Released
1985/1993
Label
Nettwerk
Reviewed by
Michael C. Lund
Contact
Nettwerk Records Inc.
632 Broadway
Suite 301
New York, NY
Skinny Puppy
BITES
Track Listing
1. Assimilate
2. Blood On the Wall
3. Dead Lines
4. Church
5. Icebreaker
6. Tomorrow
7. Dead Doll
8. Film
9. Love
10. The Choke
11. Social Deception
12. Christianity
13. Basement
14. Last Call
15. Falling
16. The Centre Bullet
17. One Day*
*not included in track listing
Rolling synths and
percussions, and a number of coarse yells, open "Assimilate." With its dynamic
beat, compelling tinkling synths, and Ogre's insistent brapping, this
song, along with "The Choke," put Skinny Puppy on the maps of
international underground charts and dance floors. Released a year after Remission
(Skinny Puppy's debut EP), Bites continues in the dark vein of
their first release, but the sound is richer and smoother, synthesizers play a more
prominent role, and in general the album represents a perfection of Skinny Puppy's
aspirations on Remission.
In addition to the
groundbreaking songs "Assimilate" and "The Choke," Bites
features "Film" and a reworked version of "Icebreaker," both of which
also appeared on Remission. "Blood On the Wall" begins with an almost
random barrage of synth effects and beats that rise up suddenly and culminates in a
contorted scream. With samples from Polanski's The Tenant and Ogre's
desperate yelling There's blood on the wall! weaving in and out of the
cacophonous soundpicture, this song presents Skinny Puppy at their most
insane and possessed. "Social Deception" and "Basement" are likewise
at the rougher end of the spectrum, while "Dead Lines" and "Last Call"
are closer to the dance-oriented, darkly melodious brand of "Assimilate."
As with Remission,
different releases of Bites featured a number of different songs. For the 1993
re-release of the album on CD, Nettwerk compiled every track that ever
appeared on Bites. It is a collection with many highpoints, but one lacking the
thematic and stylistic unity of the Skinny Puppy albums that followed.
A number of the added songs
are instrumental, and generally sound as if they had been recorded for a Tear
Garden or Doubting Thomas release, rather than a Skinny
Puppy album. The long atmospheric track -- "The Centre Bullet" -- was
in fact later re-recorded with Edward Ka-Spell on vocals for the first Tear
Garden EP, and "One Day" would probably also have felt more at home on
a Tear Garden release. "Film," "Christianity," and,
to a lesser extent, "Church" and "Love" -- although fitting in better
with Skinny Puppy's repertoire on Bites -- could quite easily be
seen as the type of sample-heavy instrumental tracks that Key would later record
with Dwayne Goettel as Doubting Thomas. Finally,
"Tomorrow" sounds more like Key having a field day in the studio,
playing his drums at full tilt, than a true Skinny Puppy track.
Copyright Last Sigh
