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Essential History of Electronic Music
XI. Skinny Puppy and the Second Industrial Era
The Factory of Death had spread the suffocating and heavy fumes of the industrial era into the air, at a time when the new decade was heralding contradictions in social, political, and cultural arenas. At the dawn of the '80s, at least three fundamental currents divided the ashes of the infernal mechanism marked by Throbbing Gristle: the English school of Cabaret Voltaire, Clock DVA, and Coil (founded by the veteran Christopherson), the German collective Einstürzende Neubauten, and the Canadian ensemble Skinny Puppy. In the most remarkable of artistic paradoxes, the English collectives distanced themselves significantly from the horridgian lecture by defining music detached from gruesome representations and essentially aimed at the recorded product (in fact, the Coil brought to light the most commercial effect of industrial music, quickly distorting its primordial meaning), while both in the unpredictable Germany of Einstürzende and in the even more unexpected Canada of Nivek Ogre and associates, industrial erupted in all its violent and bestial impetus. The Germans, anchored to the multifaceted talent of Christian Emmerich, immediately turned towards the shores of concrete music, forging an absolutely original artistic-cultural avant-gardism within the industrial Europe: armed with pneumatic hammers, barrels, metal saws, and anything else destined to produce the most unpleasant noises, the Einstürzende were able to create an art that was at once music and orgiastic representation. However, destined to more exquisitely popular success, were the Canadians Skinny Puppy, led by that controversial figure Nivek Ogre, a real neo-reification of Genesis P.Orridge's occult creativity.
Born in 1982 in Vancouver by the hands of Ogre (in real life Kevin Ogilvie) and drummer cEvin Key (Key Kevin William Crompton), Skinny Puppy quickly demonstrated, through their early works, a clear delineation of the traits of their musical aesthetic, distancing themselves from the chaotic noise of Throbbing Gristle in favor of a more conventional use of the instruments made available by electronics: synthesizers, drum machines, keyboards, and samplers soon became the main interlocutors of the Canadians' industrial nightmare. The first stone thrown into the pond was the eclectic "Bites" of 1985, already a marvelous example of Skinny's poetics: supported by an engaging live promotion, Nivek Ogre immediately placed himself as the modern bard of life's malaise, extracting from his Pandora's box the most brutal and feral aberrations of the contemporary age; in a scenario afflicted by eternal political conflicts, epidemics, violence against humans and animals, Skinny Puppy screamed their silent pain through Ogre's masochistic performances and a song form rooted in the most catatonic of streams of consciousness. In this regard, "Assimilate", the album's frontrunner and its strong piece, was indicative: on a soundscape too danceable to bring to mind the Throbbing sound, Nivek Ogre with a devilish voice enjoys dissecting references to contemporary man's discomfort, AIDS, animal experimentation, granting the electronic fabric a danceable hook like "Rot and assimilate, so hot to annihilate", closely confirming the self-destructive and decaying nature of the Canadian band. Nivek Ogre shortly shaped the conceptual current of Skinny, imposing his firm beliefs about the defense of human rights and thus becoming the controversial champion of a morality that might have amused any follower of the most nihilistic Throbbing Gristle. So if "Mind: The Perpetual Intercourse" (1986) was the album of reflection on the human condition, and "Cleanse Fold and Manipulate" (1987) dealt with AIDS, abortion, and religious issues, in 1988, "VIVIsectVI" denounced one of the topics dearest to Ogre's cause, the respect for animal rights, in a sort of concept where contemporary vivisection practices and related summary executions were put on the scaffold. What Skinny Puppy succeeded best in was visually captivating the crowds, when with long and exhausting experiments like the video version of "Testure", happily realized in a contrapasso where it is a human being vivisected, they managed to spread, censorship permitting, lethal realities through television.
