Search - cEvin Key, Ken Marshall :: The Dragon Experience

If you like old Skinny Puppy and you like drugs...

Irony Value | BAYOU | 07/19/2003

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I am a longtime Skinny Puppy fan ("Mind: The Perpetual Intercourse" was current when I first heard them --I bought it on vinyl-- and their first few efforts are the ones I still listen to the most), and usually willing to give anything Cevin Key does a try, so when reasonably favorable reviews of this album appeared, I picked it up. I was surprised, upon opening it, to learn that it was not new material, but remixes/remasters of mostly unreleased 4-tracks from the "Bites"/"Remission" era. What's even crazier is that this is, according to the liner notes, the eighth in a series of such explorations of the dumpster behind Cevin's house. Frankly, I don't know whether or not I would have bought the disc if I'd known that. I'm glad I did, though. Maybe I should check out the stuff too good to be relegated to this comparative latecomer to the series! It's basically 20-year-old Skinny Puppy sounds --grating percussion (though that's by no means omnipresent here), tapeloop samples of found dialogue and various freaky-[weird]noises (this is the second album I've bought this week with the sound of a knife being sharpened featured prominently on one track... weird), and big, fat, ominous analogue chords that seem to last forever coupled with chugga-chugga sequencer-- remixed, embellished, and, I assume, cleaned up by Ken "Hiwatt" Marshall, that longtime Puppy sound guy/producer/session guy/collaborator. It both is and is not new material, and I have to say that, perhaps predictably, I like the bits that favor the older sounds best.Like previous "trips to the dumpster" amongst the Skinny Puppy discography (anything with the word `BRAP' in the title), it's nowhere near as good as the stuff from its era that initially made it onto vinyl, but it's a decent album (particularly if you like old Skinny Puppy),..."

The best album since Doubting Thomas

EerieVonEvil | The Rabbit Hole | 06/25/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"
I've been listening to Skinny Puppy longer than I could say and have heard most of the side projects of ogre, Key, and Goettel. Doubting Thomas was the best, with its quiet melodicness and dark, surreal soundscapes and samples. If you liked that then Get the Dragon Experience. Like the others said, this is for fans of the band during the Bites, Mind, and Remission era.If you like Download then get Music For Cats and Ghost of Each Room, b/c those albums are pretty dissonant and I dont recommend them to Skinny Puppy fans). Stick with this album. Killer electro from early genre extraordinares!"

Painting a picture

EerieVonEvil | 07/08/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"First of all, if your a fan of Cevin Key's Download this definatly worth picking up. Its a lot like a score to some obscure visions. Its less sound heavy than Download, but more into landscape painting with ambient beats. Messages try to reveal themselves in various beats. Its not too dark and more along the beats of Effector. Just a comparison to set the mood because it is definatly its own creature. Overall, solid soundscape work."