Testure

Three primary versions of "Testure" exist, two of which appear on the single. The album version of "Testure" is a five-minute track with smooth electronics, fretless bass, and a profusion of samples from Martin Rosen's 1982 film The Plague Dogs.{{cite web|last1=Cigéhn |first1=Peter |title=The Top Sampling Groups List: Skinny Puppy |url=http://www.sloth.org/samples-bin/samples/group?entry=Skinny+Puppy |website=Internet Archive: Wayback Machine |accessdate=19 July 2016 |url-status=unfit |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20041030150321/http://www.sloth.org/samples-bin/samples/group?entry=Skinny+Puppy |archivedate=October 30, 2004 }} Its lyrics contain both the title of its host album, VIVIsectVI (1988), and the album's main themes: animal rights and testing.{{cite web|last1=Wolanski|first1=Coreen|title=Skinny Puppy: Every Dog Has Its Day|url=https://exclaim.ca/music/article/skinny_puppy-every_dog_has_its_day|work=Exclaim!|accessdate=May 11, 2018}}{{cite web|title=Skinny Puppy Biography|url=https://www.sputnikmusic.com/bands/Skinny-Puppy/2633/|publisher=Sputnikmusic|accessdate=May 11, 2018}} See Magazine considered "Testure" to be VIVIsectVI's "centerpiece".{{Cite web|url=http://www.seemagazine.com/Issues/2005/0811/mus7.htm|title=Infectious Bite|accessdate=May 11, 2018|work=See Magazine|date=August 11, 2005|author=See Staff|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070223033702/http://www.seemagazine.com/Issues/2005/0811/mus7.htm|archivedate=2007-02-23}}

"Testure (S.F. Mix)" shortens the song to four minutes and introduces a greater emphasis on samples from The Plague Dogs. The fretless bass, played by Dale Plevin, is also featured more prominently than on the album version. This mix went on to appear on the band's 1999 compilation album, The Singles Collect, and was used in the song's music video. "Testure (12" Mix)" acts as an extended version of the song, clocking in at eight and a half minutes. This version, remixed and re-edited by Skinny Puppy's own cEvin Key and Dave Ogilvie, also begins with a protracted series of samples from The Plague Dogs. The song's main synthesizer riff does not begin until nearly two minutes in, and Nivek Ogre's vocals are not introduced until the three minute mark. This extended mix appeared on 1990's Twelve Inch Anthology compilation.

"Testure's" title is most likely a play on the words "test" and "torture" intended to equate live animal experimentation to torture.

Prompted by airplay and club attention,{{cite interview |last1=Key |first1=cEvin |subject-link1=cEvin Key|last2=Goettel|first2=Dwayne|subject-link2=Dwayne Goettel|interviewer= |title=City Limits Interviews Skinny Puppy |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Y8NT5uONEc |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181110052730/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Y8NT5uONEc |archive-date=2018-11-10 |url-status=dead|publisher=MuchMusic|location=Toronto |date= |work=City Limits |access-date=May 13, 2018}} "Testure" was released as a single in 1989, a year after the release of VIVIsectVI.{{cite book|last=Kern|first=Jay|title=Skinny Puppy – Synthesis|date=January 2014|publisher=Mythos Press|pages=83, 239}} It charted at place nineteen and spent five weeks on Billboards's Dance Club Songs,{{cite magazine|title=Hot Dance Music|magazine=Billboard|date=March 25, 1989|volume=101|issue=12|pages=30|url=http://www.americanradiohistory.com/hd2/IDX-Business/Music/Archive-Billboard-IDX/IDX/80s/1989/BB-1989-03-25-OCR-Page-0028.pdf#search=%22skinny%20puppy%22|accessdate=19 May 2016}}{{cite magazine|title=Skinny Puppy Chart History – Dance Club Songs|url=https://www.billboard.com/artist/skinny-puppy/chart-history/dsi/|magazine=Billboard|accessdate=May 11, 2018}} making it Skinny Puppy's most successful single. Two variations of the release's track listing exist: one with the song "The Second Opinion", and one with "Cage". All versions feature the S.F. and extended mixes of "Testure", and all versions feature "Serpents", a B-side unique to this single.{{cite web|title=Brap...The Skinny Puppy Discography|url=http://www.prongs.org/brap/SP.html|work=Prongs|accessdate=May 11, 2018}}

{{Listen|filename=Serpents_(1989)_clip.ogg|title="Serpents"|description="Serpents" showcases Skinny Puppy's percussive experimentation.}}

