Severed Heads - Clean

Dark Entries

£30.30

Format: 12" Vinyl
Catalogue No.: DE265
Release Date: 22 Nov 2021
Genre: Electronix / Wave / Indie

01 FOOD CITY
02 ON OWN HOME
03 CHARIVARI
04 NIGHTSONG
05 CAR ADVERTISMENT
06 LOVE
07 DONT SAXOPHONE
08 BOOK
09 TINY FINGERS
10 HEAVILY TATOOED MEN + WOMEN
11 VIOLINS AND MOONLIGHT
12 STOMACH
13 YOU WILL
14 TURTLEDOVE
15 FLOWER
16 CLEAN LOOPS
17 FLOOPNESS
18 LADIES + GENTS DIGITAL
19 SOMEHOW PAIN
20 SUBJECTIVE
21 ALWAYS RANDY
22 UNBREAKABLE
23 TRAUMAT
24 OPERA
25 SIREN

Dark Entries' first release of 2020 is a deluxe 2xLP reissue of Severed Heads? debut 1981 album ?Clean?. One of the longest surviving bands to emerge from the Australian post-punk independent music scene, they began in Sydney in 1979. Severed Heads is basically a nom- de-plum for Tom Ellard, who incorporates elements of ?industrial? noise-generation, tape cutting & looping and electronic sound synthesis. As the project developed song-structures and vocals were employed in a more-or-less recognizable mutant electro pop style. ?Clean? was amongst the first vinyl releases under the Dogfood Productions banner of Terse Tapes, previously a cassette-only label. For this records Tom used an array of synthesizers (Kawai 100F, Casiotone, Roland CR78+SH1+CSQ100), sequencers, tapes and occasional guitar and violin played by Garry Bradbury. Severed Heads have a language of their own, music that juxtaposes all sorts of noise, in all sorts of ways so that a structure evolves, (fragmented) melody and rhythm being almost a by-product. As one reviewer said in 1981, ?It is an ugly album that you simply cannot ignore, it thuds and screeches and makes you stare just to wonder what kind of people would procure such an album.? For this deluxe reissue we?ve included a bonus disc featuring 13 songs, 5 of which have never been released before, culled from live performances, the ?Side 3? cassette and a ?Clean? demo tape that only surfaced last year, plus ''Food City'' missing from previous reissues. All songs have been remastered by Tom Ellard, with vinyl EQ and lacquer cutting by George Horn at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley. Each copy is housed in a gatefold jacket featuring black and white xeroxed artwork from the first vinyl edition. Inside the gatefold are liner notes by Tom Ellard plus photos and press clippings from the period. '?Clean? is original and powerful and everybody should listen to it at least once, just so they know where the boundaries lie.' Ashley Crawford, Virgin Press 1981. 25% of proceeds will be donated to the Australian Fire Relief Fund for First Nations Communities, that offers specific direct support to some of those communities with critical costs to cover expenses.