Bites | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Studio album by | ||||
Released | August 1985 | |||
Recorded | 1984–1985 (Mushroom Studios, Vancouver) | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 40:24(original) 72:55 (reissue) | |||
Label | Nettwerk (Canada, U.S.) Play It Again Sam (Europe) | |||
Producer | cEvin Key, Dave Ogilvie [1] | |||
Skinny Puppy chronology | ||||
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Bites is the first full-length studio album by Canadian industrial band Skinny Puppy, released as an LP through Nettwerk in 1985. [2] It was reissued in 1993 on CD with additional material compiled from cassette releases, international releases, and previously undistributed tracks. [3] The cover art was designed by Steven R. Gilmore. [4]
Bites was certified gold by Music Canada on August 5, 1994. [5]
The first CD release of Bites was on the compilation Bites and Remission in 1987. [6] This release replaced the songs "Assimilate" and "The Choke" with remixed versions and it did not include all of the tracks featured on the earlier cassette release, which was significantly longer. A similar but distinct CD called Remission & Bites was released by Play It Again Sam in Europe during the same year. On the 1993 reissue, the song "One Day" is not listed anywhere in the artwork or credits.
The Tear Garden's self-titled EP from 1986 (one year after Bites originally saw release) includes a revised version of "The Centre Bullet" featuring vocals by Edward Ka-Spel, slightly retitled to "The Center Bullet." [7] The two songs are identical save for the presence of vocals by The Legendary Pink Dots singer. Late reissues of The Tear Garden album Tired Eyes Slowly Burning also feature that version of "The Center Bullet". Having both been made by cEvin Key and Dave Ogilvie, it is unclear whether the track was originally a creation of Skinny Puppy or of The Tear Garden.
Review scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [8] |
Billboard magazine recommended Bites, calling it a "strong club collection a la Kraftwerk". [9] Tom Harrison of The Province gave the album a favorable review, calling it "willfully ugly and menacing", and described its songs as "cleanly produced" and "carefully textured". [10] Tim DiGravina of AllMusic was also receptive, calling the album a "fascinating look at Skinny Puppy in embryonic form", and described its sound as "delicate and pristine". DiGravina also noted the influence of groups such as Depeche Mode, Human League, and Cabaret Voltaire. [8]
Mike Abrams of the Ottawa Citizen thought Bites was depressing and for people with "undiscriminating tastes". He named the songs "Assimilate" and "Last Call" as the album's best tracks. [11] James Muretich of the Calgary Herald was less impressed with Bites, calling the record "annoying" and likened the band to robots. [12]
In 1999, Chart magazine listed Bites among the most influential Canadian albums of the 1980s. [13]
In 2023 the album was the recipient of the Heritage Public Prize at the 2023 Polaris Music Prize. [14]
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "Assimilate" | 6:56 |
2. | "Dead Lines" | 6:13 |
3. | "Blood on the Wall" | 2:58 |
4. | "Icebreaker" | 3:14 |
5. | "The Choke" | 6:29 |
6. | "Social Deception" | 2:57 |
7. | "Basement" | 3:29 |
8. | "Last Call" | 5:54 |
9. | "Film" | 2:18 |
Total length: | 40:24 |
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "Assimilate" | 6:56 |
2. | "Blood on the Wall" | 2:58 |
3. | "Dead Lines" | 6:13 |
4. | "Church" | 3:16 |
5. | "Icebreaker" | 3:14 |
6. | "Tomorrow" | 4:53 |
7. | "Dead Doll" | 2:28 |
8. | "Film" | 2:18 |
9. | "Love" | 1:51 |
10. | "The Choke" | 6:29 |
11. | "Social Deception" | 2:57 |
12. | "Christianity" | 1:32 |
13. | "Basement" | 3:25 |
14. | "Last Call" | 5:54 |
15. | "Falling" | 4:20 |
16. | "The Centre Bullet" | 9:42 |
17. | "One Day" (Hidden track) | 4:20 |
Total length: | 72:55 |
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "Assimilate" | 6:56 |
2. | "The Choke" | 6:29 |
3. | "Blood on the Wall" | 2:58 |
4. | "Church" | 3:16 |
5. | "Dead Lines" (Misprinted as 'Deadlines') | 6:13 |
6. | "Last Call" | 5:54 |
7. | "Basement" | 3:25 |
8. | "Tomorrow" | 4:53 |
Total length: | 40:04 |
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "Assimilate" | 6:56 |
2. | "Blood on the Wall" | 2:58 |
3. | "Dead Lines" | 6:13 |
