Former Skinny Puppy frontman Ogre has been keeping busy. Besides creating electronic soundscapes for his own enjoyment at home, he's teaming up with Martin Atkins for a project dubbed Ritalin. "It's sort of like a postcard," says the singer. "I told Martin we should try to sound as little like ourselves as possible, just rhythm and voice." Ogre mentioned that the concept would be similiar to the Pigface track "Insemination" from the album Fook.

WELT, Ogre's long-running project with Mark Walk (Ruby), had an album completed for American Recordings that was shelved after the label's absorbtion into Warner Bros. "It's been a fuckin' nightmare," Ogre says of his travails in the music business. "I came to the point where I wondered if (music) was worth doing. You question everything. There are certain elements of my persona then which I don't want to project now, because thay're being exploited by people like Marilyn Manson. So if I come out and do something similiar to the past, is everybody going to think I'm a Manson clone? I'm just being patient and letting things run their course." Now released from the American contract, Ogre and Walk will be recording this summer, as well as fielding offers from record labels. Fans will also be able to hear Ogre on upcoming records by KMFDM and Pigface.

In other post-Puppy news, Mark Spybey has amicably split with cEVIN Key in Download to concentrate on Dead Voices On Air as well as related projects such as the Lab, a forum for live improvisations on the Internet. The new Download line-up feturing Key, Phil Western (Filth) and Anthony Valcic, will have it's new album released on Nettwerk later this year.