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"Industrial Veterans SKINNY PUPPY, have confirmed an October 25th North American release date for their 14th studio album entitled hanDover. The album artwork and track listing have now been revealed:
hanDover, centers not only on the unbridled greed of the world's financial organizations and the governments that enable them, but the climate of political impotence which makes people resign their fate, no matter how insidious the situation gets. In typical PUPPY form, hanDover finds the duo moving forward while still maintaining that sense of aural discovery that has been a hallmark of their 26-year career.
"It's definitely the overarching feel of 'bend over and take it,'" offers Ogre, only half-kidding about the album's theme. "I recently listened to the record and it's making even more sense to me. We're certainly experiencing the rape of mankind as the world's economies slide even further and the inability of people to look around them and see what's going on. You're starting to see a neo-feudalistic empire on the rise. People are getting so pissed off, they're turning on each other."
"I didn't want to write the record the same way as the previous ones," says Key about his m.o. on the first new PUPPY music since 2008's Mythmaker. "I wanted there to be fresh angles, both in the songwriting and the programming platforms. I was changing the whole element of myself just to see what would happen. In the end, I made something different, but it was still coming from me. I'm not interested in looking at my accomplishments and myself. Like any electronic music fan, I look at the big question: Where is it all going?"
Aided by longtime associates Ken "Hiwatt" Marshall and Mark Walk, Ogre and Key have delivered an album that mirrors today's cultural uncertainty. At its most jarring, hanDover feels like digital epilepsy, exchanging the band's predilection for opaque menace for a trembling, near spasmodic discomfort. The amphetamine glitch-worship on "Gambatte," and the mechanized percolating of "Icktums" (with the refrain of "Worship money, worship nothing") further emulates a societal framework that's got its foot on the gas pedal on the road toward extinction. Ogre's twisted fable, "Brownstone" is shored up with twitching synthetics reminiscent of an orgy of hospital equipment. "Village" is an indictment of financial institutions through the prism of the ignorant populace that let them get away with the ruin. ("We're all made to participate in it, so we're all in collusion," explains the singer. "It's your typical Ogre paranoid ditty, complete with tinfoil hat.") The seven-minute "NoiseX" weaves layers of programmed breakbeats into phase-shifted psychedelic vistas to simulate a supercomputer's ascension into purgatory. Ambience or attack-mode, you make the call.
When considering the amount of factors contributing to today's artist-hostile environment, one wonders why some people even bother to continue to make music. It seems Ogre and Key have far too many ideas ricocheting in their individual skulls to ever succumb to ennui or the entitlement groupthink of many of their colleagues. One of their albums was titled Ain't It Dead Yet: But after nearly three decades of service, 14 studio albums, a plethora of remixes and all the cartwheeling through a whole lot of psychic minefields, the answer is a resounding hell, no. Because SKINNY PUPPY is one beast that cannot be tethered."
I mean, hey, we've gotten GWAR... why can't we get TKK or Skinny Puppy?
But that's beside the point, here. This album has been delayed for almost 2 years... it was originally supposed to come out simultaneous with their In Solvent See tour back in 2009... it's been a loooooong wait for Puppy fans. This, and Ogre put out a new Ohgr album that is top notch just a few months ago, and in a couple of weeks there's something else coming out... something of a mystery called "Obesity". This is indeed shaping up to be a fine year to be a fan of the Kevins.
This is absolutely my number one album of the year... I'd say the tracks that have made the best impressions over the last week are:
Gambatte - An odd, up tempo little number with some great, dynamic vocal work from Ogre and some cool proggy synth work with a climbing synthetic organ solo in the chorus. Really interesting, danceable, and catchy track.
Icktums - Upon my first few listens, I wanted to liken this song to something you would have heard from VNV Nation off of either their Advance & Follow or Praise The Fallen records. After a minute or so of some pretty straight forward modern industrial, the song takes some interesting choices in direction, creating a monster truly of its own. Total and utter powerhouse track, and sure to be a hit in the live environment.
Ovirt - Incredible opener, and maybe the "best" song on this album. It's very much a throwback to the Mind era of softer, more atmospheric soundscaping, with a vague semblance of verse/chorus/refrain. Deep bass synth lines, modern blips and bleeps, Ogre crooning like only he can nowadays, and just absolutely brilliant programming of it all carry this one to soon-to-be-classic territory. This opener should be a pleasant surprise to anyone checking out this band for the first time and expecting absolute sonic chaos right from the get go.
Point - Ever wanted to hear Skinny Puppy try their hand at dubstep? Me either, and it seems like they really didn't, as well... as soon as you might be able to identify this as a modern club track of dubstep "droppiness", Cevin Key takes the concept, rips it to shreds, sets it on digital fire, and produces another onslaught of Skinny Puppy creativity. Should be another great live track.
Ashas - Another relatively slow, moody piece. Cevin Key puts together an image of what sounds like a society in decay, the settings almost weeping to the listener in mourning, as Ogre lays over some of his better lyrics of the last few years. What really takes this song to the next level is Ogre's incredible vocal performance. This is without question, the best Ogre's voice has sounded as a traditional singer on a Puppy track.
Wavy - Yet another moody atmospheric piece, there is a shared guitar sample to a song from their last album Mythmaker which smoothly transitions into a bassheavy, down tempo number that really envelopes the listener in the depth of the mix. Great programming from Key, yet again.
I'm leaving a few out, not because they're not great, but because they've not quite resonated with me as much as these have. "Village" is an industrial political monster that sounds fit for a Puppy concert, "NoiseX" takes their IDM backbone and throws it directly into the forefront in this instrumental closing track, "Collurblind" sounds like the band's "safe" song for a potential single, "Virusis" is solid piece of work that really forces you to listen to the subtle changes in the mix, and "Brownstone" is an Ogre penned, creepy little fable about all sorts of depravity with a definite tongue in cheek delivery, over top of a really unsettling, yet oddly pulsating track from Key.
Top album of the year for me, so far, this is easily better than the bands last three albums "The Process" from 1996, " The Greater Wrong Of The Right" from 2004, and "Mythmaker" from 2007. So, it's very fitting and congratulatory of me to say that this is the best album the band (or any of Key or Ogre's solo stuff) has put out since 1992's "Last Rights", which firmly sits in my top 10 albums of all time. This is Puppy, back with a vengeance, and really doing things that no one else is doing in electronic music. Easily, the most relevant industrial artists still going today (with Einsturzende Neubauten, but they're so far off the beaten path, you can't call it industrial under any qualifications anymore), Ogre and Key have really poured their heart and soul into this oddball masterpiece. This is an album truly deserving of attention even if you have reservations on this band and the genre they are most often associated with.
Bishop T Approval Rating of ****3/4 out of a possible 5.
Favorite track on that is "Amnesia"... that song is absolutely beautiful. I've seen a good video on Youtube where someone edited it to footage of the movie Akira. Really effective, and I usually hate those fan made music videos.
I'm a quacking sucker for it all. I love all their albums, but there are the 3 or 4 I listen more than the others... Last Rights, Too Dark Park, VIVIsectVI, Bites/Remission.
