SIDE EFFECTS INFORMATION : 1983

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SPK INFORMATION 1983...

PERSONNEL :

Graeme : Concept, elektroniks, metal perkussion, tapes, vokals, machinery.
Sinan : vokals, ethnik instruments, perkussion.
Derek : bass, guitar, perkussion.

DISKOGRAPHY :

Mekano, Slogun - single - Industrial Recds. (rerelease of original Side f)
Information Overload Unit LP
Leichenschrei LP 1982 (rereleased UK 1983)
Live at the Crypt London 1981 - Sterile Recds, 90 Lilford Rd London 8ES
Last Attempt at PAradise (cassette) - Fresh Sounds Box 36 Lawrence Kansas 66044 USA.
From Science to Ritual - (cassette) and text - Viva / Via Gramsci 53 00197 Rome Italy.
Auto - Da - Fé LP 1983 compilation of unreleased singles from 1979 and 1982...
Dekompositiones - eP 1983.

(all above releases available through Rough Trade distribution. failing this through Side Effekts 1 Ibberton House Meadow Rd. London SW8 1PS.)
*** UNLESS ALTERNATIVE ADDRESS GIVEN ***

HISTORY :

Formed in Sydney Australia 1978. SPK were the first post-punk Australian group, using rhythm machines, tapes, and synthesisers to create perhaps the most aggressive sounds of the time. Musically their influences were the Germans : Kraftwerk, Can, Neu!, Faust, and the less known American individualist : Harry Partch who constructed all his own instruments out of found objects. Inspiration came also from the J.G. Ballard novels Crash and The Atrocity Exhibition.
1979 was spent in Paris researching the theories of Deleuze and Guattari concerning the creative aspects of schizophrenics and the post-industrial philosophy of Jean Baudrillard.
Moving to London in 1980, SPK agreed to the request of Industrial Records to rerelease on eof their earlier singles Mekano/Slogun. Slogun was a homage to the original SPK (Sozialistisches Patienten Kollektiv) - the Heidelberg mental patients who coined the slogans

a vigorous attempt to break out from their hospitalisation.
The first album was released on Side Effekts Rekords in 1981 and immediately became the classic of the post-industrial noise genre, though with a strong underlying rhythm.
Returning to Australia in 1981 to work on their second album in more favourable circumstances, they passed through the USA performing in San Francisco. Sydney witnessed one of the most interesting performances in its history at an abandoned Brickworks where SPK played outdoors in a beautiful scene of industrial wreckage while projecting their collection of visuals onto 200ft chimneys.
An 11 date tour of the USA was organised by the group for 1982, with the concurent release of the first metal percussion album in May 1982, climaxing an idea SPK had been using since its formation (the first single No More, having a pneumatik drill as its solo instrument.)
The album Leichenschrei was first released on the Californian label Thermidor and has recently been reissued in the UK on Side Effekts.
A tour of Germany and Italy followed in late 1982, and after many lineup changes SPK is for the moment resident in the UK planning several more performances and the release of a single in August and an album later n the year.
Already SPK has shown themselves to be one of the few truly interesting bands in the world and their ability to emerge with a wide variety of musical styles will surely continue. Already they are beginning to move beyond the metal perkussion idea they pioneered and which now has many imitators. The forthcoming projekts are certain to surprise and shock the unwary and unthinking. We hope that your interest continues ...