4. | "Icebreaker" | 3:14 |
5. | "Film" | 2:18 |
6. | "Church" | 3:16 |
Total length: | 24:55 |
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "The Choke" (Misprinted as 'Choke') | 6:29 |
2. | "Christianity" | 1:32 |
3. | "Social Deception" | 2:57 |
4. | "Basement" | 3:25 |
5. | "Last Call" | 5:54 |
6. | "Tomorrow" | 4:53 |
7. | "Love" | 1:51 |
Total length: | 27:01 |
Samples [15]
Skinny Puppy
| Additional musicians and artwork
| Technical personnel
|
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
---|---|---|
Canada (Music Canada) [5] | Gold | 50,000^ |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. |
Skinny Puppy was a Canadian electro-industrial band formed in Vancouver in 1982. The group was among the founders of the industrial rock and electro-industrial genres. Initially envisioned as an experimental side-project by cEvin Key while he was in the new wave band Images in Vogue, Skinny Puppy evolved into a full-time project with the addition of vocalist Nivek Ogre. Over the course of 13 studio albums and many live tours, Key and Ogre were the only constant members. Other members have included Dwayne Goettel, Dave "Rave" Ogilvie, Bill Leeb, Mark Walk (2003–2023), and a number of guests, including Al Jourgensen (1989), Danny Carey (2004), and many others.
Dwayne Rudolph Goettel was a Canadian electronic musician, best known for his work in the industrial music group Skinny Puppy. Starting his career playing for a variety of acts around Edmonton, he joined Skinny Puppy in 1986 following the departure of keyboardist Bill Leeb. A classically trained pianist, he helped to broaden Skinny Puppy's sound with his extensive knowledge of equipment and sampling. He assisted bandmate cEvin Key on a number of side projects such as The Tear Garden and Doubting Thomas, and helped form the experimental electronic group Download. He also created the independent record label Subconscious Communications with friend and colleague Phil Western as a means to release his solo work.
Rabies is the fifth studio album by Skinny Puppy. It was released on November 21, 1989 through Nettwerk. The album notably features Ministry frontman Al Jourgensen who performed electric guitar and vocals on several songs. The album spawned two singles, "Tin Omen" and "Worlock", the latter of which becoming one of the band's most recognizable songs. The cover art was made by longtime Skinny Puppy collaborator Steven R. Gilmore. In 1993 the CD edition was reissued by Nettwerk to correct mastering errors in the original release.
Kevin William Crompton, known professionally as cEvin Key, is a Canadian musician, songwriter, producer, and composer. He is best known as a member of the industrial music group Skinny Puppy, which he co-founded in 1982 with singer Nivek Ogre. Initially a side project while he was with the new wave band Images in Vogue, Skinny Puppy quickly became his primary musical outlet after landing a record deal with Nettwerk Records in 1984.
The Tear Garden is a psychedelic/experimental/electronic band, formed by Edward Ka-Spel of The Legendary Pink Dots and cEvin Key of Skinny Puppy in 1985 after Key served as a sound engineer on tour in Canada for Ka-Spel. An EP, The Tear Garden, was released that same year. The pair have since released a number of records with the assistance of various guest musicians. Their most recent release, The Brown Acid Caveat, was released in July 2017.
Cleanse Fold and Manipulate is the third studio album by Canadian electro-industrial group Skinny Puppy. The album was released in 1987 and was supported by a single, "Addiction". The album was further supported by the Head Trauma tour, which spanned across North America and Europe. Ain't it Dead Yet?, a recording of the group performing in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, was released on video in 1989 and CD in 1991.
VIVIsectVI is the fourth studio album by Canadian electro-industrial band Skinny Puppy. It was released on September 12, 1988 through Nettwerk. Despite tackling controversial topics like animal rights, chemical warfare, and environmental waste, VIVIsectVI was well-received. It spawned two singles, "Censor", which was released on the album as "Dogshit", and "Testure", which was Skinny Puppy's only song to chart on Billboard's Dance Club Songs. VIVIsectVI was followed by a theatrically involved tour with Nine Inch Nails as the opening act.