Amid lamentations about the censorious climate, the expressionistic masterpiece of the Canadian collective, the searing cry of "Rabies," saw the light in 1989. Fueled by the excellent contribution of Dwayne Goettel - acquired two years earlier - on keyboards, with a particular tribute to digital sampling and music production by Al Jourgensen of the Ministry, it stood as the group's mainstream work, endowed with an impetuous and iconic substance never seen before. If "Rodent" opens the dances through a triumph of musical and vocal samples lent to the dance hall, it is "Hexonxonx" that explodes in a martial dance nicely adorned by Ogre's usual stream of consciousness: among the masterpieces of the Canadian band, it stands as one of Nivek's most violent vocal expressions, a raging nursery rhyme where everything leads to the lamentable scream of "Taking blame", which is at once an accusation and a release. In perfect industrial metal style is then the neurotic "Tin Omen," another solid monolith where Jourgensen's guitar section follows the frenzied wake of "Fascist Jockitch," a noisy apocalypse where Ogre, Key, and Jourgensen seem to chase each other like fighting cocks. However, there is a musical and conceptual masterpiece, and this is "Worlock," a crucial point of the cosmic annihilation process through which Nivek Ogre passes, consuming himself in one of the most composed mad dramas of the entire Skinny Puppy production. In "Worlock," the Vancouver band accesses a visual language that surpasses the musical one, with good support from the usual video clip made with scraps from '70s and '80s horror, a legendary film which, further proving Ogre's denunciation of the excessive rigidity of European censorship, was ousted from MTV, much to the dismay of many aestheticists inclined to laxity. Nivek sings at first in an orderly manner, without exaggerating, in perfect harmony with Goettel's synths, with a manipulated voice that often abandons the unstructured form of the flow of consciousness: it's Ogre's composed madness that looks detachedly at the existing, the lucid and desperate awareness that "Soft Spoken changes nothing," a well-reasoned lethal notebook where scattered notes are penned. But shortly, after dissecting the most atrocious contours of life's malaise, Nivek accesses the most heartfelt of human laments; the transformation takes place in a non-electronically modified voice, and it is the human Ogre who, with a normal voice, screams from his painful abyss the cruelty of existence: "View so cruel" is the desperate lament born from the awareness of human temporality, the song of pain that lives in the human Ogre and not in its electronically distorted copy. "Worlock" is the masterpiece of Skinny Puppy's poetics, the intrinsic essence of an aesthetic that is painful participation in the existing. The album also features at least a couple of miraculous performances by Key and Goettel like "Rivers" and "Choralone".
The Skinny Puppy saga will still give birth to two good works: "Too Dark Park" (1990) and "Last Rights" (1992), able to confirm the group's skill in providing almost a decade of high-level music. Internal divisions first, and then Goettel's death in 1996, will define the decline of an already exhausted and uninspired band. Yet, Ogre's anguish will continue to linger for decades, the woeful litany of a barren and inhospitable landscape and its
cruel view.
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Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 Hexonxonx (05:25)
miles cable claws driller killer ripping holes tattered cloth stained regaining the
weather acid rains so sweet sweat streaks downpour on humidity colder time talking hints
watching tests the heat mangled meat retaliate no blaming in future dreams could you
have stopped it from happening best left spectator spectacle time spaced fast paced
farther down all that trigger guaging cause kills at will melted prophets book burning
how undone written slurs the meaning the past they will repeat hard to hit so unbeat
melting prophets the past melting undone misted fable role altogether mutating chains
rattle happy to perform either war or famine no where arid food growing warming trends a
place passive cows to feed the weak product waste give back nothing orders come in make
a million living things suffer hidden glad garbage body bag what of that change that
could save everything that paper shredder patent tender puts us back in time again
budgets that burst with oil crude gas in purse no compassion common criminals seek
asylum concrete pillow exxon dreams hidden hiarchy no one in power taking blame
04 Fascist Jock Itch (04:57)
This'll get on your nerves
War torn
Night harms right away
Decompose
??? featureless fear
Aryan yahoo
Mission sliver
Never saw sweet problems
Prison world
Carry your vast disease
Carry your vast disease
Victim of the world
??? climb
And the base fate
This week
Coming fate
Burning up ??? gas
Fix, fix, fix
Fear turning your spurning words
Withdrawal feeling burning turning furning fist
In the face
In the face
In the face
Heaven
In the face
In the flame
Normal destination
Normal destination
??? to forget
Better off dead
Better off dead
Aryan stillborn
Aryan yahoo
Pain
Real
Really f**king
Hey, over there
With your normal hair
With your normal place
You're f**ked
Wait it out
Go away
???
Burning up in ??? gas
express ???
Acute
Then rest
What? Hahaha distortion ugliness
Walls torn
Nylon
Decompose
Not
??? in your brain
Nervous
Never caught
Waiting, waiting
Aryan yahoo you're baiting me
Go ahead
???
You're baiting is the same
Must remember not to become ???
??? overcome
Wider stigma
Confess go ???
What are you on, son
What do you mean
You become
Everything ??? cover
I'm alive
I'm alive
???
