggest club hit to date, and the album itselfwasreceived warmly by
college radio. The title of the album was a pun intended to associate vivisection with Satanism (ie.the“666 sect”). The album shows SP
integrating more political and social themes: “Testure” is an animal rights song; “VXGasAttack” concerns the use of chemical weapons; “State
Aid” promotes sexual abstinence to stop the spread of AIDS/HIV.
Ogre had become very interested in Ministry and Al Jougensen’s side projects, and he persuaded the rest of the band toallowJourgensen to
produce Rabies. While “Worlock” (a track Jourgensen didn’t produce) remains an industrial club classic,thealbum was received coolly, as many
thought Jourgensen’s heavy metal guitar-based signatures did not compliment SP’smorecomplex, intricate sonic sculptures. The band briefly
disbanded afterward.
They reformed and returned to their electronic roots with Too Dark Park, a hallucinogenic album that owes as muchtopsychedelia as industrial
music. Two years later, “Last Rights” covered similar territory, culminating in the epicsoundsculpture “Download.” Although their sound had
moved away from industrial dance, these albums expanded theband’saudience, and provided the template for many industrial bands of the
1990s.
Following “Last Rights”, the band, poised for a major breakthrough in the wake of Nine Inch Nails’ commercial success,lefttheir longtime label
Nettwerk for American Recordings. Their highly anticipated followup was unfortunately marredbypersonal tragedy - the death of dwayne goettel -
and the band’s inability to agree on a direction for the record.Numerousproducers, including Martyn Atkins (PigFace/Invisible Records founder)
and Roli Mosimann (Swans), came and wentwithoutsuccess; finally the band regrouped with longtime collaborator Dave “Rave” Ogilvie to finish
“The Process”. Thebandexpanded their range, working with gothic pop and heavy metal, alongside their familiar electronic textures.
Whileseeminglyrushed to completion following Goettel’s death (it sounds half-finished in parts), it is an interesting change for
thegroup.Unfortunately American Recordings, tired of waiting for the record, did little to promote it. Skinny Puppy broke upafterward.
With interests in filmmaking, they made a number of music videos, each attempting to further the theme and concept ofthecomposition at hand.
Most of these videos received little air play by major music video networks such as MTV (USA)andMuchMusic (Canada) and some were outright
banned. For example the video for “Worlock” was universally bannedbecause itis a “non stop gore fest” of clips from various horror movies.
Because none of these clips were authorized forusage in thevideo it has never been commercially available.
Their concerts have been marked by their bizarre and bloody conceptual performance art, which for every concertwasplanned with the intention
of challenging the notions of all who observed. Their music had some acceptance in danceclubsbecause of its danceable beats, but had little play
on commercial radio. Skinny Puppy had little commercial successoutsideof Canada, but their influence on industrial music is immense.
The band began with the intention of doing something “raw” and “real.” Ogre’s vocals, one of Skinny Puppy’smostrecognizable features, are
typically roughly growled snarls of half-sentences and fragmented stream ofconsciousness.Lyrical themes included animal rights, politics, religion,
horror, drug abuse, disease, and environmentaldegradation; thesethemes were often lyrically and conceptually intertwined. Other core aspects of
the Skinny Puppy soundinclude the mixtureof heavy sampling and experimental noise with softer musical styles sometimes approaching
synthpop.
post-punk politics are a recurring theme utilised by Skinny Puppy. Some say the meaning of their name is that theirmusicand lyrics give a view of
the world from the eyes of a starving animal. They have long had an interest in animal rights;this ismost obvious in their song Testure, which is
about vivisection and other animal testing being scientific fraud. Duringmany oftheir concerts Ogre would take the role of “scientist” and
experiment on a stuffed animal. In 1988 they were arrestedfortheir mocked-up vivisections, and found it ironic to be arrested for a parody of
what was happening for real across thestreetfrom their concert. During their TGWOTR tour, criticism of the Bush regime was a recurring theme,
particularly duringtheirperformance of VX Gas Attack, a song about atrocities perpetrated by Saddam Hussein, originally released while he
wasstillconsidered an ally of the United States.
The last two studio albums are points of contention for old school Puppy fans. During the recording of The Process, thebandbroke up. Even more
tragically, Dwayne Rudolph Goettel died, from an apparent heroin overdose at his parent’s home,soonafterwards. Some people say that cEvin,
Nivek, and Dwayne didn’t connect as well on this album as they had earlierbecausetheir respective musical interests were diverging at the time,
others claim it was the heroin.
Some years after The Process, Key & Ogre reunited and recorded The Greater Wrong of the Right. It is somewhat of areturnto the old Skinny
Puppy, and yet it is quite clear that both cEvin and Nivek continued to evolve durring their time apart.
There have been a number of Skinny Puppy side projects, both before, and after the breakup in 1995. The Tear Garden isacollaboration between
cEvin and Edward Ka-Spel of The Legendary Pink Dots. Other noteable side projects includeDownload,PlatEAU, and ohGr. « hide |
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