They say that good things come to those who wait, but I’d say that nearly forty years between releases is pushing things a bit. Okay, I’ll admit that is a bit unfair on my part, as The SPKtR is less the result of a planned breather and more a wholly new resurrection and rewriting of a new chapter of a cherished alternative and iconic outfit.
Graham Revell remains the sole constant of the band he founded, SPK, but now, joined by his son Robert, they have begun this new sonic adventure with “The Last of Men” as their calling card, both a bridge to that glorious past and a step forward in its own right. And what a first taste it is.
Just as SPK’s music embraced whatever new technology was available to them—from scrap metal and electronic drums to samplers—SPKtR similarly weilds AI to ensure its creative needs are met, and the result is out of this world.
Feeling like a missive from a non-human overlord, it is a tight mesh of electronic onslaughts and brutal beats, a meeting of man and machine, artifice and artistry, intensity and intellect. Oddly danceable, strangely welcoming and yet feeling disarmingly not of this world.
And if the title feels apocalyptic, this is not a celebration of the destruction of our species, but more heralding the demise of a certain type of human behaviour or an unhealthy collective attitude, one of importance, dominance, something apart from the planet. It’s a warning and a reminder that perhaps a new sense of humility and integration back into the only planet we have ever called home is the only way to ensure our continuation.
And, as messages go, “The Last of Men” and with it The SPKtR’s return to the sonic fray couldn’t have come at a more timely juncture.
