Released
1987
Label
Nettwerk/Capitol
Reviewed by
Michael C. Lund
Visit
Last Edit/Update
23 March, 1998
Skinny Puppy
CLEANSE FOLD AND MANIPULATE
Track Listing
1. First Aid
2. Addiction
3. Shadow Cast
4. Draining Faces
5. The Mourn
6. Second Tooth
7. Tear Or Beat
8. deep down Trauma Hounds
9. Anger
10. Epilogue
Appropriately entitled
"Anger," the closing track ("Epilogue" as the title suggests being a
brief afterword) on Cleanse Fold And Manipulate, is an extended chaos of sound.
Trapped in the midst of the maelstorm of sonic overload, Nivek Ogre yells
incomprehensively like a man possessed, seeking desperately to escape the 'walls' that
hold him captive. The 'walls,' as witnessed on the eight preceding tracks, begin inside
the mind of Ogre himself, and extend in various shapes and forms into all areas
of life and society.
The CD begins with
"First Aid" -- a slow, hollow crash, rattling gadgetry and driving, echoing
percussions. Introduced and punctuated by a couple of bars of off-key, slow motion synth
strings, Ogre enters the song with a harrowing account of the Aids plague. The
lyrics read like a collage of newspaper clippings, alternately spoken, gasped and sung by Ogre.
At times, he wanders off on associational tangents ranging from Coleridge's
poem "The Albatross" to images of the grim reaper himself. "Addiction"
follows immediately after "First Aid" -- no pause is left between songs for the
listener to regain composure after the initial shock. With a voice thick and coarse -- as
if in withdrawal -- Ogre gives a vivid description of 'addiction.'
On "Shadow Cast," Ogre's
lyrics concerning the hypocrisy of organized religion and the ideas of sin and guilt are
contrasted with a series of samples from horror movies. Dark, ominous synth chords and
frantic metallic spurts of steamhammer percussions complete this dual assault on
censorship and the church.
The vocals are all but
totally buried on the following two tracks. "Draining Faces" features a
landscape sketched by sound; church bells, the chirping of birds, the clanking as of an
old railroad car, eerie crashes and echoes, along with various whisperings in foreign
tongues create a nightmarish atmosphere that gives way to occasional outbreaks of
distorted percussions. Towards the end Ogre briefly enters, and in a voice that
becomes almost one with the tapestry of manipulated noises, mutters a brief statement on
the paradox of whether to take life (too) seriously or simply laugh at it all.
"Draining Faces" dissolves into "The Mourn," which likewise features
treated church bells and contorted screams. The free-associational lyrics -- recited in a
coarse, crackling, dragged out manner -- ambiguously circle around the qustion of
abortion. Again, it is a piece that presents a number of issues in rapid succession, and
is rich on gruesome imagery. However, Ogre does not make any discernible final
decision or judgement; at the end he walks away from the pregnant woman, the shady doctor,
and the society that condemns them both.
Bridged by fluid
transitions, "Second Tooth," "Tear Or Beat" and "deep down Trauma
Hounds" constitute an exceptionally dynamic and richly detailed musical indictment of
Western politics and media. "Second Tooth" is an impassioned outcry against war
in general, and specifically Western (American) military policy. Many layers of
percussion, fragments of exotic synth themes, and backwards skipping sound effects
underscore Ogre's indignant voice. The strong percussional elements carry over
into "Tear Or Beat," which takes on the question of uniformity and conformity in
Western culture. Snippets of synth sounds and guitar samples that sound like misfiring
engines weave in and out of the song. "deep down Trauma Hounds" is build around
a collage of tv and movie samples. Crashing beats and shimmering synths course through the
song, with Ogre ranting about the brainwashing of the masses by the callous media
machine.
In general Cleanse Fold
And Manipulate continues in the vein of Mind, although the inventiveness and
variety of sounds employed on this CD exceeds that of Mind, and the prevailing mood
is even darker and more desperate. However, the greatest difference between Cleanse
and its predecessor lies in Ogre's lyrics and vocal style.
More so than on Skinny
Puppy's first three releases, Ogre's lyrics juxtapose his personal
condition with that of the world. His style of writing is free-associational -- from one
word to the next, he moves from specific issues to universal reflections of those issues,
and vice versa. In addition to the linking together of things only vaguely related, Ogre
often presents series of images and views concerning an issue that are not necessarily in
accordance with each other, thus alluding to meaning rather than making direct statements
-- veiling his words in a thin fabric of ambiguity.
In the performance of his
lyrics, Ogre increasingly adapts his vocals to the flow of the music. All
traditional verse structures are abandoned, and the lyrics are not structured in lines,
but uttered individually or in small clusters as befits the specific moment in a given
song.
Copyright Last Sigh
