Legendary industrial music pioneers SPK, led by New Zealander Graeme Revell, return under their latest pseudonym The SPKtR, with the provocative new single and video, ‘The Last of Men’
‘The Last of Men’ is the new single and video from The SPKtR: the next evolution of legendary industrial music pioneers SPK, whose legacy dates from 1978. A fierce new collaboration between Graeme Revell and Robert J. Revell, The SPKtR forges a modern incarnation of the original project’s radical spirit, sonic extremity, and cultural provocation: repositioned within the present context of humanity’s complex relationship with AI technologies. The first new release in nearly forty years since SPK‘s final tour in 1987, ‘The Last of Men’ comes ahead of The SPKtR‘s live debut at Wave Gotik Treffen in May 2026, and serves as a bold, clearly articulated manifesto from the project on their arrival in this strange new world.
Responding to the controversy surrounding the use of generative AI in art and music, SPK‘s founder and sole mainstay, Graeme Revell states:
“SPK has always worked at the fault lines of new technology — from scrap metal and samplers to AI. The outrage is never the point; the diagnosis is. Industrial culture taught us that humanity has always been hybrid — we are already technological organisms. The sampler didn’t kill music. The drum machine didn’t erase drummers. They changed the terrain.”
“AI is simply the contemporary coal face. It isn’t a shortcut or a replacement for artists. It’s an instrument — one that exposes how patriarchy, power and spectacle are already algorithmic. The real danger isn’t AI in art, but the invisible accumulation of power and money shaping an opaque technology. Perception and desire without scrutiny. By foregrounding it, we reveal the machinery. If ‘The Last of Men’ provokes discomfort, that’s consistent with SPK’s history. We don’t avoid the technological fire — we step into it and see what it exposes. AI is not the enemy of art. Unexamined power is.”
With the addition of his son Robert, The SPKtR brings a new generational intensity — fusing SPK‘s confrontational DNA with cutting-edge technologies, modern production techniques, and immersive audiovisual experimentation. The result is a future-facing hybrid of ritual electronics, guitars, cinematic brutality, and uncompromising experimentation.
‘The Last of Men’ by The SPKtR is out now from Bandcamp and selected streaming platforms. The SPKtR appear live at Wave Gotik Treffen, Leipzig, Germany on 25 May 2026.