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.
Download is a Canadian electronic music group formed by Dwayne Goettel and Kevin Crompton of Skinny Puppy in 1994. The initial lineup also included, Off & Gone's Phil Western and Mark Spybey of Dead Voices on Air, but has since been particularly fluid, with Key and Western being the only constant members following Goettel's death. Download's music has been described as post-industrial, drawing from the band's genesis as part of Skinny Puppy but also sharing common stylistic ground with such artists as Aphex Twin and Autechre. The primary instrumentation common throughout their albums is a blend of synthesizers and sampled instruments; the music is particularly centered on the elements of percussion and rhythm.
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.
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.
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.
Too Dark Park is the sixth studio album by the industrial music group Skinny Puppy. The album cover features the debut appearance of the band's "SP" logo. The cover art was created by Vancouver based artist Jim Cummins. The artwork for this album and its associated singles was inspired by cosmic horror stories such as the Cthulhu Mythos. Lyrical themes include collapse of society due to destruction of nature, drug addiction, and psychological issues.
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.
Phillip Charles Western was a Canadian musician, based in Vancouver and a founding member of the bands Download, PlatEAU, Frozen Rabbit, and Off and Gone.
Doubting Thomas was an industrial band formed by two members of Skinny Puppy: cEvin Key and the late Dwayne Goettel. Although considered a Skinny Puppy side project, nearly all the group's music is instrumental. The band shares its name with an American roots band, to whom they have no relation.
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.
Puppy Gristle is an album released as a part of cEvin Key's subscription-service "From the Vault" in 2002, under the Skinny Puppy name. This was planned to be a limited-edition, subscription-only release of 1,000 copies available exclusively through the label's mailorder. It was eventually re-issued in larger quantities as a digipak in 2002/2003.
Subconscious Communications is an independent record label based in Toluca Lake, California. Originating in Vancouver, B.C., Canada, it was founded in 1993 by Dwayne Goettel of Skinny Puppy and Phil Western of Download. The label has been described as a "record label, musician collective, remix team, 32-track digital studio, [and an] analogue synth museum."
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.
Paradigm Shift is an album by various artists and recorded under the Nettwerk and Subconscious Communications record labels. It is Subconscious Communications' tenth release. The album also contains unreleased tracks that artist Dwayne Goettel never lived to see produced.
"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.
Back & Forth Vol7 is an album by industrial music group Skinny Puppy, consisting of outtakes from Last Rights and The Process. It was released through cEvin Key's Subconscious Communications in 2007. It was the only Vault release issued during the Mythrus tour.
Helicopter is the seventh studio album by the post-industrial electronic band Download. Much like Download's previous release, FiXeR, Helicopter features a guest appearance by former vocalist, Mark Spybey. It also puts a prominent focus on analogue equipment, using the oldest machines that Subconscious Studios had to offer.
Initially given a limited release as part of Subconscious Communications' Beyond The Vault series, Helicopter eventually sold out and, in 2011, was given a second pressing and a wider release through Metropolis Records. This re-release is retitled Helicopter + Wookie Wall, and features three additional tracks. According to Simon Paul, designer of the Helicopter's original album art, the art of this re-release will be an amalgamation of the album's original artwork and the artwork he submitted for the proposed Wookie Wall EP.
The song "Message From Gort" is a reference to the PlatEAU album Gort Spacebar, which was also a Key and Western project and released as part of the Beyond The Vault series.
