Skin / Skunk Anansie, |
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A first album (Paranoid and Sunburnt, 1995) of ROCK with capital letters (“I Can Dream”) which includes flirtings with punk (“Little Baby Swastikka”), to the hard-rock (“Here I Stand”), including a couple of songs which would become their trademark: songs which start slowly, nearly as ballads, and grow in crescendo till they reach a powerful ending (“Charity”, “Weak”).
Skin’s awesome voice can’t be separated from the powerful rhythm section (bass and drums are unbeatable) and with Ace’s guitars (absolutely crucial for their sound), which sometimes remind us of Led Zeppelin and other times to Tom Morello’s (more to the Audioslave period than to Rage Against the Machine).
Their second work (Stoosh, 1996) follows the same line: openly political songs (“Yeah, It’s Fucking Political!”, ”Picking On Me”), exploring in depth those songs in crescendo (“Infidelity”, “Hedonism”, “Brazen”) adding string arrangements but, without losing that Rock essence (“Everyday Hurts”).
If you want a proof of how well this band works either plugged or in acoustic, take a look at the next two videos. In the first one you will find a remarkable vocal performance of Skin; in the second, you will see how good she feels in her “job” as frontwoman.
Skin’s awesome voice can’t be separated from the powerful rhythm section (bass and drums are unbeatable) and with Ace’s guitars (absolutely crucial for their sound), which sometimes remind us of Led Zeppelin and other times to Tom Morello’s (more to the Audioslave period than to Rage Against the Machine).
Their second work (Stoosh, 1996) follows the same line: openly political songs (“Yeah, It’s Fucking Political!”, ”Picking On Me”), exploring in depth those songs in crescendo (“Infidelity”, “Hedonism”, “Brazen”) adding string arrangements but, without losing that Rock essence (“Everyday Hurts”).
If you want a proof of how well this band works either plugged or in acoustic, take a look at the next two videos. In the first one you will find a remarkable vocal performance of Skin; in the second, you will see how good she feels in her “job” as frontwoman.
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Finally, in 1999, they launched probably their most solid work: “Post Orgasmic Chill”. A striking beginning (perhaps trying to get away from being categorized as a “slow rock” band) with three rock smashes (“Charlie Big Potato” “On My Hotel TV” and “We Don’t Need Who You Think You Are”). This last is one of my all-time favourites: if you don’t end up screaming the lyrics… you are not alive!)
This song is the sum of all their characteristics: charming bass, powerful drums, even more powerful and captivating guitars… and a wise alternation between the sweet and the hard. Sublime. This is one of the best live performances ever included up to now in ruidosyzumbidos (you can check it out).
Luckily, that was not the only great song in the album, with others alternating the powerful (“Skank Heads (Get Off Me)”) with the melodic (“Secretly”, “You’ll Follow Me Down”, “Good Things Don’t Always Come to You”) in a consistent album, without setbacks. A record you enjoy listening to once and again. An indispensable record
This song is the sum of all their characteristics: charming bass, powerful drums, even more powerful and captivating guitars… and a wise alternation between the sweet and the hard. Sublime. This is one of the best live performances ever included up to now in ruidosyzumbidos (you can check it out).
Luckily, that was not the only great song in the album, with others alternating the powerful (“Skank Heads (Get Off Me)”) with the melodic (“Secretly”, “You’ll Follow Me Down”, “Good Things Don’t Always Come to You”) in a consistent album, without setbacks. A record you enjoy listening to once and again. An indispensable record
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2001 came and -for reasons never explained- Skunk Anansie disbanded. Skin started her solo career which kept several of the features which were essential to the band: the shift between power and sensibility, this time with an electronic atmosphere twist in some of the songs.
In this short period, Skin published two records (Fleshwounds, 2003 and Fake Chemical State, 2006), she embarked on a couple of tours supporting other artists and several collaborations and films. Among others, she left us this superb track: “Faithfullness”, and this hypnotizing song for the French film L’Empire Des Loups, “Kill Everything”.
In this short period, Skin published two records (Fleshwounds, 2003 and Fake Chemical State, 2006), she embarked on a couple of tours supporting other artists and several collaborations and films. Among others, she left us this superb track: “Faithfullness”, and this hypnotizing song for the French film L’Empire Des Loups, “Kill Everything”.
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| There's no point in being careful I'll burn bridges anyway “If I look you in the eye, I swear I'll die 'Cos you kill everything you love |
Once Deborah’s solo adventure (Skin’s real name) was finished, the group reformed in 2009 and since then they have published some new albums (including an acoustic where, besides letting their “melodic” side out, they also gave their hardest songs a twist with this new format, as you could have watched in some of the previous videos).
Wonderlustre (2010), Black Traffic (2013) and Anarchitecture (2016), all of them follow the path of their first albums although their musical spectre has widened to include electronic and atmospheric sounds. For example, “Death to the Lovers”, their last single to date, could have well been a song by Annie Lennox or by Suede…
Wonderlustre (2010), Black Traffic (2013) and Anarchitecture (2016), all of them follow the path of their first albums although their musical spectre has widened to include electronic and atmospheric sounds. For example, “Death to the Lovers”, their last single to date, could have well been a song by Annie Lennox or by Suede…
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Skin’s / Skunk Anansie’s songs have the virtue that you can’t take them out of your head, you can’t listen to them only once, you end up thinking “How can you love a song so much?”
Take this one as the perfect example: a rare track from the original soundtrack of Time Code: “Comfort of Strangers”
Take this one as the perfect example: a rare track from the original soundtrack of Time Code: “Comfort of Strangers”
Because we will never have enough Skin…
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PS.: One of the most particular characteristics of Skunk Anansie is that they always were reluctant to do covers. However, they have always liked to collaborate with other artist. In their curriculum, you can find duets with Lenny Kravitz, Pavarotti (I will save you a click: it is a disappointing version of “You’ll Follow Me Down”), Tricky and even unknown Italian artists… I couldn’t finish without mentioning this duet / cover with Bjork performing “Army of Me” because it is one of the punkiest things we have put in ruidosyzumbidos… Check it out!
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PS.: One of the most particular characteristics of Skunk Anansie is that they always were reluctant to do covers. However, they have always liked to collaborate with other artist. In their curriculum, you can find duets with Lenny Kravitz, Pavarotti (I will save you a click: it is a disappointing version of “You’ll Follow Me Down”), Tricky and even unknown Italian artists… I couldn’t finish without mentioning this duet / cover with Bjork performing “Army of Me” because it is one of the punkiest things we have put in ruidosyzumbidos… Check it out!
Ps2.: Here you have our YOUTUBE PLAYLIST with all the tracks included in this post plus some more (It has been damn hard to do the selection this time, so we decided to include some more in the playlist)
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQ584BgeR_mH3Voyj4GkzE2Txww_i07fS
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQ584BgeR_mH3Voyj4GkzE2Txww_i07fS
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