November 21, 2005
We Will Win
Okay, here’s something that’s going to be too un-musical for a few of you. All I can say, by way of explanation, is that this 45 was introduced to me at an age when I was a really, really alienated young man.
SPK stood for several things, like “Surgical Penis Klinik,” “Socialist Patients Kollective” or “System Planning Korporation.”
SPK delivered imagery of medical horror mixed with the cryptically threatening language of terrorist manifestos. They were from Australia and mysterious legends swirled around the band - they’d met as workers and patients in a mental hospital, it was said, and were involved in radical criminal activities, of which the musical entity SPK and its solipsistic Dokuments were only the propaganda arm. Spooky! You can read lots of their old public statements on this ugly site. In fact, they maintained pretty strict anonymity until the real group apparently split up, industrial music got swallowed up by goth and ravers and Graeme Revell began putting out crap like Metal Dance under the SPK moniker.
Before Answer Me!, before Ogrish & Rotten.com,
SPK was shooting videos featuring pickled punks and the severed heads, hands and genitals of real human corpses inside a morgue being moved around, puppet-style, in a rude sexual congress, with a soundtrack consisting of thuds, screams and washes of pink noise. I’d like to show you that video. Perhaps some other time… when I can actually watch you squirm.
SPK - “Mekano” (2:12)
SPK - “Slogun” (6:08)
Rick at 10:17 pm
7 Comments
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you, SPK and Leslie’s basement will always be closely linked in my addled brain. and are you now a really, really alienated old man?
Comment by wi11iam13 November 22, 2005 @ 10:46 am
Yay! (Now I’m finally getting the chance to raid the Rick kollection–long distance!)
Comment by Ivan Lerner November 22, 2005 @ 6:08 pm
If you’re all interested at all, go check out lustmord.com - Lustmord was a member of the SPK collective for quite awhile. He put out a couple of records with the Melvins that are pretty cool. I believe he lives in Los Angeles now - at least that’s what it says on his My Space page.
Comment by Dean Rispler November 24, 2005 @ 5:41 am
Muy chido! Fun stuff!
Comment by Robert November 30, 2005 @ 3:59 pm
Metal Dance is and always will be my favorite SPK dance single. I was in Amsterdam once and saw SPK posters for a show. I went down thinking to myself, surely this cannot be the “real” SPK. I saw the show and left more confused than ever. Midi gadgetry, an asian woman, a man in a surgical costume. Im really not sure what I saw that night… but it looked fairly silly. Rick maybe you can answer this, what was I seeing? I thought damn, even SPK sold out to new wave!
Comment by The "original" Jack Hannon December 10, 2005 @ 7:31 pm
From the creator of “This Ugly Site” :
Your info is not correct :
SPK - “Mekano” (a.k.a. “Factory”; 2:12)
SPK - “Slogun” (a.k.a. “Germanik”; 6:08)
Comment by SPK gatekeeper April 14, 2006 @ 11:57 am
Gatekeeper:
So noted. Thanks.
Comment by Rick April 15, 2006 @ 11:40 am