Released
1984/1993
Label
Nettwerk
Reviewed by
Michael C. Lund
Contact
Nettwerk Records Inc.
632 Broadway
Suite 301
New York, NY
Last Edit/Update
23 March, 1998
Skinny Puppy
REMISSION
Track Listing
1. Smothered Hope
2. Glass Houses
3. Incision*
4. Far Too Frail
5. Film*
6. Manwhole*
7. Ice Breaker*
8. Solvent
9. Sleeping Beast
10. Glass Out
11. ...Brap
* recorded in 1985
Originally
released as a six-track EP, Skinny Puppy's first official release Remission
appeared with a number of additional tracks over the years on various releases of it on
CD, tape and vinyl. Nettwerk's 1993 re-release of the 'EP' on CD collects
all of these extra songs together with the original six, and in effect transforms the EP
into an album with eleven tracks.
Remission has a
particularly corroded and decrepit sound, and, is a solid, powerful debut that points the
direction, which Skinny Puppy would travel throughout their 11-year
career. cEvin Key combines acoustic, metallic and synthetic percussion into a
hollow, reverberating grind. Samples of church bells and chimes appear on a number of the
songs, and the overall mood is one of strolling through a gothic churchyard encapsulated
in a concrete bunker. Behind Key's dynamic rhythms is spread a
tattered fabric of primitive synth melodies that melancholically spin out of control.
In his chronically distorted
and manipulated voice, Nivek Ogre barks his vocals into this rusty machine. While
his lyrics are some distance from the heights he would later attain, they still contain
many poignant and vivid images. It is clear that Ogre's writing at this point was
very self-centered -- most of the lyrics were likely written before his involvement in Skinny
Puppy -- and the self-portrait he paints is one of an inward, tortured and
alienated person, whom the larger issues of the world press in upon, relentlessly.
On the majority of the
songs, Ogre's vocals are supported and accentuated by samples from a variety of
movies and television broadcasts. Profusely dissected for the purpose of this album were The
Legend Of Hell House and Alfred Hitchcock's masterful Shadow Of A Doubt.
As with Ogre's vocals, the bits of dialogue and sound lifted out of these films
have been treated and rearranged almost beyond recognition.
While it is nice to have the
extra five songs included on the CD re-release without purchasing three different versions
of Remission, the extra songs unfortunately upset the balance and unity of the CD a
little.
Only "Incision"
fits comfortably within the sound and atmosphere of the original EP. "Glass Out"
is -- as the title suggests -- an extensively reworked, inverted and further distorted
version of "Glass Houses," which has appeal in itself, but certainly interrupts
the flow. "Manwhole" is a very short collage of film samples, which is really
too brief to comment on, but again obstructs the whole. "Film" is a great
instrumental piece that, with its clear, crisp synths and strong melodic presence, works
like a flashforward to Mind: The Perpetual Intercourse. Also featuring a strong
theme, as well as the awesome sound of a sampled foghorn keeping time with Key's
thumping beat, "Icebreaker" is one of the strongest pieces on the CD, and one
which seems more at home on Bites, whereupon it also appears, albeit in a different
version.
©Last Sigh
