Skinny Puppy CDs: Back And Forth Series 2 (81 or 92, depending on how you look at it), Bites (85), Remission (86), Mind: The Perpetual Intercourse (86), Cleanse, Fold and Manipulate (87), ViViSect VI (88), Rabies (89), Too Dark Park (90), Ain't It Dead Yet (Live, 91), Last Rights (91) Singles: Dig It, Chainsaw, Addiction, Censor, Testure, Tin Omen, Worlock, Tormentor, Spasmolytic, Inquisition Arguably the kings of industrial dance music, Skinny Puppy (cEVIN Key, Dwayne Rudolph Goettel, and Nivek Ogre) are definitely sonic innovators. What does that have to do with ambient music?, I hear you all ask. Well, throughout their lengthy career they have written many very nice ambient pieces, some on their own, some in their many side projects (see the entries on hilt, Doubting Thomas, and Tear Garden, for example). Their best ambient work isn't afraid to be pretty, and tends to leave out the obnoxious samples that mar much of Skinny Puppy's best work. Why do these dance industrial bands feel compelled to toss in all those samples, anyway, except to give people on r.m.i something to do? ;) Also, while I like Nivek's vocals, their absence often gives songs a much smoother flow. While most of their ambient pieces are dark and gloomy, some of them are also quite beautiful, like "Love" (off _Mind:TPI_). Perhaps the most mind-blowing of their ambient pieces is "Download," which is a gargantuan collage of weird noises and darkness (off _Last Rights_). Many of the songs on Bites and Remission would also not be out of place on a compilation of ambience (particularly the instrumental version of "Center Bullet", which the Tear Garden later re-recorded). Dwayne Goettel has gone on to some excursions into breakbeat, under the name "A Duck," and opinion is mixed on his success as a techno artist. He is said (by some nameless, shameless name-dropper ;) to be a big Aphex Twin fan. The indicators are that more directly techno-related work is going to be coming from these folks soon.