SOUNDS : 6 October 1984
Note : this was also part of the "Meltdown" promo presskit
SPK SHOW THEIR TRUE METTLE TO KEVIN MURPHY
Metal Machine Music marches on. The primaeval hollering, the tribal tortures mixed with a clinical abrasiveness as executed by bands of tormented, frustrated souls have been laid to rest. Shed like an illfitting skin, it has outgrown its usefulness.It serves as a reminder of an age when there was pleasure through power, aggression as art. Phase one is over phase two is dawning.
This is the stage where predetermined ideals are exposed, when
you provide all you promised. As all eyes eagerly peer in
anticipation in your direction. Now is the time for surprises.
Now is not the time to disappoint. Now is the time to threaten
safe vantage points. The foundations have been firmly laid, the
second wave challenges all non-believers.
SPK are back, back with a vengeance, back with renewed hope, a
new spirit and a new album 'Machine Age Voodoo'. The album marks
a distinctive change of direction, for where their last single
'Metal Dance' dipped an exploratory toe, 'Machine Age Voodoo'
totally immerses itself. The cross-fertilisation of raw, un-bridled
power with a smooth, crystaline production produces a mutant soul
capable of crushing and charming its listeners.
They have never been ones to stagnate, as every new venture
presents fresh scope. They actively scorn the copiers of this
world and feel it's important to tread new ground, to look beyond
your immediate confines.
"Although we are constantly looking for new areas and
mediums to work in and and feel it's important to be different,
we are not arrogant enough to admit that what we're doing is
totally unique. You're always liable to have someone come up and
point out a derivation, an earlier reference point," admits
Graeme.
Their satisfaction is gained from pioneering. Quick to adapt
themselves to new surroundings and circumstances they absorb
information and attitudes, regurgitating them in a form designed
to maximise response from all who encounter them. They are a
fluid unit revolving round the nucleus of Grame - who does much
to dispel the adage that all antipodeans are loud mouthed,
beerswilling sexists as he eloquently enthuses the SPK creed -
and Sinan, a native China girl whose elegance belies her strenght.
Her haunting vocals weave majestically amidst their often harsh
surroundings, giving the overall impression of controlled power.
The forthcoming LP is their third, following in the wake of
'Information Overload Unit', originally released in 1981 and
'Leichenschrei' in '82. Both previous efforts differ in
construction yet contain surging, discordant rhythms adorned with
a latent passion. They tended to delve into the realms of
abstraction, with subliminal references emerging through-out.
'Machine Age Voodoo' possesses all the unyielding aggression of
the other two. But its stength is more formulated, more
structured and is more direct in its aims and ideas.
One surprising development that has happened since the release of
'Metal Dance' last year (it has sold well over 30,000 copies) is
that they have recently signed a deal with Elektra in America and
its sister company over here WEA, on which 'Junk Funk' will be
the first release. It's an upfront dance track lifted from the
album, released this week just prior to the album.
With the release of the new album should come the end of their
association with those groups with whom they shared a crowded
pigeonhole last year, a group of diverse members all herded under
the often misleading heading of Metal Music. It was a group whose
principal exponents were Test Dept, Einsturzende Neubauten and
SPK, and one where Graeme is keen to clarify the distinctions.
"We're much more aggressive and faster than most of the
others, a lot of what they call industrial is really quite
ambient, which ours never was.
'We always had the idea of producing fast and danceable pieces.
Originally we did it by programming four drum machines with Latin
American rhythms and then starting them off simultaneously.
"I always thought it was a bit of a false analogy comparing
us with those others. It's a bit like saying any groups that
contain guitars should be lumped together, although I concede
that there's more you can do with a guitar than say an oil drum,
although even that has a vast potential depending on what mood
you're in.
"This need to be capricious, to remain at a tangent to their
contamporaries is one of the main driving forces behind a
phphilosophy continualy on trial, a vehemently hold belief that
in order to progress one has to look back, not necessarily to
obvious reference points like those within music, but to look
beyond into the world of literature and art.
They are keen to expose such influences, people whose work has
had a profound effect on them as well as society and yet whose
true worth has never been recognised or credited.
Graeme: "There are people like Adolf Wölfli, who is
probably one of the most important figures of the century and has
never been credited as such."
Important in what way ?
"Important in terms of the yardsticks which are used to
gauge originality and culture."
Sinan: "He was unique in that he was creating in so many
different areas, and wasn't confined to using conventional frames
of reference for his art, painting or writing.
"This desire to continually extend the boundaries of
exprassion has been exhibited in many forms since their formation
in 1978. Their stage performances have always been directed
towards a strong visual stimulation. In the early shows it took
the form of eating the brains from a sheep or subjecting the
audience to a threatening performance on a flamethrower. Later,
all-out assaults on an array of junk metal combined with a solo
display on an angle-grinder. All this caused much consternation
amongst the ranks of the establishment, who abruptly terminated
their show at the Venue last year when Graeme's antics included
wielding a hefty chain low over the heads of an enraptured
audience.
All of these were designed to work with and for the music to
provide an effect, a mood and a potency that the records wer
unable to achieve.
