Cleanse Fold and Manipulate

Last updated
Cleanse Fold and Manipulate
CleanseFoldAlbumCover.jpg
Studio album by
ReleasedJune 25, 1987
Recorded1987, Vancouver
Genre Electro-industrial
Length42:13
Label Nettwerk
Producer Dave Ogilvie, cEvin Key [1]
Skinny Puppy chronology
Mind: The Perpetual Intercourse
(1986)
Cleanse Fold and Manipulate
(1987)
VIVIsectVI
(1988)
Singles from Cleanse Fold and Manipulate
  1. "Addiction"
    Released: 1987

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". [2] 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. [2]

Contents

Music

Cleanse Fold and Manipulate explores a number of different topics concerning medicine, society, and politics. The song "First Aid" addresses what was the growing AIDS epidemic of the 1980s, while "Second Tooth" concerns with the struggles faced by Vietnam War veterans, namely post-traumatic stress. [3] The song "Deep Down Trauma Hounds" was written following a string of teenage suicides in the United States. [4] Nivek Ogre, the group's vocalist and songwriter, said of the suicides:

It seemed very scary to me that all these kids had such a bleak prospect on their future. I was on the tail-end of the generation that grew up with Walt Disney and Fantasia and Bambi and all those things that were so beautiful and important to grow up with. You need those things to perpetuate [yourself] through the years when you become cynical, instead kids are just growing up into this dark world. [4]

Other songs on the album pay homage to horror films. The song "The Mourn" is based on the Japanese extreme horror movie Flower of Flesh and Blood from the Guinea Pig film series. According to the group, the film was the closest they had ever come to seeing what they felt was a real snuff movie. [4] Footage from the film has since been used in their live shows.

Release

Cleanse Fold and Manipulate was released on June 25, 1987. Eyeball paperweights were distributed by Capitol Records to help promote the album. [2] The record sold 80,000 copies by October 1988, with 90 percent of sales being outside Canada. [5]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [6]
New Musical Express 9/10 [7]
Times Colonist Star full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [8]

Tim DiGravina of AllMusic said the album was "hard to recommend". He went on to say while it did contain one of the band's best songs, "Deep Down Trauma Hounds", much of the album was ambient and fragmentary. Still, he added, "fans of industrial music will appreciate the album's formidable beats and coarse sound samples that seem to be generated from warping the sounds of heavy machinery. Perhaps more than other any place in Skinny Puppy's discography, Ogre's vocals work like spoken-word stream-of-conscious dementia, with more emphasis on evil tones than on any relation to their music". He concluded by saying the album was primarily recommendable to die hard fans. [9] Evelyn Erskine from the Ottawa Citizen gave the album a favorable review, saying the album was "dark and frightening", and described the flow of its songs as "cinematic". Erskine remarked that the album was weakened by the band's overreliance on gothic horror elements. [10] Billboard magazine recommended the album, calling it "the right combination of gloom-and-doom lyrics and throbbing, metallic music". [11]

People magazine said listening to the album was "like stepping into a nightmare being experienced by the Phantom of the Opera" and concluded that the band was "too garish for extended exposure but, in small doses, they are extremely powerful". [12] Mike Saunders of the Sun-Sentinel thought the album was an intriguing accomplishment, but that the initial "voyeuristic thrill" received from listening wears off before the album ends. [13] Frances Litman from the Times Colonist thought the album was tamer than the band's previous work and only recommended it to club-goers. [8]

Track listing

All music is composed by Skinny Puppy

No.TitleSample(s) [14] Length
1."First Aid" 4:29
2."Addiction"
Contains samples of:
6:01
3."Shadow Cast"
Contains samples of:
4:18
4."Draining Faces"
Contains samples of:
5:12
5."The Mourn"
Contains samples of:
2:41
6."Second Tooth"
Contains samples of:
4:06
7."Tear or Beat"
Contains samples of:
4:42
8."Deep Down Trauma Hounds"
Contains samples of:
4:41
9."Anger" 4:53
10."Epilogue" 1:10
Total length:42:13

Additional notes

Personnel

All information from AllMusic. [1]

Musicians

Production

Charts

Chart performance for Cleanse Fold and Manipulate
Chart (2024)Peak
position
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan) [16] 55

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References

  1. 1 2 "Cleanse Fold and Manipulate Credits". AllMusic . Retrieved April 29, 2010.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Kern, Jay. "Skinny Puppy: The Illustrated Discography". Prongs. Mythos Press. Retrieved 29 May 2016.
  3. Shurtluff, Kevin (December 1988). "Bulky and Surrealistic: Skinny Puppy". Alternative Press. 3 (14). Retrieved 29 May 2016.
  4. 1 2 3 "Dog Day Afternoon". Melody Maker. 21 May 1988.
  5. Mackie, John (October 1, 1988). "Welcome to the Weird World of One Rock's Most Bizarre Bands". Vancouver Sun : H13.
  6. AllMusic review
  7. Barron, Jack (30 January 1988). "Dogged Puppy". New Musical Express . p. 30.
  8. 1 2 Litman, Frances (August 1, 1987). "Skinny Puppy - Cleanse Fold and Manipulate (Capitol)". Times Colonist : C7.
  9. DiGravina, Tim. "Cleanse Fold and Manipulate Overview". Allmusic . Rovi Corporation. Retrieved April 29, 2010.
  10. Erskine, Evelyn (August 21, 1987). "Skinny Puppy - Cleanse Fold and Manipulate". Ottawa Citizen : D5.
  11. "Album Reviews" (PDF). Billboard. 99 (35): 80. August 29, 1987.
  12. "Picks and Pans Review: In No Sense? Nonsense!". People . 28 (23). December 7, 1987.
  13. Saunders, Mike (December 6, 1987). "Downbeat Carried Too Far". Sun-Sentinel : 3F.
  14. Cigéhn, Peter. "The Top Sampling Groups List: Skinny Puppy". Internet Archive: Wayback Machine. Archived from the original on October 30, 2004. Retrieved 19 July 2016.
  15. "The Blair Witch Soundtrack". Allmusic. Retrieved 29 May 2016.
  16. "Veckolista Album, vecka 18". Sverigetopplistan . Retrieved May 3, 2024.