Extreme Noise Terror

Socialistisches Patienten Kollektiv - Leichenschrei

Originally a vinyl album released on Thermidor Records (T-9) in 1982. Ripped here from a 1992 remastered compact disc to high quality lossless flac. We haven't had any SPK for a while and I know some of you do love this kind of stuff. The original album was one continuous track on each side, it wasn't until the 1983 British vinyl did the tracks actually gain their proper names. If there is demand I'll dig out my 24/96 rip of Auto Da Fe for a future re-post.

1 Genetic Transmission
2 Post- Mortem
3 Desolation
4 Napalm (Terminal Patient)
5 Cry From The Sanatorium
6 Baby Blue Eyes
7 Israel
8 Internal Bleeding
9 Chamber Music
10 Despair
11 The Agony Of The Plasma
12 Day Of Pigs
13 Wars Of Islam
14 Maladia Europa (The European Sickness)

This Ain't Leichenschrei...!

SPK - Machine Age Voodoo

Antipodean drillers, noise terrorists and metal-bashers SPK had many pseudonyms: Socialistisches Patienten Kollektiv; System Planning Korporation; SePpuKu and errr... Surgical Penis Klinik, It was suggested to me years back that SPK stood for Synthetic Pop Krap during their short career signed to WEA. I will try not too take sides during this post, but let's just say that I am amazed how long this album has survived in my collection, and it has been very rarely played. 

Ignore the fact that it's a SPK record, and that may help you get on with it - musically as a synthpop album, it isn't that bad. But as a SPK record, perhaps the suggested abbreviation was true.

Ripped from a vinyl album released on WEA Records (WX 10) in 1984 to high resolution 24-bit flac.

A1 Junk Funk
A2 With Love From China
A3 High Tension
A4 One World
B1 Flesh & Steel
B2 Metropolis
B3 Metal Dance
B4 Thin Ice
B5 Crime Of Passion

Eardrum Buzz

S.P.K. - Auto-Da-Fé

This is from the second pressing of this vital LP, the first was in a blue/black modernist cover, this sleeve seems more fitting to it's audio content.
The a-side of Auto-Da-Fé is basically a compilation from the first three S.P.K. singles though the punk rock track No More is left off. There was incredible power and intensity in the early singles, especially were distorted guitars mix it with power drills and pounding industrial percussion. There are disturbing moments like on Mekano and Slogun where the wall of noise is interrupted with Germanic distortions, much akin to a dalek rehearsing Hitler speeches.
The b-side features three more up to date tracks, where Metall Field is in my opinion the band's best work. The use of sequencers induce a hypnotic early techno beat but fear not there is still plenty of metal percussion - Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft were never this good. This was very much a pre-cursor to the band's later work when they were signed to Elektra/Warners in search of a disco hit.
Walking On Dead Steps, much like a techno equivalent of They Walked In Line gets very close to actually crossing that line. On A Heart That Breaks In No Place Or Time, Sinan introduces herself on vocals and is clearly encouraged to say something controversial.
This is a worthy collection of aggressive industrial music which assaults your senses from all directions. Play loud and entertain your family, friends and neighbours.

Ripped from a vinyl album released on Walter Ulbricht Schallfolien (WULP 002) in 1983 to high resolution 24-bit FLAC audio.
A1. Kontakt
A2. Germanik
A3. Mekano
A4. Retard
A5. Slogun
B1. Metall Field
B2. Walking On Dead Steps
B3. A Heart That Breaks In No Time Or Place

Are Your Ears Bleeding?

Before I complete the next post, here's a couple of comparative images to share with you.....

The above is a screen capture from track two side B of the S.P.K. vinyl album Auto-Da-Fé released in 1983. It has been ripped through a 24-bit soundcard then normalised to -2db in Cool Edit Pro. If you click on the images, they will open up larger in most browsers.

I also have the 1993 CD reissue of this album (with extra tracks) released on the Mute Records off-shoot The Grey Area. Here is a capture of the waveform of the same track on the CD. The images speak for themselves, and even though it was from the early nineties, we can see just how much so-called remastering to CD has screwed up so many legacy recordings. I am willing to bet that if this CD had been reissued just a few years back, the image you see would be just a wall of green.

So what does this mean? Basically play this CD loud and you will find that most frequencies will red-line on your amp and audibly distort. There are commercial reasons why music companies adopt this measure:
- The music sounds louder on the radio (since when have you heard S.P.K. on the radio?)
- The music sounds better on your portable player were the volume is limited. Does it?

If you have even a semi-decent audio set-up, you can play the vinyl rip as loud as your amp will let you and can hear the full depth of sound as it was initially recorded. Play the CD rip at that volume, all the frequences are maxed out, there is no definition between them and they will distort even at a medium volume. Convert that file to an MP3 (even up to 320kbps) and you are in big trouble.

There is much said on the loudness wars in much more detail on other blogs, but a good starting point if you want to know more is here.

SPK - Meat Processing Section

Not an indication of the future direction of this blog, but sometimes you just need to get things off your chest. Play loud!

The b-side is actually a track called Mekano which was a 1979 Australian single

Meat Processing Section : ripped from a 7" single released on Industrial Records (IR 0011) in 1980
A. Slogun
B. Factory (aka Mekano)

Snip!