Aryan yahoo
What you gonna do
When you don't remember
Bastard using you
Force fed crackers
05 Worlock (05:30)
Binge cringe on the fringe sloppy mincing eyedropping biopsy cyclops overlooks
Optic options rotton showstopper skinpopper babbler dabbler
Self confessed criminal tore pen in vain instant still spellbound game
Stock talk back rock reencounter incident subsistance inexistant
Non committed unwitted oblivious habitual resistor buff the stuff roughed
Up edge fluent nudge pre-collect ignition motivation inexistant wasted
Views thats all they see blue hot blood guild optic nerve with the right attitude
You will succed blue self abusive recluse too late for me make
Shifting peace settling crazy things keep your eyes open soft spoken
Changes nothing a view so cruel dogs body comatose torchlight roast
Disinterest disinfect retold impressed by possession insiders know
Refresh detained contest off and pure sure tonight it feeds itself
Freeze in time or shadows climb distracting override instincts
Evolve and try over and over wasted truth why call at all blue hot lines
Eventual decline with the right attitude you will succed blue resent
That discontent sidestep define the state of things so far crazy
Things a view so cruel
06 Rain (01:26)
these barriers disintegrating put forth fall bait the hook blind envy
makes me crawl all these familiar faces crack corner smile memories
build around me smash down by denial
07 Tin Omen (04:37)
every truncheon hit misguided the peoples army divided united stance amped out war dance
what a ride inner thought of non violent rebellion outside dare to die stand and fight
show faith return all the weapons government says use them right fixed action set in
motion doubting amnesia potion what to hide red carpet ride guessing right the jokes on
dark corner the square you bath once a week distorted the viewpoint seldom seen wayback
in 68 ohio kent state was nothing so great have of have not forcing the point shot in
the back take it back down trod soldier away flower power within kill me kill this way
of life and be known one by one they'll be coming down altogether sister machine gun
automatic high what a ride what a trip tripped over the candlestick tanks arrive fire
wall got to keep the camera alive tell the world whats going on here warning shots are
fired at the stomach chest wound coed falls amped out amped out changing guns for
brooms the guards change to clean up crews way back in 68 every thing was so great no
way wrong date keep up the trade balanced charade close circuit truth used to remove
keep the camera alive
08 Rivers (04:49)
Skinny Puppy
[0:02] Let's get things nice and sparkling clean.
[0:07] It's part of the New Way.
[0:10] This conversation can serve no purpose anymore...
I honestly think you ought to sit down calmly,
take a stress pill and think things over.
[0:25] Some extreme nastiness, yes ?
[0:29] In the course of the centuries they will learn to know each other better, just as we shall.As brooks flow into streams, streams into rivers, and rivers into the sea, so our adepts flow back to us and swell our ranks. Soon we shall be victorious and triumphant! We shall then <...> over this earth. It shall await our coming as Autumn awaits Winter.
[0:59] New way, what's this about a new way?
[1:04] My mind is going, I can feel it.
[1:10] Do you know what is realy obscene?
[1:14] Look at him! Almost an old man, with his flabby stomach and spindly legs bringing with dog-like devotion a fresh adept who only a few nights ago his was under his protection. Look well at this man, who secreted another girl more closer in than a miser holding his gold!
[1:32] I must leave you know. See you later gentlemen. Meditate while awaiting your turn, for it would be extremely difficult for you to get away from here, unless of course you have wings, like a bat.
[2:10] Is it interesting?
[2:11] What?
[2:13] Did you find anything interesting?
[2:21] It can only be attributable to human error... this sort of thing has cropped up before, and it has always been due to human error.
[2:40] I can't stop now though.
[2:49] He displeased me as much this evening as impressed me the first time.
[2:56] I've lost all critical perspective!
[3:00] (belch,laugh) Don't you laugh, damn you,don't you laugh!
[3:09] I'm afraid.
[3:14]] But my father beats me for watching TV. He says I have no respect.
[3:22] Yeah, I tell him not to watch so much TV.
[3:24] Don't listen to him, 'cause I got a show.
[3:28] No respect.
[3:29] I know everything hasn't been quite right with me. But I can assure you now, very confidently...
[3:24] A year ago exactly on this same night we were assembled here in this very room. I your pastor and you my beloved flock. With hopefulness in my heart, I told you then that with Lucifer's aid we might look forward to a more succulent occasion. Cast back your mind. There we were, gathered together gloomy and despondent, around that single meager woodcutter...
[4:18] ...I feel much better now.
Rabies - 1989
09 Choralone (03:02)
Unfurnished treeless barren ball
Rotates spitting toxins
Time to destroy
A balance not unlike
Rotates farther changing
Directs
And wins each vision
Each vision blurred
Not ever thinking
Linking
That shape unknown
Linking
Progress
Undermine
Basic
Binary
Off
On
Off
On
Breathe
Exhale
Exhale lungs
Green shudders
Camera fixed
Over exposed
Skin burns
Rage
The amber
Violent
Tempered
Tension
Surface stoned
Water
Paper
To air
Dry cracks
Growth denied
10 Amputate (03:15)
No more escaping
Overcast
Go past
No money
No money
Tragic derelict cornered watches over
Down the street junkie sits holds a gun
??? waiting for a fix
Light strikes on a bar
Derelict turns vigilante
???
???
Shot gun count take high
Brains blown away
Now floating high
At peace
Brains blown up
Climbing high
???
??? up
Falls back down
Leaving stonehenge blacktop
Burning
Pulse burnt
???
Blue charred butchers
Concave
???
Take own life
We've done the best
??? opposite
Toward, toward a new
Now shot cut up newspaper
Come down a height
Drug keeping sour
Hypersen-
Self des-
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