(Close to the) Mix CD Edit

November 9, 2012 7:55 AM

If you were to introduce somebody who is curious about Skinny Puppy to the band, what would your ideal single-CD track list be? Bonus round: the Art of Noise.

I have a younger work colleague whose current musical tastes and mine overlap almost perfectly (Aesop Rock, Fuck Buttons, LCD Soundsystem, Mastodon, Wolves in the Throne Room, Kowloon Walled City, Killer Mike, Holy Fuck, ad infinitum), but who kind of missed industrial music entirely, except for some NIN spillover. Ditto the Art of Noise.

I, on the other hand, think that Skinny Puppy and the Art of Noise were the two most forward-thinking bands of their age, and after hearing the Old Guy That Still Likes Cool Music go on about it for a while, he'd like to give both bands a shot.

This is where my abject love becomes a hindrance. I can't pare down, and I can't really distinguish "entry level" SP/AON from "advanced reading." Do I go chronological by date? Most-accessible to less-accessible? Skinny Puppy isn't really a band with "best of" collections, and the "Best Of" for the AON are kind of... meh.

I'd like to do this with once CD per group, if possible. I'm sifting through albums and trying to strain out the best "101" mixes for both groups, but I could use some help. I've seen some brilliant posts and conversations about both bands on the blue, so I'm turning to you for input and help.

posted by Shepherd to media & arts (17 answers total)

"Accessible" Skinny Puppy, in no particular order:

Smothered Hope
Assimilate (take your pick)
Addiction
deep down Trauma Hounds
Killing Game
Stairs & Flowers
Worlock
Tin Omen
Testure
VX Gas Attack
posted by Kyol at 8:17 AM on November 9, 2012 [4 favorites]

I usually go with Mind: The Perpetual Intercourse. Particularly Stairs and Flowers or Deep Down Trauma Hounds because they've got an apparent "rock song" structure but the album is pretty typical of their more interesting stuff.
posted by crush-onastick at 8:18 AM on November 9, 2012

Art of Noise, if you want the polished works, I can't recommend the Best of Art of Noise (blue cover) highly enough - it's my one stop Art of Noise destination.
posted by Kyol at 8:27 AM on November 9, 2012

I think Kyol has it nailed. Plus some of the remixes from Remix Dystemper.
posted by Jairus at 8:53 AM on November 9, 2012

Not a whole mix's worth, but I second Testure and Worlock. Maybe Candle.
posted by epanalepsis at 8:54 AM on November 9, 2012

Kyol has a good list, but I'd add "Dig It", because it has a slightly different feel and overlaps with some of the other things he's interested in.
posted by batmonkey at 9:21 AM on November 9, 2012 [1 favorite]

It's obviously all subjective, but my track list in that situation would look like this:

1) Amnesia
2) Testure
3) Worlock
4) Assimilate
5) Love In Vein
6) Deadlines
7) Spasmolytic
8) The Choke

I'd start off with Amnesia, since it's (IMO) one of their most accessible songs from their most accessible album, then start in on the more aggressive classics before moving to the slightly weirder (Love in Vein, Deadlines, Spasmolytic) and finally closing it out with one of their best songs.

(Also, in my opinion, any of those tracks that are available on Back and Forth vol 5, are more accessible than the corresponding originals).
posted by cmonkey at 9:23 AM on November 9, 2012 [2 favorites]

Oh, I would stick Deep Down Trauma Hounds in the middle somewhere, too.
posted by cmonkey at 9:25 AM on November 9, 2012

If you want to illustrate how forward thinking Skinny Puppy were, I'd include Dig It, and note that it came out in 1986 - a year before Ministry's first 'industrial' album and 3 years before NIN's first album. Also, while perhaps a bit too aggressive to be 'accessible,' its one of their best tracks, and a great indication of how they blended heavy guitars, distorted drum tracks, and samples in a way that prefigured a lot of music for the next 20 years.
posted by googly at 9:47 AM on November 9, 2012 [1 favorite]

For Art of Noise, I say just start with In Visible Silence as a complete album. Yes, you do miss some key tracks that way (add them once they're hooked!), but that album works best as an unbroken/unsorted whole. I got virtually every friend I had at the time interested in them using this approach (personally, I go so far as to find it "wrong" to even listen to tracks off of it individually).
posted by Pufferish at 12:15 PM on November 9, 2012

If I were to break someone into the Art of Noise for the first time, this is how I'd do it.

