« back

severed heads - clifford darling don't live in the past - dark entries - vinyl

New Copy

Genre: Wave / Pop / Rock

1. Advertisement
2. Prototype Pop
3. Exiles Excerpt
4. A Day In The Country
5. Elephant Decibels
6. Power Circles
7. Alaskan Polar Bear Heater
8. Umbrella
9. J Edgar Hoover
10. Blame
11. Meanwhile, Back At Exiles...
12. Dance
13. Saturday Night
14. Man Dat Hip
15. An American In Paris
16. Tarzan's Grip
17. That That Revolves
18. Special Day
19. Malt Duck
20. Never Fall In Love
21. Nazi Beach Party
22. A Relic Of The Empire No 2
23. Tiny Fingers
24. Sydney Quads & The Megascope Space Probe
25. Play It Again
26. Carry My Books
27. Nightsong
28. Car Ad

Australian post-punk independent music scene. They began in Sydney in 1979,

incorporating 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. After many line-up changes featuring Garry Bradbury and psychedelic guitarist Simon Knuckey, Severed Heads was the vehicle for composer Tom Ellard.

In 1985 their record label asked them to release a retrospective, so they dragged out bits that we had lying around from 1979 up til 1983. The compilation was titled �Clifford Darling Please Don�t Live In The Past�, spread out into a montage over four sides of vinyl. Bradbury and Ellard would fuss each bit and sling it on their new digital recorder, and since they still have the digital recorder, this reissue is made directly from the bits assembled twenty years ago. This compilation includes live recordings, raw demos, unreleased studio recordings and solo pieces from each member of the band during from the first five years. Their early music was characterized by the use of tape loops, noisy arrangements of synthesizers and other dissonant sound sources in the general category of industrial music. After several releases in that vein, Severed Heads began incorporating various popular music tropes, such as a consistent 4/4 rhythm, strong melodic lines, resolving chord arrangements and the occasional vocal. This move was underscored by the incorporation of mimetic devices, such as drum machines and bass synthesizers. The result was a striking hybrid of the avant-garde industrial and pop.

All songs are remastered for vinyl by George Horn at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley. Housed in a jacket featuring brightly colored, distorted, VHS graphics output by Stephen Jones' video synthesizer created by Tom Ellard video piece �Kato Gets The Girl� in 1985, designed by Eloise Leigh. Each copy includes a fold-out poster with a color video still photo on one side and liner notes and credits on the other. 30 years later Severed Heads� perverse creativity is still paving the way for powerful imaginative challenging music far and wide.