Released
1996
Label
American Recordings
Reviewed by
Michael C. Lund
Contact
American Recordings
3500 W. Olive
Suite 1550
Burbank, CA 91505-4628
Last Edit/Update
28 March, 1998
Skinny Puppy
THE PROCESS
Track Listing
1. Jahya
2. Death
3. Candle
4. Hardset Head
5. Cult
6. Process
7. Cursible
8. Blue Serge
9. Morter
10. Amnesia
11. Cellar Heat
The final
album recorded by Skinny Puppy was over two years in the making, and ran
into every imaginable obstacle, before it finally hit the streets early in 1996. The
problems surrounding The Process, and the mixed reception it received upon release,
notwithstanding, it is a surprisingly congruous and smooth album. The eleven songs sound
like a reevaluation of all the musical stages Skinny Puppy went through
as a band, presented with a new veneer.
As with most of Skinny
Puppy's albums, Ogre provided The Process with a strong thematic
thread that runs through the majority of the lyrics, and reflects in the title itself.
Through his friendship with Genesis P. Orridge, Ogre had become
acquainted with the doctrine of "the process," a pseudo-religious cult of the
sixties. In an internet interview conducted by Jean Garber, Ogre
explained the process as "...trying to link people into accepting the total
sum of the parts that have, throughout time, polarized people. Through the acceptance of
no one particular dogma, one begins to see the parts of all beliefs from which he/her can
construct their own path or reality."
The sound of The Process
is extremely dynamic and crisp, with many layers, and a great amount of musical details.
The first five tracks rely strongly on explosive guitar riffs, and underlying synth themes
of great melodic sweep.
An extended aural
representation as of a flatline signal introduces the first song "Jahya." Out of
this sonic blur arrives Ogre's first vocals, like some obscure message from the
beyond. Moments later, the thunderous guitars kick in with a shattering impact, and the
song develops into a short guitar dominated rage, which ends abruptly in a voice sample.
The next song -- "Death" -- again features very heavy guitars, but with a really
beautiful, soaring theme lingering in the background, and the percussions driving the
piece forward at a stormy rate. The voice of Ogre, as on much of the album is
clean and untreated.
"Candle," which
was released as a promo cassette-single in select record stores, is probably the most
traditionally structured song on the album, and was rewarded with a certain amount of
mainstream radio play. It is again a piece with great melodic qualities and Ogre's
voice untampered with. Intermittently, the song wanders forward at a mellow pace of crisp
guitar and high-hat, only to explode into dynamic chorus sequences with heavy guitars and
drums. "Hardset Head," too, initially promises to be a more subtle piece, but
high-speed percussions and guitar riffs soon enter the picture to support Ogre's
repeated yells for 'silent noise.' "Cult," which follows, is a ballad-like piece
dominated by a chimy keyboard theme and segments of strings. The tone of the song is
largely perturbed and reflective, with short eruptions of sheer madness and the violent
guitars that play such a dominant part on the first half of The Process.
With the title track of the
album, the musical character changes towards the more synth oriented, although the trash
guitar riffs and staccato punk beat of "Cursible" upsets this balance somewhat.
In any event, "Process" is a very textured synth and effects track, strongly
centered around the ideology of the process, as incorporated into his lyrics by Nivek
Ogre. The intro to the song is a lengthy stream of interweaved synth thematics and
manipulated sounds and samples that play like an aural illustration of the information
super-highway.
"Blue Serge"
stands out as being the smoothest track on the album, driven by a tempestuous
techno-oriented beat, and layers of coursing synth-generated harmonics. The same generally
holds true for "Morter," although this song has more variations and breaks. A
few well placed apocalyptic samples, an interlude of organ music, and a spirited
performance by Ogre lifts the piece up. However, "Blue Serge" and
"Morter" seem like little more than sketches in comparison to
"Amnesia," which is arguably the best track on The Process. Opening with
a beautiful treated piano theme, "Amnesia" soon develops into the kind of richly
textured sound portrait that Skinny Puppy always excelled in. A haunting
synth theme carries Ogre's vocals along, as if his voice was a leaf riding on the
winds of an autumn storm. The song has a strong air of finality and melancholy about it,
albeit carried out in a very uncumbersome fashion. It is as if Skinny Puppy
knew this was the end, and composed this piece as a kind of epitaph, while glancing back
with a certain amount of glee upon the greatness and accomplishments in their wake.
"Amnesia" is not
quite the end; as an afterthought of sorts, "Cellar Heat" closes the album. The
piece is short, and plays like a sonic meltdown, emptying out into the same sequence of
silently flowing noises that introduced "Jahya." The Process is circular,
and thus the album ends.
