Skinny Puppy -discography-

Much like my renewed Rush obsession (have come to really enjoy and appreciate their post "Signals" releases) i am currently neck deep in a rekindled affair with #skinnypuppy  . I've been pretty obsessively listening to them in my car and headphones at home (few co-workers or family members share my affinity for this stuff) i think I'm ready to tackle the newer stuff. I'm reluctant because i really really love the quality of the early stuff and the types of equipment used to make that music (in ironic contrast it's the same equipment that turned me off of Rush albums from that period of time). While newer technology has really increased the fidelity of the newer stuff that I've sampled it just doesn't "feel" right to me. Maybe it's the absence of the late Goettel and the part of the equation he produced, but there is a layer of opacity that is missing from the newer releases. Unearthing the nuances is what i really like about this music (much like Rush). With the crystalline new records everything is immediately audible, nothing feels obscured and thus to me: less "threatening". I've never loved the myriad of Skinny Puppy side projects, maybe it's time i revisit them as well. I will make time for Doubting Thomas, the Tear Garden, Download and OhGr, but for now i want to try and appreciate the tail end of the Puppy's discography. I think i am hooked on the nostalgic archeology of a band's oeuvre and this deep catalog should satiate me for a bit (i have been eyeing up my Iron Maiden CDs for a while because i have a similar abandoned narrative with them as well) before i track down one of their newer CDs I'm going to crank "assimilate" one more time to steel my nerves.

Skinny Puppy "last rights"

When this album was released I had become friends with the record store manager in the small college town I lived in.  I later moved into the small house he rented on the outskirts of town.  He first wooed me with mix tapes he made on his 4-track recorder. He crossfaded tracks and inserted movie samples, they were works of art.  I had no idea he was a talented musician as well.  We both fell in love with this album and he even more so with #skinnypuppy musical canon.  We have kept loose contact since 1992 and I've watched his own musical compositions turn from Frippian guitar prog to ambient shoegaze structures.  Somehow I always hear Skinny Puppy's influence in his work that sounds nothing like them.  Whenever I hear Skinny Puppy I think of him and all of his projects (including his knack for photography).  We enjoyed this CD immensely, it's caustic weird rhythms and prog compositions are littered with horror and psychedelic imagery. And while the disc is maddeningly structured (the individual songs aren't marked by the tracking numbers so your player will start track 2 halfway through the song and et cetera. Dicks.) We devoured it that year.  It's the kind of music that if you "get it" you love it, if you don't then you complain it's noise. Their discography is vast and varied sounding but this is arguably their masterpiece  (though their disc "too dark park" can be thrown into the argument as well) they have a bunch of interesting side projects as well, though most are ambient and not as engaging as their collective output.

P.s. check out my buddy's current project: Cystem.