Skinny Puppy

hanDover (SPV)
By Mike Delano

Industrial veterans Skinny Puppy deliver exactly the kind of weird, wonderful sounds one would expect on hanDover, their 14th album. It’s all over the map, and all the better for it, with fresh and leftfield ideas springing up with every song, although it never feels like a hodge-podge. It’s all connected by the duo’s meticulous polish and controlled sense of adventure: You’re in the hands of professionals here, and if it sounds like the philosophy of this album is “anything goes,” it’s because they want you to get lost in this fun house they’ve created. The breadth of styles and moods on display in hanDover would be chaos in the hands of a lesser talent, but they’ve always got
one hand on the leash of your studded collar, leading you from the Kraftwerk meets hip-hop meets malfunctioning Decepticon mash-up of “Ovirt” to the electro-dance nightmare of “Cullorblind” to the beauty and the beast contrast of “Wavy” and “Icktums.”
(www.spv.de)