I’ve always heard interesting things about SPK, one of them being that their use of crude electronics was a major inspiration for Wolf Eyes.
And boy do I fuckin love Wolf Eyes!
Also read some interviews which seem to suggest that the band consisted of a bunch of mental patients or something…
The more I hear about this group the more my interest grows.
Any info on them? Any suggestions of what CD to check out and where to get it?
Check out Leichenschrei from 1982. It’s dark, instrumental and experimental. It’s as Industrial as Industrial music gets. The noise is more controlled than chaotic. Highly recommended.
Stick with everything from '80 to '83. From about '84 through '88, SPK went in a decidedly pop direction, incorporating synthpop melodies with both male and female vocals. The music was just quirky enough to get released on Nettwerk Records (not to mention some sleeve art by Steven R. Gilmore). I like pretty much all SPK, but you might want to stay away from the late 80’s releases, and they’re not noisy or experimental whatsoever. Graeme Revell, the main guy behind SPK, started composing music for films, and I believe is still doing it to this day.
Here is an Industrial Records press release from 1980 regarding the story behind SPK:
[i]Industrial Records Press Release 1980 - Subject: SPK
SPK was the name the group took from a group of mental patients in West Germany who, inspired by the Baader-Meinhof group set up their own terrorist cell with a “SLOGUN” Kill Kill Kill For Inner Peace and Mental Health. Unfortunately this group blew themselves up whilst trying to make and hide bombs in their Mental Hospital. SPK was originally 4 people in Sydney, Australia. They released two singles on their own SPK label and pressed 200 copies of each. They sent copies to Industrial Records who liked them so much they offered to re-release their favourite two tracks again. By this time SPK had only two members left, one a certified schizophrenic, a patient in mental hospitals, the other a certified mental nurse who works in mental hospitals! Since this record was made the schizo-member has left the group. SPK is now one person who is alive and cynical in Paris…[/i]
…and a site for SPK info (strangely generic in design):
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Great, thanks a lot man
SPK fucking rules…
AutoDaFe and Information Overload Unit are true industrial albums, but like the previous post said they went in a few different directions, some Muslimgauze type shit on one album and of course the questionable Machine Age Voodoo and other such nonesense…
I wish I had listened to SPK when I was 15 instead of KMFDM when proclaiming to my high school buddies how INDUSTRIALLLLLL I was.