SPK

Example Album: Leichenschrei

Location: Australia

Years Active: 1978-1988

Style: Metal percussion, industrial noise

    SPK were an industrial band formed in 1978 in Sydney. Early on, they had a weird mixture of 70's punk rock with early industrial and synths. Tackling themes of mental illness, socialism, and capitalism, they used different kinds of electronics, power tools, and scrap metals to create percussion and industrial noise. The best example of this style can be heard on the album Leichenschrei, which actually has a pretty diverse sound, with genuinely unsettling and horrific soundscapes. 

   Their later work saw them going into a more synth pop direction, notably the album Machine Age Voodoo, which many fans see as a low-point for the band. However, there are actually some very good examples of scrap metal percussion in this era, as well as other industrial noises, mixed seamlessly with 80's synth pop, which nets a pretty unique sound.