Organic Intelligence XLI: Toronto Goth

In our latest antidote to the algorithm, Jonathan Wright visits his younger self in 1980s Canada, when goth was on a rise as steep as his backcombed hair

Skinny Puppy – Smothered Hope 

(1984, Nettwerk)

Industrial goth. Yes, Skinny Puppy hailed from Vancouver, but the band passed through Toronto regularly from the middle of the 1980s onwards. During this era, Skinny Puppy’s shock and gore approach to live shows, which left anyone down the front spattered in the (mostly) fake blood that also covered frontman Nivek Ogre, was as goth as could be. It seems wholly appropriate that Alien Sex Fiend attended the band’s first gig, in 1984. Skinny Puppy started life as the side-project of cEvin Key, drummer in new wave act Images In Vogue, but quickly became his primary musical outlet at a time when an anything-might-happen aura surrounded both Key and Ogre. ‘Smothered Hope’ was initially the lead track on Skinny Puppy’s Remission EP, the band’s first vinyl release. With its electronica, pounding percussion and guttural vocals, it’s arguably as good a summation as any of the band’s early years. It’s also fabulous.