Artist.......: Skinny Puppy
Album........: Mythmaker
Label........: n/a
Genre........: Industrial
Catnr........: n/a
source.......: CDDA
rip.date.....: Dec-20-2006
str.date.....: Jan-30-2007
quality......: VBR/44,1Hz/Joint-Stereo
Url..........: skinnypuppy.com
track title time
01. magnifishit 04:32
02. daL 04:46
03. haZe 05:29
04. pedafly 05:38
05. jaHer 05:14
06. politikiL 04:22
07. lestiduZ 04:11
08. pasturN 03:48
09. ambiantz 04:28
10. ugLi 06:33
Runtime 49:01 min
Size 77,0 MB
Release Notes:
ThereÆs not much difference between a playground
bully, a corporate CEO and the self-absorbed
figureheads of many of the worldÆs current
administrations. TheyÆll all tell you that by
surrendering your lunch money or tax dollars,
theyÆre working toward ôyour best interests.ö And
we all realize these people are merely imposing a
will of their own choosing to enhance their own
mythology. Of course, fake benevolence isnÆt the
sole domain of public figures: Life has taught us
the most insidious masters of manipulation come in
more covert and intimate forms. Consider your
friends, lovers and spouses. Nobody knows these
constructs like Ogre and cEVIN Key, the braintrust
behind Skinny Puppy, who, while entering their
third decade working together, remain the worldÆs
most forward-thinking electronic/industrial-rock
unit. Mythmaker, their 13th disc and second for
SPV, is a harrowing song cycle framed in dark,
intriguing atmospheres that explore the concept of
control and the manipulation of culture that
falsely enhances the lives of the duplicitous.
ôBetween [the first SPV release, 2005Æs] The
Greater Wrong Of The Right and this record, I went
through tumultuous upward and downward spirals
within various relationships,ö reveals Ogre, who
found inescapable parallels between the
manipulative aspects of public figures and levels
of deceit within his own circle of friends. ôThe
lyrics on this record were inspired by me doing a
very detailed post-mortem on several very important
relationships in my life. The personality types
were different, but their psychological makeup was
quite the same. I expanded from my interpersonal
realm, and expanding [the songs] into an
externalized theme.ö HeÆs hesitant to acknowledge
the names of the specific parties, wisely realizing
ôthe people involved would take power from it.
ôControl is the central concept to the record, the
idea where mythic archetypes are clung to in an
effort to preserve their own fucked-up
sensibility,ö he continues. ôThe most amazing thing
that IÆve found is that people usually look
outwards and project on others what they hate the
most about themselves. At the core, Mythmaker
surrounds the things people do, calculatingly or
not, to either prop themselves upùlike MySpaceùor
protect themselves.ö Skinny PuppyÆs art has never
been something to be taken at face value, and
careful attention to OgreÆs commentaries on
Mythmaker will reveal an underlying sense of
seething. The opening ômagnifishitö (with the
disturbing line ôI am the maggotÆs muscle/magnet
missile/your motherÆs pissholeö) is a send-up of
alt-culture braggadocio intended to be demeaned. On
the urgent ôpolitikiLö the singer asks
rhetorically, ôAre you up for the suck?ö
effectively summarizing the deceit and half-truths
fed to the legion of the media-pacified. The
simultaneous percolating and grinding ôugLiö (with
its refrain ôJesus wants to be uglyö), is not an
attack on spirituality, but a treatise on how
religion is used as a tool by the morally bankrupt
as a means of control. ôI wrote those lyrics over a
year ago, because I felt that the concept of Jesus
was being used in an ugly fashion,ö says the
singer. ôNow, youÆre seeing a large body of the
Christian movement questioning that utopian union
and questioning the morality of the current
administration.ö Produced by Mark Walk and ôthe
Scaremeisterö (who, for some mysterious reason, you
never see in the same room at the same time with
Key) at KeyÆs Subconcious studio, Mythmaker
maintains the contemporary feel the band explored
on 2005Æs The Greater Wrong Of The Right, while
