The 1981 Listening Post - The Severed Heads - Clean

 Reviewed by Jim Coursey

Released: 1981 The Severed Heads Clean Genre: Industrial Rating: 3 out of 5 Highlights: Food City Car Advert. Love Severed Heads is an Aussie industrial band founded by others but as of 1981’s “Clean” was effectively left in the sole hands of Tom Ellard, who would stay the course as head Head through the present day. I grew up listening to this kind of stuff, and as I’ve grown older I still appreciate their unique take on the genre. They eschew the angry growled vocals and pounding rhythms heard elsewhere, and instead make music that sounds like a twisted, cybernetic hallucination. Severed Heads’ music is characterized by skewed melodies played with brash digital FM synth tones and routinely accompanied by a chaotic wash of vocal loops made from indistinct ominous speech and ghostlike choral samples. Later this would lock in time to a crisp, danceable beat, but prior to their move to Nettwerk they keep things more abstract and ambient. At this stage the music is clearly influenced by Throbbing Gristle and features some similarities to Aussie contemporaries SPK. The sound here isn’t as varied or quite as memorably off-putting as Throbbing Gristle (there’s no “Hamburger Lady” for one), nor is it as strikingly composed as SPK’s 1982 album “Leichenschrei.” It’s abrasive in the extreme, and while I am pretty immune to this kind of racket I imagine many people will want to avoid it. Ellard flexes his Chris Carter muscle throughout via sequenced synth loops and polyrhythmic delays; “Food City” is typically harsh while “Car Advertisement” borders on pleasantly serene, at least by this album’s standards. “Love” displays the band’s taste for sour ambience and haunting harmonies. Apart from these arguable highlights, the album is of consistent quality throughout, if a bit too unremarkably consistent to recommend. For a good starting point, I prefer 1986’s “Come Visit the Big Bigot.”