Alan Cross - Skinny Puppy: the secret history

Music doesnt always have to be pretty. Sometimes it needs to be harsh, ugly and evil if the mission is to capture the harsh, ugly and evil aspects of everyday life. This music can make us uncomfortable and agitated at firstbut if we can hold on long enough, the message might get through to us. Aural ugliness can be a powerful art statement.

Skinny Puppy specialized in these kinds of statements. Their unique brand of musical brutality alternately shocked, disgusted, amused and inspired a legion of followers, some of whom used Puppys methods to advance the evolution of not only industrial music but also the art of sampling and esoteric studio production techniques. Skinny Puppy didnt just record music and sound; they manipulated and mutilated it, sculpting audio into something new. And although they didnt sell many albums (perhaps a million in total), their work through the 80s paved the way for other extreme bands like Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson. Since the bands tragic demise in the mid-90s, their legend has grown ever stronger.

Having discovered the industrial-grade thumping and noise terrorism of UK bands such as Throbbing Gristle and Cabaret Voltaire, and the moodiness of Bauhaus, Joy Division, early New Order and Depeche Mode, Key and Ogre set about creating their own brand of electronic attack. All pop and rock conventionssuch as melodywere immediately discarded in favor of distortion, thunderous rhythms, more distortion, aggressive electronic sounds and still more distortion.

In early 1983, one of these tapes landed on a desk at Nettwerk Records, a new Vancouver indie label. Nettwerk was looking to sign new bands in order to fulfill a reciprocal distribution agreement with a variety of foreign labels that specialized in aggressive electronic dance music. Having already signed Moev (featuring one of the labels founders) and the Grapes of Wrath, Nettwerk decided to give Skinny Puppy a shot. Although the group had never played a live gig to that point, their sound fit in well with the Cabaret Voltaire and Front 242 records Nettwerk had agreed to distribute. They agreed to a two-album deal.

The first official Puppy release was Remission, a 1984 record that, while containing 11 tracks, was nevertheless classified as an EP. Remission was also the beginning of a decade-long relationship with producer Dave Rave Ogilvie. In October 1985, Puppy issued the Ogilvie-produced Bites. Although neither record was remotely radio-friendly, the bands punishing dance beats and goth/industrial/electronic fusion found an enthusiastic audience in dark clubs on both sides of the Atlantic. Songs like Assimilate and The Choke became turntable standards whenever the industrial set turned out to dance.

Campus radio grabbed the album, turning Mind into a late-night favorite across North America.

After completing their first-ever tour, Skinny Puppy issued Cleanse, Fold and Manipulate on Nettwerk in October 1987. Intense and sometimes frightening, the album was more finely honed than anything Puppy had done to date, continuing their lyrical attack on what they saw as a sick world. Key was credited as playing radio along with his usual array of synthesizers and sequencers, while Ogre was in charge of audio sculpture, punishments and objects. Adrian Sherwood remixes of both Addiction and Deep Down Trauma Hounds became hits with the industrial crowd, but the groups reputation began to spread beyond the black-clothes-and-mascara set. Raves came from Melody Maker and the NME, who likened CF&M to the best horror books and films. Even People magazine ran a review, calling the groups music insanity and comparing the album to stepping into a nightmare being experienced by the Phantom of the Opera. Puppy had become masters of setting mood and atmosphere.

When VIVIsectVI (pronounced Vivisect Sixnotice the 666 imagery inherent in the spelling) was released in October 1988, fans noticed a new acknowledgment of melody. The rhythms were still brutal and robotic and the samples were still harsh, but songs like Testure were, for Puppy, oddly accessible. Lyrically, the album was as in-your-face as ever, highlighting sociopolitical concerns ranging from chemical warfare (VX Gas Attack) to medical experiments on animals. Two singles were issued: Testure (a surprise top 20 hit on the Billboard dance charts) and Censor (the alternate title of a song actually called Dogshit). In concert, the band had become even more theatrical, using pyrotechnics, fake blood, simulated torture and disturbing film footage. A Skinny Puppy show was an exercise in extreme industrial performance art.

As Too Dark Park hit the stores in October 1990, a rift had begun to develop within the group. Key and Goettel were often annoyed by Ogres growing interest in pursuing projects outside the band. Complicating matters was Goettels escalating drug use. Most fans didnt notice because they were only too happy to buy another album of death, doom and despair. Too Dark Park also had its quirks. An initial vinyl pressing was defective (there was 40 seconds of unintended silence before each song) and an 11th song (Left Hand Shake) had to be dropped at the last minute when the sample of a rant by drug guru Timothy Leary couldnt be cleared (oddly, those same samples turn up in Fistfuck on the Nine Inch Nails EP Fixed).

After another intense tour of shock-theater and the release of the predictably intense Last Rites (March 24, 1992), Nettwerk Records shocked the band by declining to extend their contract. No other label was interested, although industrial music was now very big business, thanks to Puppy disciples like Ministry and Nine Inch Nails. Puppy took a long break, leaving fans to speculate on the literal meaning of the title of their last Nettwerk album. The band finally managed to snag a deal with American Recordings. But almost as soon as the ink on the contract was dry, the groups implosion began in earnest.

The band had frozen out longtime producer Dave Ogilvie, completely underestimating his importance to their sound. Complicating matters was the clause in the new contract clearly stating that the band would not have complete creative control over their material. They had agreed to that clause because they were desperate to get a deal, but it was soon the source of more trouble.

By March 1995, with production costs exceeding $750,000 and the album at least a year behind schedule, American demanded to reexamine the bands contract. Puppys deal was cut from three albums to one. When the band insisted that they be paid Americans original promise of $1.3 million regardless, there were more delays. The fatal moment came on June 2, 1995. Just as the lease on the house in Malibu ran out and everyone was preparing to move back to Vancouver, Nivek Ogre quit. He told everyone that he was going to remain in California and that the rest of the band could do as they liked. That move rendered the contract with American null and void, and Puppy was dropped from the American Recordings roster.

Out of everyone in the band, Dwayne Goettel took the news the hardest. As perhaps the hardest-working member of the group (he would often spend long hours on the tiniest details of a song) and the member most passionate about music, the collapse of Skinny Puppy was the worst thing that could happen to him. Already in a fragile emotional state over the disastrous failure of the Malibu sessions, he fell into a destructive depression. Even though he and Key continued to work on the album in Vancouver, Goettel seemed to be losing his grip. When he decided that he needed to get out of town for a while, everyone agreed that a break from music would be a good idea.