Episode 254: Skinny Puppy

VHF-254 (Skinny Puppy) is a chronicle of the Canadian electro industrial outfit’s evolution in sound. Starting off with 1984 EP Remission, Not Dead Yet Mike selects two tracks from all of their official studio albums, concluding with 2013’s Weapon album. 

Initially analog recording was the only option. Sampling from film and television hadn’t gotten prohibitively expensive. In fact, it was apparently often “free”. So some early SP songs had a bunch of quotes from all of your favorite movies and TV shows. By 1990’s Too Dark Park digital recording had become the norm. Sampling movie and television snippets became a pariah to the record labels that didn’t need the legal hassles and costs that had also become prevalent.

As the sound of SP evolved so did Ogre’s vocal style. The early processed vocals slowly morphed into clean vocals. 1992’s Last Rights features all clean vocals that are actually sung. 

From an evolutionary standpoint it’s not surprising that the biggest change in the bands sound occurred after keyboardist Dwayne Goettel passed away in 1996. In 2004 cEvin Key & Ogre reformed the band and put out The Greater Wrong Of The Right. It was a mellower affair. The lyrics were less bleak as well. Glitchy and highly processed music with an underlying groove. Still cool, but different too.

The Skinny Puppy comeback lasted for four additional studio albums and a lot of touring. Not Dead Yet Mike will demonstrate the evolution of Skinny Puppy this week on Very High Frequencies. Can you Dig It?!!!