Inspired by the groundbreaking music of Chrome, Kraftwerk, Cabaret Voltaire, Throbbing Gristle, Portion Control, The Legendary Pink Dots, and others, Skinny Puppy experimented with electronic recording techniques and methods. the band composed multi-layered music generally using keyboards, synthesizers, found sounds, drum machines, live percussion, tape splices, samplers, and conventional rock music instruments. Whereas many contemporary remixes and re-edits of songs were created in order to make a song more suitable for dancing or different radio formats, Skinny Puppy approached remixing and re-editing as an artistic process of reinterpreting compositions, often using remixes to push their sound into styles of ambient, dub and techno. Skinny Puppy's often informal, improvisational approach to musical composition is indicated by use of the term brap, coined by them and defined as a verb meaning "to get together, hook up electronic instruments, get high, and record".
Skinny Puppy's first two proper releases, Bites and Remission, fall somewhere between the found-sound chaos of early Cabaret Voltaire and the abrasive, futuristic synthpop of the Units or Crash Course in Science. While the intense synth programming, abstract rhythms, and surreal samples--all Puppy trademarks--are present here, the albums owe as much to new wave as to industrial.
A subsequent EP, Chainsaw, featured a remix of Bites's "Assimilate" that earned the band some attention from club DJs. 1986's Mind: The Perpetual Intercourse earned Skinny Puppy greater attention, as "Dig It" and "Stairs and Flowers" became alternative club and college radio hits; the video for the former was played occasionally on MTV. The album is arguably less club-friendly than its predecessors, as the band continues to refine a claustrophobic, almost surreal sound that buries rhythm and melody. The follow-up, Cleanse, Fold, and Manipulate treads similar territory.
VIVIsectVI was a breakthrough for the band, with "Testure" becoming their biggest club hit to date, and the album itself was received warmly by college radio. The title of the album was a pun intended to associate vivisection with Satanism (ie. the "666 sect"). The album shows SP integrating more political and social themes: "Testure" is an animal rights song; "VX Gas Attack" concerns the use of chemical weapons; "State Aid" promotes sexual abstinence to stop the spread of AIDS/HIV.
Ogre had become very interested in Ministry and Al Jougensen's side projects, and he persuaded the rest of the band to allow Jourgensen to produce Rabies. While "Worlock" (a track Jourgensen didn't produce) remains an industrial club classic, the album was received coolly, as many thought Jourgensen's heavy metal guitar-based signatures did not compliment SP's more complex, intricate sonic sculptures. The band briefly disbanded afterward.
They reformed and returned to their electronic roots with Too Dark Park, a hallucinogenic album that owes as much to psychedelia as industrial music. Two years later, "Last Rights" covered similar territory, culminating in the epic sound sculpture "Download." Although their sound had moved away from industrial dance, these albums expanded the band's audience, and provided the template for many industrial bands of the 1990s.
Following "Last Rights", the band, poised for a major breakthrough in the wake of Nine Inch Nails' commercial success, left their longtime label Nettwerk for American Recordings. Their highly anticipated followup was unfortunately marred by personal tragedy - the death of Dwayne Goettel - and the band's inability to agree on a direction for the record. Numerous producers, including Martyn Atkins (PigFace/Invisible Records founder) and Roli Mosimann (Swans), came and went without success; finally the band regrouped with longtime collaborator Dave "Rave" Ogilvie to finish "The Process". The band expanded their range, working with gothic pop and heavy metal, alongside their familiar electronic textures. While seemingly rushed to completion following Goettel's death (it sounds half-finished in parts), it is an interesting change for the group. Unfortunately American Recordings, tired of waiting for the record, did little to promote it. Skinny Puppy broke up afterward.
With interests in filmmaking, they made a number of music videos, each attempting to further the theme and concept of the composition at hand. Most of these videos received little air play by major music video networks such as MTV (USA) and MuchMusic (Canada) and some were outright banned. For example the video for "Worlock" was universally banned because it is a "non stop gore fest" of clips from various horror movies. Because none of these clips were authorized for usage in the video it has never been commercially available.
Their concerts have been marked by their bizarre and bloody conceptual performance art, which for every concert was planned with the intention of challenging the notions of all who observed. Their music had some acceptance in dance clubs because of its danceable beats, but had little play on commercial radio. Skinny Puppy had little commercial success outside of Canada, but their influence on industrial music is immense.
The band began with the intention of doing something "raw" and "real." Ogre's vocals, one of Skinny Puppy's most recognizable features, are typically roughly growled snarls of half-sentences and fragmented stream of consciousness. Lyrical themes included animal rights, politics, religion, horror, drug abuse, disease, and environmental degradation; these themes were often lyrically and conceptually intertwined. Other core aspects of the Skinny Puppy sound include the mixture of heavy sampling and experimental noise with softer musical styles sometimes approaching synthpop.