"The Second Opinion", which also appeared appended to the end of VIVIsectVI's CD release,{{Cite AV media notes |title=VIVIsectVI |type=CD liner notes |others=Skinny Puppy |year=1988 |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/vivisectvi-mw0000202094/credits |access-date=May 10, 2018 |publisher=Nettwerk |id=NET 021 CD}} includes the line "that machine has got to be destroyed" from Stuart Gordon's 1986 adaptation of H. P. Lovecraft's From Beyond. The song itself is built around a repeating drum machine loop interspersed with modulated and distorted vocal samples. "The Second Opinion" began as a live jam titled "Snub" and was later refined and mixed in studio.{{cite web|last1=Key|first1=cEvin|author-link=cEvin Key|title=Topic: ViViSectVi last 5 tracks|url=http://litany.prongs.org/index.php?topic=5664.msg328807#msg328807|publisher=Litany.net|accessdate=May 17, 2018}} "Cage", which originally appeared on Skinny Puppy's 1987 single "Chainsaw", concludes with the line "It's just a little blood... it'll wash out" from William Lustig's 1980 horror film, Maniac. "Serpents" is percussion-focused song that blends programmed industrial beats with tribal drums.

The single's artwork was designed by Steven R. Gilmore, and the back features a large syringe provided by his friend from the University of British Columbia, who also supplied the X-ray images used on VIVIsectVI's artwork.{{cite podcast |url=http://www.idieyoudie.com/2016/03/we-have-a-technical-94-cocktails-with-cockroaches/ |title=We Have a Technical Interviews Steven R. Gilmore |work=I Die: You Die |host=Alex and Bruce |date=March 10, 2016 |time=30:29 |access-date=May 13, 2018 }}

"Testure's" music video, directed by Ogre and produced by Gary Blair Smith, begins with a definition of the word vivisection. What follows is the story of a dog-abusing man who, in turn, becomes a test subject operated on and caged by surgeons.{{cite journal |last=Carey |first=Jean |title='Park' Outing Is No Picnic |journal=Tampa Bay Times |date=November 9, 1990 |page=99}} Interspersed with the narrative sections are shots of actual animal testing footage from the 1981 documentary The Animals Film and the 1984 PETA film Unnecessary Fuss. According to Ogre and Key, the video was pulled from airplay following an internal poll by Citytv, an associate of Canada's MuchMusic.{{cite news|last1=Gilmore|first1=Steven R.|author-link=Steven R. Gilmore|title=The Peril's of Puppy|url=http://litany.net/interviews/ipso89.htm|work=Ipso Facto Magazine|issue=7|date=1989}} The poll came out nearly split, but, regardless, the video was ultimately banned by "the powers that be". The video, despite depicting vivisection in "vivid detail", was broadcast on Horizon, the Soviet Union's primary satellite channel, as a critique on materialism.

{{tracklist

| all_writing =

| headline = 12-inch and CD release

| title1 = Testure

| note1 = 12" mix

| length1 = 8:34

| title2 = Testure

| note2 = S.F. mix

| length2 = 4:04

| title3 = The Second Opinion

| length3 = 5:00

| title4 = Serpents

| length4 = 5:55

| total_length = 23:35

}}

{{tracklist

| all_writing =

| headline = Mini CD release

| total_length = 20:51

| title1 = Testure

| note1 = S.F. mix

| length1 = 4:03

| title2 = Testure

| note2 = 12" mix

| length2 = 8:32

| title3 = Serpents

| length3 = 5:58

| title4 = Cage

| length4 = 2:18

}}

All credits adapted from liner notes{{Cite AV media notes |title="Testure" |type=CD liner notes |others=Skinny Puppy |year=1989 |publisher=Capitol Records |id=V-15439}}

Skinny Puppy

• Nivek Ogre – vocals
• cEvin Key – synthesizers, programming, engineering
• Dwayne Goettel – synthesizers, programming, engineering
• Dave Ogilvie – production, editing

Additional personnel

• Dale Plevin – fretless bass (tracks 1 and 2)
• Sir Arthur – editing (track 1)
• Steven R. Gilmore – artwork

{{Reflist}}

• [https://www.discogs.com/Skinny-Puppy-Testure/master/3844 "Testure"] at Discogs (list of releases)
• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLm9mhh7gvg "Testure"] official music video

{{Skinny Puppy}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:1989 singles

Category:Animal testing

Category:Skinny Puppy songs

Category:Nettwerk Records singles

Category:Capitol Records singles

Category:EMI Records singles

Category:1989 songs

Category:Songs written by cEvin Key

Category:Songs written by Nivek Ogre

Category:Songs written by Dwayne Goettel

Category:Songs written by Dave Ogilvie

Category:Songs about animal rights