1: A Time For Fear (Who's Afraid) (Who's Afraid? (of the Art of Noise!))
2: Close (To The Edit) (Influence: Hits, Singles, Moments, Treasures…)
3: Battle (Into Battle with the Art of Noise)
4: Beat Box (Into Battle with the Art of Noise)
5: The Army Now (Into Battle with the Art of Noise)
6: Donna (Into Battle with the Art of Noise)
7: Legs (7'' Mix) (Influence: Hits, Singles, Moments, Treasures…)
8: Bright Noise (Into Battle with the Art of Noise)
9: Flesh In Armour (Into Battle with the Art of Noise)
10: Comes And Goes (Into Battle with the Art of Noise)
11: Who's Afraid (of The Art of Noise) (Who's Afraid? (of the Art of Noise!))
12: Close Up (The Art Of The 12", Volume Two (A Promotion Of A Way Of Life))
13: Snapshot (Who's Afraid? (of the Art of Noise!))
14: Memento / How to Kill / Realisation (Who's Afraid? (of the Art of Noise!))
15: Hoops and Mallets (Legs 12")
16: Something Always Happens (Peter Gunn 12")
17: A Time For Fear (JJ's 12'' Remix) (Influence: Hits, Singles, Moments, Treasures…)
18: Acton Art (Influence: Hits, Singles, Moments, Treasures…)
posted by mykescipark at 1:11 PM on November 9, 2012 [2 favorites]

I should also say that it's worth using the most up-to-date remasters of this material that you can find. Most of this stuff is now available on Salvo as part of their ZTT Elements series; only a few towards the end remain more difficult to obtain, but they can be found with a bit of poking-around online.
posted by mykescipark at 1:15 PM on November 9, 2012

GREAT answers so far. I've got a couple of roughs of tracklists for both groups based on the above, but here's where I'm a bit stuck (aside from the "I don't want three tracks from Cleanse Fold and Manipulate and only one from every other album" hangup, which I just need to get over)... how do you CLOSE the Puppy CD?

I've got a natural bias, from being an old fart who made mix tapes back in the day, to run with a rise, rise, rise, RISE, fall, coda thing. Skinny Puppy, unlike AON, doesn't really "do" the coda. Closing with "Killing Game" is the best I've got offhand, but what out of the entire SP catalog makes a good closing track? It doesn't have to be "My Way" or whatever, but I'd like to terminate on a downtempo SP track. "Icebreaker" was my original go-to, but the sound is so 1986 that it's hard to take it.

Something from the Brap releases? Something post-2000, which to be fair I haven't paid much attention to? Segue to Hilt or Download? Again, all suggestions (or even reinventions of the above-suggested tracklists) are appreciated.
posted by Shepherd at 5:49 PM on November 9, 2012

Potentional end pieces?
Rodent (Ken “Hiwatt” Marshall Remix)
Rivers
posted by vkxmai at 6:50 PM on November 9, 2012

Or close with the sweet synth sounds of Glass Houses.
posted by cmonkey at 10:59 PM on November 9, 2012

If you want something post-2000 to end the CD, I'd either do EmpTe or Jaher, or the cEvin Key track Frozen Sky (which has Ogre doing guest vocals)
posted by Jairus at 8:13 AM on November 10, 2012

Coda? How about one of their earliest and most obscure tracks. Very downtempo and a good 'fade out at the end of the mix' kind of thing: Church in Hell.
posted by googly at 12:36 PM on November 10, 2012