IR 001 Press release [1980]


Subject: Slogun / Mekano by SPK

Index Number : IR 0011 45rpm single
Side A: Mekano (Factory)
Side B: Slogun (Slogan)

Well, as promised, here we are again! Here is a single by Australian group S.P.K.

The cover and centre labels are somewhat confusing. On the cover, the A side is «MEKANO», but on the centre label it is called «FACTORY» and is numbered as the B side. Factory was its original title, then the words were changed. On the cover the B side is called «SLOGUN» but on the centre label the A side is called «SLOGAN». This is the B side. Probably. the group are called S.P.K. but for this single prefer to be known as Surgical Penis Klinik, for reasons best known to themselves. They have called the whole package «MEAT PROCESSING SECTION»! If you review it we suggest you tell people to ask for S.P.K.-Surgical Penis Klinik and give index number IR 0011 if the shop seems confused! Well, what can you expect from people from down under…

Background:- S.P.K. 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. S.P.K. was originally 4 people in Sydney, Australia. They released two singles on their own S.P.K. 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 S.P.K. 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! this perhaps explains the complex inconsistency of their packaging. Since this record was made the schizo-member has left the group. S.P.K. is now one person who is alive and cynical and living in Paris. The cover was designed by S.P.K. Most copies sold in shops will include the stick on front picture inside with the record.

A peely peeny to stick on or up yourself. Other copies will have the penis already attached in the frame on the front, like yours…

-Industrial music for industrial people-

A celebration of industrial musics in the 21st century [Mute]. 14&15/05/04. RE-TG: Throbbing Gristle, Coil, Scanner…

“En piezas como Descomposition, Alien Brain y, sobre todo, Prostitution, Cosey y Genesis sometieron al espectador a un brutal espectáculo de sexo y violencia que en más de una ocasión culminó en un disturbio en toda regla. […]. «Cosey y yo hicimos una performance donde me bebí una botella de whisky y me tumbé encima de una cama de clavos. Entonces me apliqué enemas de sangre, leche y orina hasta que no pude más y me cagué en el suelo. Inmediatamente lo limpié todo con la lengua… Cosey estaba desnuda, y se hizo un corte desde la vagina hasta el ombligo con una cuchilla de afeitar. A continuación, se inyectó sangre en la vagina, que empezó a desbordar. Sorbí la sangre y la escupí en una jeringuilla, que inyecté en unos huevos pintados de negro. Intentamos comérnoslos, pero vomitamos. El vómito sirvió para una nueva ración de enemas»”, recuerda Orridge.

Fuera arte o una fase anal mal superada, COUM Transmissions lograron ser tildados por la prensa de «aniquilidores de la Civilización» […]. Sacudir conciencias y forzar los límites: misión cumplida.

[…] nació Throbbing Gristle como brazo musical de COUM Transmissions.”

[Fragmento extraído de la página 144 de Loops, una historia de la música electrónica]