Litany: Music News Covering Skinny Puppy, Download, ohGr and Related Projects

You may have heard mention of a new multimedia undertaking of William Morrison, longtime provider of visual stimulation for Puppy projects and guitarist on the GWOTR tour, called the American Memory Project. He and fellow live Puppy Justin Bennett will be spending the next few months collaborating on the film and soundtrack. Here is what they have to say about it:::

"it is useful to remember that history is to the nation as memory is to the individual. As persons deprived of memory become disoriented and lost, not knowing where they have been and where they are going, so a nation denied a conception of the past will be disabled in dealing with its present and its future" - Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.

The American Memory Project is a broadcast from the future. A digital archive of a long dead country unearthed in a distant era and broadcast back to our time. A short wave transmission bounced off the fabric of eros, washed up on the shores of the twenty first century. It is both abstract melancholy verse and a dire warning. A container filled with ghosts speaking stories so far removed from their origins that they defy context. Or perhaps, invite it anew. Memory is fleeting. Short term, long term. A collection of neurons, traveling at light speed, rendered in matter, always fading. Nostalgia is such a beautiful curse. We are animating ghosts...

The Project will soon manifest in it's initial form of film and music with a DVD release... as well as a series of live presentations, the first of which will be performed and screened on the upcoming 2008 Ohgr tour.

Until then, here's a clue. Litany readers will especially want to keep their ears open for this project's soundtrack.

What with the news of the beginning of the early stages of a new Puppy record, I thought it was time to take a look at some of the other musical treats happening while we wait.

Firstly, Phil Western has launched a brand new website at philwestern.net. He's also got a flurry of things going on, including some upcoming live dates and a brand new album from his project Kone (known to owners of Paradigm Shift and Rare) that is now ready for pre-order.

Also of major interest to Litany folks is the news that Phil and fellow Download member Mark Spybey have completed a new album together under the familiar name Beehatch. The album is set for release on April 29th via Lens Records. Read and hear more at their myspace.

Contributors to recent Puppy LPs Otto Von Schirach and Cyrus Rex are embarking on a short tour together. Check out these dates:::

Feb 8th - Los Angeles, California - Das Bunker
Feb 9th - Denver, Colorado - Benders Tavern
Feb 15th - Austin, Texas - Elysium
Feb 16th - Phoenix, Arizona - Sadisco

Skinny Puppy's magnificent live drummer, Justin Bennett's project Ket Vector will be releasing the album The Infinite Regress on Rustblade Records on Feb 15th. Take a listen on myspace.

Finally, Omar Torres, who most recently contributed to PlatEAU's Kushbush, has just mastered and contributed a remix to the debut album of The Secret Life out on Nophi Recordings.

Always good to start out a new year with some good news, eh? Here's some straight from cEvin Key himself:::

Yes, as far as Skinny Puppy #3 goes, I have started work on that in addition to our work with Scaremeister.

I spent about 2 months changing up my studio and incorporating plans for the new SP recordings. For me that means taking the typical gear away and putting different gear there to see what happens. Thanks to Moog for stepping in and some killer new custom CYLON designs by Russell Nash. Incorporating these with the old school modulars and machines has been quite exciting. We also have a team happening with Otto Von Schirach and K Hiwatt Marshall and friends that is exciting to say the least.

So Puppy's 3rd LP for SPV is underway. Now we play the waiting game.