Remission is a 1984 EP by Canadian electro-industrial band Skinny Puppy, their record label debut and first release with Nettwerk. The 12-inch EP originally featured six tracks, then, a year later in 1985, it was released on cassette with five additional songs that lengthened the release to a full album. This expansion became the default version of Remission.
Mind: The Perpetual Intercourse is the second studio album by Skinny Puppy, released on September 5, 1986. It contained the single "Dig It", which inspired several industrial music contemporaries, including Nine Inch Nails. "Dig It" received extensive airplay on MTV and was listed by Billboard as a recommended dance track. The song "Stairs and Flowers" was also released as a single.
Last Rights is the seventh studio album by Canadian electro-industrial band Skinny Puppy. It was released in March 1992 as the group's final record distributed through Nettwerk. Last Rights saw the band experimenting with two opposite extremes: cacophonous heavy music and gloomy melodies, resulting in moments of industrial weight as well as moments of uncharacteristic softness. Along with containing some of the band's most impenetrable walls of sound and an eleven-minute track composed almost entirely of manipulated and distorted samples, Last Rights also features Skinny Puppy's first ballad.
The Process is the eighth studio album by Canadian industrial band Skinny Puppy. Released by American Recordings on February 27, 1996, The Process was the band's final album before it reformed in 2000 and released The Greater Wrong of the Right in 2004. Skinny Puppy's keyboardist, Dwayne Goettel, died near the end of The Process' recording, and the album experienced difficult production and record-label intrusion.
Bites and Remission is a compilation by Skinny Puppy released on Nettwerk in 1987. The release of this compilation coincides with that of Remission & Bites and contains many of the same songs, albeit in a different context. This compilation culls songs from the assorted releases of Skinny Puppy's first two albums, Remission and Bites, and features remixes of two songs in place of their original versions.
The Canadian electro-industrial band Skinny Puppy has released twelve studio albums and two extended plays along with a number of live albums, compilations, and singles. The group formed in 1982 and released its debut EP, Back & Forth, in 1984. Later that year, Skinny Puppy was picked up by Nettwerk and released another EP, Remission, in December 1984. The band's first studio album, 1985's Bites, was its last with the original lineup of vocalist Nivek Ogre and producer / multi-instrumentalist cEvin Key; Dwayne Goettel joined in 1986, and the band released its next two albums, Mind: The Perpetual Intercourse and Cleanse Fold and Manipulate, in 1986 and 1987 respectively.
Chainsaw is a single by the band Skinny Puppy. It contains new material, as well as additional material taken from their albums Bites and Mind: The Perpetual Intercourse.
"Addiction" is a song by the band Skinny Puppy, taken from their 1987 album Cleanse Fold and Manipulate. It was released on vinyl in 1987 and released on CD in 1991 (Canada) and 1997. The lyrics of the song quote the 19th century Gothic novel Melmoth the Wanderer by Charles Maturin.
"Testure" is a song by Canadian electro-industrial band Skinny Puppy, taken from its 1988 album VIVIsectVI and released as a single in 1989. "Testure" was the group's first and last song to chart on Billboards's Dance Club Songs, and it was accompanied with a controversial music video.
Tired Eyes Slowly Burning is the debut album of the Canadian band The Tear Garden, released in 1987 through Nettwerk. It is the band's first studio album, preceded by their self-titled EP released a year prior. That EP is appended to the end of Tired Eyes Slowly Burning as tracks 7 to 10.
"Track 10", originally titled "Left Handshake", is a song by Canadian electro-industrial band Skinny Puppy created for its 1992 album Last Rights. The track was meant to close Last Rights, but it was ultimately cut due to threatened legal action from the owner of a sample that appears in the song. "Track 10" did not see individual release until August 20, 2000, when it was sold at Skinny Puppy's reunion performance in Germany.
Steven R. Gilmore is a Canadian artist and graphic designer most known for his work on album cover design, particularly his role as in-house artist for Nettwerk Records for much of the 1980s and 1990s. He has designed record album sleeves for bands such as Skinny Puppy, Nickelback, A Perfect Circle, BT, Machines of Loving Grace, and Two Steps from Hell.