retaining all of the sonic nuances that have become
legendary in the Puppy realm. OgreÆs vocalsùoften
sung through vocoders and ring modulatorsùwork
effectively as both public announcements to a
diseased world (Blade Runner, anyone?), as well as
the chilling voice inside the skull that houses a
dangerous mind. Key has split his considerable
musical expertise between the realm of vintage
analogue synthesizers and virtual gear, while
installing all of PuppyÆs signifying elements
(soundbites, time-stretching and that trademark
distorted-bass pulsing) for a power that remains
positively resonant. Factor in contributions from
longtime Skinny associates as Ken ôHiwattö
Marshall, and new-school electro maniac Otto Von
Schirach, and you have a disc that is just as
engaging as such Puppy hallmarks as Too Dark Park
and Mind: The Perpetual Intercourse. ôWith the last
album, I think we werenÆt believing that we were
actually making an album,ö Key says, laughing. ôIt
was more like a re-gathering of the spirit and the
incentive. It was more like a collaborative effort
with other people, than focusing back in on the
basic components of what makes Skinny Puppy.ö Key
is also quick to acknowledge Mark WalkÆs unerring
sense of the appropriate, which played an important
role in MythmakerÆs conception. ôIn the past, weÆd
write a piece of music and it wouldnÆt change in
its arrangement. In this case, we wrote 25 pieces
of musicùthey werenÆt arranged or finished in any
wayùgave them to Mark and he gave suggestions on
how to recontextualize them. He said to me, æYou
know, the Beatles used to do three or four versions
of each song. But who knows which one was the right
one?Æ We were stripping down things, rebuilding
them and seeing what would help. When you write a
piece of music, you often get attached to the
original form. For someone to essentially come
along, rip it down and say, æHow about this?Æ opens
up another door and drives you forward. Then Hiwatt
would come in and put another spin on it, which he
calls æfinding the heart of it.Æ Mark and Ken are
part of the ædeeper team,Æ so to speak.ö Indeed,
MythmakerÆs inspired sound-shiftingùfrom the
art-rock pomp of ôhaZeö to the six-stringed menace
of ôpedaflyö to the rhythmic glitches on ôlestiduZö
to the gritty distortion marinating in
ôambiantzöùclearly comes off as going forward in
all directions. It is to their creditùand
longevityùthat Skinny Puppy have been able to
simultaneously cast light on societal ills and
expand the sonic notions of their music with
considerable aplomb. Consider that many of Ogre and
KeyÆs longtime colleagues are resigned to
frequently remaking their old records as some sort
of self-fulfilling prophecy, while the new guard
have nothing to offer outside the realm of bigger
hard drives and severe haircuts. Mythmaker
separates both the pretendersùand the resignedùfrom
the sonic anthropology that has been PuppyÆs stock
in trade. The old adage of ôart imitating lifeö is
patently clichΘ; however, a closer inspection of
the big picture guarantees that Skinny Puppy wonÆt
be delivering love songs, party anthems or
rock-radio miasma anytime soon. Hell, Ogre and Key
are hardwired in a way that practically mandates
them from following roads paved by othersùor the
ones theyÆve built themselves. ôI find it so hard
to believe that weÆve been around for a quarter
century and still making music,ö says Key, in
earnest. ôWhen I hear Mythmaker, it brings the same
feelings I had from the very first time we made
music. ItÆs a really odd thing. I think our ability
to stick to our guns and be true to ourselves all
along has been quite amazing. If I had to sum up
Skinny Puppy, IÆd say itÆs been not knowing how to
control style, as much as itÆs been about working
with concepts.ö ôThe experience of this record has
made me examine my own issues of control,ö says
Ogre. ôNot about controlling other people, but
control of my own ability to accept certain
situations. IÆm hoping in 2007, IÆll feel a little
more at peace with myself.ö Music fans can only
wonder what that would sound likeà.