Post-punk politics are a recurring theme utilised by Skinny Puppy. Some say the meaning of their name is that their music and lyrics give a view of the world from the eyes of a starving animal. They have long had an interest in animal rights; this is most obvious in their song Testure, which is about vivisection and other animal testing being scientific fraud. During many of their concerts Ogre would take the role of "scientist" and experiment on a stuffed animal. In 1988 they were arrested for their mocked-up vivisections, and found it ironic to be arrested for a parody of what was happening for real across the street from their concert. During their TGWOTR tour, criticism of the Bush regime was a recurring theme, particularly during their performance of VX Gas Attack, a song about atrocities perpetrated by Saddam Hussein, originally released while he was still considered an ally of the United States.
The last two studio albums are points of contention for old school Puppy fans. During the recording of The Process, the band broke up. Even more tragically, Dwayne Rudolph Goettel died, from an apparent heroin overdose at his parent's home, soon afterwards. Some people say that cEvin, Nivek, and Dwayne didn't connect as well on this album as they had earlier because their respective musical interests were diverging at the time, others claim it was the heroin.
Key and Ogre later reunited as Skinny Puppy for a one-off concert in Germany in 2003. Afterwards, they decided Skinny Puppy should continue as an ongoing project. The newly reconstituted Skinny Puppy released The Greater Wrong of the Right in 2004, their first studio album in 8 years, and have been continuing since, constantly evolving their sound.
There have been a number of Skinny Puppy side projects, both before, and after the breakup in 1995. The Tear Garden is a collaboration between cEvin and Edward Ka-Spel (and later most band members) of The Legendary Pink Dots. Other noteable side projects include Download, Hilt, Plateau, Cyberaktif (a collaboration between Key & Goettel and Bill Leeb, a.k.a. Wilhelm Schroeder), Rx (one-off collaboration between Ogre and Martin Atkins), ADuck (Goettel's side project), A CHUD Convention (one-off collaboration with a;GRUHM...), Ogre's contributions to Pigface, Ogre and Mark Walk's band ohGr and solo releases from cEvin Key.
I'mmortal
Skinny Puppy Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Is what to say
Keep looking at nothing to go away
You take my picture
A portrait prize
Behind my image your father's eyes
Just looking for something
Just looking for something
Just looking for something now
It looks like something
From far away
Inside the image grows and makes the shadow fade
Behind the image posted on your wall
A crack is hiding fighting for it all
Just looking for something
Just looking for something
Just looking for something
Just looking for something now now now
We've taken it somewhere
From far away
The voices echo from yesterday
Behind the crack
Behind the image on the wall
I see you curled up tightly hiding from it all
Just looking for something
Just looking for something
Just looking for something
Just looking for something
Just looking for something
Just looking for something
Just looking for something
Just looking for something
The lyrics of Skinny Puppy's "I'mmortal" display a sense of desperation and longing. The lines "Just looking for something, is what to say, keep looking at nothing to go away" depict a search for something significant, but with the realization that it may not be easily found. The repeated phrase "just looking for something" conveys a sense of urgency and almost manic obsession, as if the singer's entire existence depends on finding this elusive "something."
The second verse describes a portrait taken by the singer, where they see their father's eyes reflected in their own image. This could imply a desire for connection with their lineage or possibly a struggle with reconciling their own identity with that of their parents. The lines "Behind the image posted on your wall, a crack is hiding fighting for it all" could represent the hidden turmoil and pain that lies beneath the surface of the singer's outward appearance. The repeated phrase "just looking for something" throughout the song could be interpreted as a plea for help, a call to anyone who might understand the singer's existential crisis.
The final verse seems to suggest a sense of loss or longing for the past. The "voices echo from yesterday" could represent memories of happier times or a sense of nostalgia for a time before the singer's current struggles. The line "I see you curled up tightly hiding from it all" could signify a need for comfort and protection.
Overall, "I'mmortal" is a song that explores themes of identity, searching, and desperation. The repeated phrase "just looking for something" conveys a sense of urgency and longing that pervades the entire song.
Line by Line Meaning
Just looking for something
I am searching for a purpose, a goal or an objective in life.
Is what to say
I struggle to express my desires or needs.
Keep looking at nothing to go away
I continue to search aimlessly even though it is not bringing me any closer to my goal.
You take my picture
Someone has captured an image of me.
A portrait prize
This picture has been cherished and celebrated by others.
Behind my image your father's eyes
The person behind the celebration of my image is someone who resembles me, someone familiar.
It looks like something
Initially, there seems to be a purpose or meaning to what I am searching for.
From far away
As I get closer to my goal, it starts to become unclear and distant.
Inside the image grows and makes the shadow fade
The image that was initially celebrated now takes over and consumes everything, leaving nothing behind but a shadow, a mere reminder of what was once important.
Behind the image posted on your wall
The 'portrait prize' that was celebrated is now publicly visible and displayed.
A crack is hiding fighting for it all
There is now a flaw, a crack in the perfect image that was once celebrated, and it represents a struggle or adversity that I am facing.
We've taken it somewhere
The search has led me somewhere, but it is not where I expected to be.
The voices echo from yesterday
There are echoes of the past, memories or regrets that still resonate with me.
I see you curled up tightly hiding from it all
I see someone close to me who is also struggling with their own adversities and is choosing to hide from them.
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
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