Jump to content

SPK (band)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Xic667 (talk | contribs) at 22:16, 17 February 2008 (iw fr). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

SPK

SPK, formed in 1978 in Sydney, Australia, was a 1980s and early 1990s industrial music and noise music act featuring Graeme Revell, who would later go on to become a successful Hollywood movie composer. The group was formed when Revell (aka Operator) met up with Neil Hill (aka Ne/H/il). They were both working at a psychiatric hospital when they became inspired by the manifesto of the German radical Marxist group known as the Sozialistisches Patientenkollektiv (SPK). The following words, taken from the SPK manifesto, are used on one of the band's first recordings, Slogun (1979): "Kill, Kill, Kill for inner peace/ Bomb, Bomb, Bomb for mental health/ Therapy through violence!". Dominik Guerin (aka Tone Generator) joined in 1980, and was later to concentrate on the band's notorious visual content. Guerin and Revell recorded the first album, Information Overload Unit (1981), in a Vauxhall squat (during the Brixton riots in London) with the help of Revell's brother Ash (aka Mr.Clean) and Wilkins (guitar/bass). After the recording of SPK's second album, Leichenschrei ("The Scream of the Corpse")(1982), they were joined by Sinan Leong, who had initially auditioned for a planned SPK side-project, Dance Macabre. She and Revell were later to marry. In the first week of February 1984, just short of his 28th birthday, Neil Hill committed suicide two days before his wife Margaret Nikitenko died as a result of complications from anorexia.

Other musicians working with SPK included Danny Rumor and David Virgin, who were on the bands first recordings that were done in 1979, James Pinker and Karel van Bergan, who toured the U.S. in 1982 with Guerin and Revell, Brian Williams of Lustmord, John Murphy of Forresta di Ferro (better known as Kraang) and Derek Thompson, who later had a brief stint in The Cure and went on to record as Hoodlum Priest. Thompson claims that he left SPK when founder member Revell wanted to take the band in what Thompson perceived as a more commercial direction [1].

William S. Burroughs the American writer was a huge fan and supporter of SPK; the picture right shows the band with Burroughs at his home in Lawrence, Kansas in 1982. From left to right: Graeme Revell, Karel vanBergan, William S. Burroughs (uncle Bill), Dominik Guerin, and James Pinker.

The meaning of the SPK abbreviation is deliberately unclear; the album covers suggest several different alternatives. The most well known is Sozialistisches PatientenKollektiv, but there are also others, such as Surgical Penis Klinik, System Planning Korporation and SePuKku.

The most notable works of SPK are the early works Information Overload Unit, Leichenschrei and AutoDaFe. SPK's early music is best described as disturbing and psychologically disorienting, in line with their nihilistic, subversive philosophy. Live performances included video backing (some of which was issued in two Twin Vison videos, Despair and Two Autopsy Films), trangressive performances with animal carcasses and other usually successful attempts to make the audience very uncomfortable. The group issued radical manifestos, such as DoKuments 1 and 2, "The Post-Industrial Strategy", which appeared in RE/Search's Industrial Culture Handbook[2]. There is a clear dichotomy between early industrial SPK (1978- 83) and the more commercial music inspired by Graeme Revell. Later releases, such as Machine Age Voodoo (1984), were more synthpop-oriented than industrial. Still later, the group moved into electronic orchestral work, with the release of Zamia Lehmanni: Songs of Byzantine Flowers (1986).

Discography

Albums

Compilations

Singles, EPs, cassettes

  • "No More/Kontakt/Germanik" - Single - 1979
  • "Factory"/Retard/Slogun" - Single - 1979
  • "Mekano/Kontakt/Slogun" - Single - 1979
  • "Meat Processing Section" EP (Slogun/Mekano) - Single – 1980
  • "See Saw/Chambermusik" - Single - 1981
  • "SoliPsiK" - Single - 1981
  • "At The Crypt" - Cassette - 1981
  • "Last Attempt at Paradise" - Cassette - 1982
  • "Dekompositiones" - 12"EP - 1983
  • "From Science To Ritual" - Cassette - 1983
  • "Metal Dance" - Single - 1984
  • "Junk Funk" - Single - 1984
  • "Flesh & Steel" – Single - 1985
  • "In Flagrante Delicto" - Single – 1986
  • "Off the Deep End" - Single - 1987
  • "Breathless" - Single - 1987
  • "Digitalis Ambigua: Gold & Poison" - Single - 1987

Videos, Films

  • "Despair" - SPK Video by Twin Vision - 1982
  • "Two Autopsy Films" - SPK Video by Twin Vision - 1983

References

  1. ^ "Interview with Derek Thompson of Hoodlum Priest". January 7, 1998. Retrieved 2007-01-04. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  2. ^ Industrial Culture Handbook. RE/Search. 1983. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=SPK_(band)&oldid=192154725"