Cleanse Fold and Manipulate
| Cleanse Fold and Manipulate | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by Skinny Puppy | ||||||||||
| Released | June 25, 1987 | |||||||||
| Recorded | 1987, Vancouver | |||||||||
| Genre | Post-industrial, electro-industrial, dark ambient, synthpop | |||||||||
| Length | 42:13 | |||||||||
| Label | Nettwerk | |||||||||
| Producer | Dave Ogilvie, cEvin Key[1] | |||||||||
| Skinny Puppy chronology | ||||||||||
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Cleanse Fold and Manipulate is the third studio album by Canadian electro-industrial group Skinny Puppy. The album was released in 1987 and was supported by a single, "Addiction".[2] The song "Deep Down Trauma Hounds" was used as a promotional single.[3] The album was further supported by the Head Trauma tour, which spanned across North America and Europe. Ain't it Dead Yet?, a recording from the tour of the group performing in Toronto, Canada, was released on video in 1989 and CD in 1991.[2]
Music
Cleanse Fold and Manipulate explores a number of different topic concerning medicine, society, and politics. The Song "First Aid" addresses what was the growing AIDS epidemic of the Eighties, while "Second Tooth" concerns with the struggles faced by Vietnam War veterans, namely post-traumatic stress.[4] The song "Deep Down Trauma Hounds" was written following a string of teenage suicides in the United States.[5] Nivek Ogre, the group's vocalist and songwriter, said of the suicides:
It seemed very scary to me that all these kids had such a bleak prospect on their future. I was on the tail-end of the generation that grew up with Walt Disney and Fantasia and Bambi and all those things that were so beautiful and important to grow up with. You need those things to perpetuate [yourself] through the years when you become cynical, instead kids are just growing up into this dark world.[5]
Other songs on the album pay homage to horror films. The song "The Mourn" is based on the Japanese extreme horror movie Flower of Flesh and Blood from the Guinea Pig film series. According to the group, the film was the closest they had ever come to seeing what they felt was a real snuff movie.[5] Footage from the film has since been used in their live shows.
Critical reception
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   [6] |
| Billboard | Positive[7] |
| People | Mixed[8] |
Tim DiGravina of Allmusic said the album was "hard to recommend".[9] He went on to say while it did contain one of the band's best songs, "Deep Down Trauma Hounds", much of the album was ambient and fragmentary.[9] Still, he added, fans of industrial music will appreciate the album's formidable beats and coarse sound samples that seem to be generated from warping the sounds of heavy machinery. Perhaps more than other any place in Skinny Puppy's discography, Ogre's vocals work like spoken-word stream-of-conscious dementia, with more emphasis on evil tones than on any relation to their music. He concluded by saying the album was primarily recommendable to die hard fans.[9]
Track listing
All information from Allmusic.[1]
All music composed by Skinny Puppy.
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "First Aid" | 4:29 |
| 2. | "Addiction" | 6:01 |
| 3. | "Shadow Cast" | 4:18 |
| 4. | "Draining Faces" | 5:12 |
| 5. | "The Mourn" | 2:41 |
| 6. | "Second Tooth" | 4:06 |
| 7. | "Tear or Beat" | 4:42 |
| 8. | "Deep Down Trauma Hounds" | 4:41 |
| 9. | "Anger" | 4:53 |
| 10. | "Epilogue" | 1:10 |
Total length: |
42:13 | |
Additional notes
- To promote the album, Capital Records (who were responsible for the release of Skinny Puppy music outside of Canada) distributed eyeball paperweights.[2]
- Cleanse Fold and Manipulate is a cyclical album, the end of the track 10, "Epilogue" segues into the beginning of track 1, "First Aid."
- In response to the cover's source image by Gilmore: "It is an image from the original 1960's movie of Village Of The Damned. There is a little tongue-in-cheek history behind using that image as the manager for Images In Vogue, a band that C. Key used to be in before Skinny Puppy, was a former child model from England and had a role in the movie. But the face on the cover was another child actor from the movie."
- "Draining Faces" was featured on The Blair Witch Project soundtrack.[10]
Personnel
All information from Allmusic.[1]
Musicians
- Nivek Ogre – voices, lyrics, objects, audio sculpture
- cEvin Key – synthesizers, guitar, drums, bass, voices, lyrics, sampling, sequencing, sounds, objects, radio, tapes, sequencers
- Dwayne Goettel – synthesizers, guitar, drums, background vocals sampling, tape, sequencing, radio, sequencers
- Peter Rave – guitar
Production
- Producers – cEvin Key, Dave Ogilvie
- Engineers – cEvin Key, Dave Ogilvie
- Mastering – Pete Norman
- Cover artwork – Steven R. Gilmore
References
- 1 2 3 "Cleanse Fold and Manipulate Credits". Allmusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved April 29, 2010.
- 1 2 3 Kern, Jay. "Skinny Puppy: The Illustrated Discography". Prongs. Mythos Press. Retrieved 29 May 2016.
- ↑ "The Singles Collect". Discogs. Retrieved 29 May 2016.
- ↑ Shurtluff, Kevin (December 1988). "Bulky and Surrealistic: Skinny Puppy". Alternative Press. 3 (14). Retrieved 29 May 2016.
- 1 2 3 "Dog Day Afternoon". Melody Maker. 21 May 1988.
- ↑ Allmusic review
- ↑ "Album Reviews" (PDF). Billboard. 99 (35): p.80. August 29, 1987.
- ↑ "Picks and Pans Review: In No Sense? Nonsense!". People. 28 (23). December 7, 1987.
- 1 2 3 DiGravina, Tim. "Cleanse Fold and Manipulate Overview". Allmusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved April 29, 2010.
- ↑ "The Blair Witch Soundtrack". Allmusic. Retrieved 29 May 2016.