In their efforts not to promote an SPK 'look', an identifiable
image for people to manipulate, they still regard the live medium
as showbusiness, and as such to be treated with a liberal coating
of flamboyance. Hence the show at the ICA this week is
introducing a new gimmick.
Graeme: "This year we're doing much more sculptural things.
We have someone, Brian, who's actually going to be building
things while we're playing. We're not really using it as a
musical instrument, it's more a visual constructive thing. It
will be interesting to see what happens.
"This heavilly visual aspect of their persona is the one
that has probably gained them more recognition than anything else.
Their stylish, strident performance on the Tube did much
to shake people into submission and startle the uninitiated as
well as cause others to reappraise their standing. An obvious
example were Depeche Mode, who promptly emulated the entire stage
set-up following a jolly jaunt to their local scrap metal
dealers, even down to an angle-grinder and promptly set off to
produce metal music for morons in a vain attempt to salvage their
flagging fortunes and enhance their innocuous image.
Having spent the bulk of the year in Australia in order to escape
London, and the fast and furious pace that its inhabitants chase
to be a part of this week's fashion, a game SPK weren't keen to
play, they duly returned to find Depeche Mode ripping them off
and clearly profiting from the exercise. It was an unacceptable
state of affairs and one that incensed Graeme.
"When we came back from Australia and saw them on TV I
couldn't believe it, it was blatant plagiarism. At one stage we
even contemplated suing them, but there's no point. That's why
we've this album so that we can start reaping the benefit of our
earlier stuff.
"It's a well known fact that it's those who copy an original
idea, adapt it and make it more commercial that make the money,
and never the pioneers."
Since their forrnation they have followed certain guidelines in
terms of what levels they should achieve and by when, all done in
an attempt to eradicate the element of spontaneity which Graeme
dismisses as a misplaced trait in a group's make-up. Having now
teamed up with a major and with their music taking on a more
cornmercial guise, how do they view this game-plan now?
Graeme: "I'm not sure what our game-plan is at the moment,
but with the wider audience we're bound to get with this sort of
material, we want to reiterate some of the points we were trying
to make with the earlier material.
"What we'll probably do is exercise the Jeckyll and Hyde
option, which is to be totally commercial on the one side and
exercise our more uncompromising ideas on the other.
"We just wanted to prove we could do it, we knew that if we
set our minds to it we could produce an album of well structured,
concise songs and we have. A lot of groups talk of producing
commercial material, but when it comes to the crunch they can't
come up with anything.
"How do they feel looking back on the metal movement, a
movement that carried apocalyptic overtones in its representation
of the destruction of the industrial world?
Graeme: "That was something that I always thought was silly
about the language that was written about what metal music was
supposed to be about, the end of civilisation or something like
that. To me it was the end of nothing, you should never say
something is the end, it never is. It's to do with the decadent
idea that comes at the end of every century. You've got to expect
it."
Sinan: "There does come an end, but it's not as dramatic as
that, it's more of a gradual petering out."
How much significance do you attach to your metal period, looking
at it in the overall evaluation of your work to date?
Graeme: "Our whole attitude's towards using sound, metal is
just the obvious one everyone picked up on. They missed out on
all the earlier tape material. It's to do with having a certain
attitude towards the way you use it. It's this approach that
differentiates us from our contemporaries.
"Like, we used technology in a bizarre way in order to make
a glossy machine sound primitive. All these products are just
being used in some kind of cultural way, that is what we've been
trying to do.
"Throughout their existence they have often flirted with
popularity, and just at the point of acceptance have deliberately
kept a low profile, either by travelling or by just not
performing anywhere. Was this a calculated ploy, or is it just
that the final crossover has eluded them?
Graeme: "I think we're quite overtly cynical and bitter that
it has taken so long to get noticed. All the time we were doing
material that we regarded as important people ignored it, and as
soon as we came out with a commercial track they all turn round
and say they preferred the earlier material.
"But this twist isn't likely to impede their progress, as
criticism is something they've shared beds with for the last six
years. But their ethic is change for change's sake, and even
before the album hits the street, plans are afoot to immerse
themselves to a greater degree into the world of soul. Where this
album still has traces of their earlier incarnations, the
following phase promises to threaten the very roots of soul.
Graerne: "I play tracks from the album to soul fans and they
still think it's weird so the new stuff will be trying to finally
break through in that field ... I hope." Watch out Robbie
Vincent, you have been warned! But to satisfy their more deviant
whims, they will be releasing three albums based on three
differing themes before the end of the year on their own Musique
Brut label.
The first is called 'Adolf Wölfi', and this tribute to their
mentor will take the form of different interpretations of the
deranged composer's work. The second 'The Insect Musicians' is a
collection of various insect recordings which have been sampled
on computer, then arranged in a loose musical format. The final
offering will be dedicated to Harry Partch, whose' 40s album
'Delusion Of The Fury' Graeme cites as one of his all-time faves.
Entitled 'Machine Melancholia' it is built around the sole use of
1/4 and 1/2 tone beats to compile a mood and sound closely akin
to the more lauded 'Carmina Burana'.
Will the real SPK please step forward? Your time is nigh.
