SKINNY PUPPY co-founder Kevin Crompton, better known by his stage name cEvin Key, has shared a brand new track in tandem with the announcement of his upcoming album, “bRap And fOrth Vol. 9” — a continuation of the famous “Back And Forth” series through Artoffact Records.
With this news coming not long after the announcement of his North American fall tour with SKINNY PUPPY and his work creating the score for “Silent Hill: Ascension”, it’s safe to say that Key is not taking the slow road through 2023.
The forthcoming album serves as the follow-up to 2018’s “bRap And fOrth Vol. 8”, which gave us a dozen restored and remastered tracks out of Key‘s personal archive and hit No. 1 on Bandcamp almost immediately after being released. “Vol. 9” sets out to give fans a further look into what the mastermind who co-founded a band that changed music forever was making before taking over the world.
Commenting fondly on the upcoming album, Key says: “‘bRap And fOrth 9’ is a collection of some of my earliest recordings recently discovered on four-track tapes. Most are from 1985 from the infamous ‘Bites’ apartment, a couple more from later but still made on a four-track. Something about the collection of gear and this vibrant time made for a lot of writing. Enjoy the time capsule <3.”
In the early days of SKINNY PUPPY, when the band was still just an idea brewing, Key spent much of his time in his apartment, recording demos and experimenting with electronic equipment. Some of these recordings went on to be the basis for early SKINNY PUPPY releases like “Back And Forth”, “Bites” and “Remission”, and Artoffact Records is making sure that these demos get their time in the sun through the “Back And Forth” series.
While Key is most widely known as a co-founder of SKINNY PUPPY, the songwriter, producer, and composer is renowned worldwide for his contributions to industrial music through his solo work as well as his hand in countless other projects. With a career spanning nearly 40 years and dozens of releases, Key‘s reputation is ever-growing, but will always remain as one of the leaders who helped to shape the industrial genre — a genre which he continues to elevate and innovate to this day.