ohGr
Album Title: Undeveloped
Record Label: Metropolis Records
Review by Kimberly E. McDaniel
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ohGr - Undeveloped
This new offering from ohGr, comprised of Nivek Ogre of Skinny Puppy and Mark Walk, is not only the product of 16 years of collaboration between the two musicians, but it is also an amazing odyssey through an industrial landscape. Undeveloped features 14 tracks filled with dance beats, weird vocal effects, and the occasional familiar sound in an unfamiliar setting. The album is, of course, very Skinny Puppy-like, but with enough differences as to tell the two apart. It would be impossible to listen to Ogre sing without conjuring images of Skinny Puppy, and in typical fashion, he twists and pounds his voice to fit the various molds of each song.
Ogre says that Undeveloped has a “soft theme of distorted sexuality” running through it, but he touches upon many subjects amid the album’s 14 tracks. “101” is a song designed to fill the dance floor, while asking, “Who do I have to fuck?” “Crash” was apparently written in reaction to the death of Michael Jackson and our country’s raging health care debate. Ogre claims that the rise and fall of Jackson is sort of an allegory of what lies in store for us “during this massive economic and social shift.”
Other standout tracks include “Typer,” which features haunting musical notes over the familiar clickety-clack of a typewriter while Ogre repeats “Stick to the mainstream.” Whether this is an urging or admonishment is for the listener to decode. “Screw Me” is another danceable number, with the lament, “Life is not what you expect.” “Collidoskope” invites you in with, “Welcome to the collidoskope, everything that fueled the hope has died.”
Essentially, if you are a fan of ohGr or Skinny Puppy, there is no reason you wouldn’t love unDeveloped. If you have never heard either band, then this would be the perfect introduction to the strange and wonderful world of industrial music. As Ogre says, “Now Undeveloped belongs to all those who will listen, interpret, embrace or denigrate.”