SKINNY PUPPY-"The Process" CD (American), "Brap" 2CD (Nettwerk)
DOWNLOAD-"Furnace" CD (Cleopatra), "Microscopic" CD (Cleopatra), "Sidewinder" CDEP (Nettwerk), "The Eyes Of Stanley Pain" CD (Nettwerk).
Vancouver, Canada's SKINNY PUPPY pretty much set the stage for the whole "industrial rock" scene in North America. They were the often-imitated, yet never-equalled combination of aggressive. experimental soundtrack noise and synthesized dance music that influenced the likes of NINE INCH NAILS, MINISTRY, HAUJOBB, LEATHER STRIP, WUMPSCUT, and countless others that followed (and still are following).
They leave their legacy behind with the posthumous, 3-years-in-the-making album, "The Process", which saw such setbacks as vocalist/conceptualist Ogre dropping out and keyboard wizard Dwayne Goettel's overdose death. The addition of thrash guitar to several cuts is the biggest surprise on "The Process", though it in no way taints the band's legendary electronic framework. It's a startlingly powerful album overall, despite some moments of uncertainty. Diversity? Try the ballad stylings of "Cult", featuring Ogre's most "accessable" vocals yet. "Hardset Head" marries metal guitars with Dwayne's pounding techno breakbeats to great effect. "Candle" is an especially poignant rollercoaster ride powered by an out-of-place but effective acoustic guitar. "Blue Serge" is trademark SKINNY PUPPY-- a hypnotic trance beat and fully electronic. The ballistic finale, "Cellar Heat", seems to acknowledge the severe implosion and final decimation of the 10-year old group. The album is easily as tense and gripping as any of their back catalogue, and given the numerous setbacks and disasters behind it's conception and realization, it's only fitting. "The Process" is something very, very special.
"Brap(Back & Forth Volumes 3 & 4)" is a double-CD set (with multimedia CD-ROM data) of early (1983-85) PUPPY demos, unreleased tracks, and live pieces from the "Too Dark Park" tour. Also included is the never-released extended remix of "Love In Vein". A great collection for fans, and let's hope that Key keeps the "Back & Forth" series rolling, as apparently there's still loads of PUPPY material that hasn't yet seen the light of day.
Out of the splinters of PUPPY, Key and Goettel formed DOWNLOAD, along with friends Mark Spybey(DEAD VOICES ON AIR,ex-ZOVIET FRANCE), Genesis P-Orridge, and Philth Western(OFF & GONE). As an experiment in improvised analogue electronic weirdness, "Furnace" represents a mindfrying mixture of PUPPY's sonic electro/dub/techno/noise stew and Spybey's ZOVIET FRANCE-like ambient soundscapes. Full of skittering, disjointed rhythms and tripped-out effects, this is probably the most challenging, uncommercial work yet from Key & Goettel. The follow-up/companion EP, "Microscopic", boasts of remixes by BIOSPHERE and N.E.W.T.(aka HAUJOBB), as well as a number of non-LP cuts. Really, this is another album as it runs well over 50 minutes. Overall, "Microscopic" shows a slightly more accessable side to DOWNLOAD's unpredictable technodelic jams. The exception is the supremely hypnotic "Energy Plan"--a magnificently bleak soundscape that brings to mind images of a tense and frightening hospital lab somehow.
Only months later, DOWNLOAD reappeared with the full-length release, "The Eyes Of Stanley Pain", and it's accompanying remix EP, "Sidewinder". These were a return of sorts to PUPPY's old home, Nettwerk Records. These releases also seem to veer slightly closer to a clubbier PUPPY sound, partially due to the use of heavily processed vocals by Spybey. There's a diminished use of Spybey's handmade instrument noises and abrasions. Goettel's interest in techno/jungle shows itself more too, but DOWNLOAD's collision of audio elements is light years from the usual "techno" fare.
Some may see DOWNLOAD as an especially, eh, indulgent mess of post-industrial noise and danceable rhythmic tinkerings, but upon closer listens, the depth and textures are intricate and very developed. DOWNLOAD is far ahead of it's time, and it cements the role of PUPPY as innovators even further. Far from commercial, this is the result of freeform expression from the masters.