Sunday, November 17, 2024

New Wavest (#3 of ??)

Clock DVA  -  a name one associates with industrial music. 

Well, they were actually on Industrial Records, weren't they? Put out a cassette via them, White Souls in Black Suits

Then Clock DVA were on Fetish, an imprint started by TG associate and ultra-fan Rod Pearce (he rereleased Second Annual Report and various other Gristle records). 

On Fetish, DVA were label mates with 23 Skidoo. 

DVA singer Adi Newton was into Burroughs and Gysin - cut up, dream machines. 

So all told, archetypally industrial. None more industrial. 

However, if you listen to their best-known tune, "4 Hours", from 1981.... 



... beneath the shrill wail of the horn and the doom-boom baritone (Adi bridging the gap between Ian Curtis and Andrew Eldritch), the song sounds like the Cars or The Undertones, something of that ilk

It's got that damped-strings (or is the term palm-muted?) rhythm guitar chug.

The breakdown couldn't be more archetypally New Wave. 

The lyrics, though, have something to do with the four hours of dream sleep, lucid dreaming, etc - i.e. typical industrial-style esoteric research. 

After Thirst, Clock DVA actually briefly went New Pop, signing to Polydor for the album Advantage - an episode that seemed to embarrass Newton later.



The outcome somewhere between Lexicon Of Love and Floodland

After that Newton went back to the industrial left-field with The Anti Group


....  and then from 2011 a reformulated Clock DVA. 

They are still going strong - indeed they put out an album this year. 







No comments:

Post a Comment

New Wavest (#3 of ??)

Clock DVA  -  a name one associates with industrial music.  Well, they were actually on Industrial Records , weren't they? Put out a cas...