Severed Heads: CDSD

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On the same album where "Dead Eyes Opened" originates, Since The Accident from 1983, there's the track "A Million Angels" which pretty much invents hip-hop tempo "I.D.M.".. the track that follows it, "Houses Still Standing", sounds like an electronic version of "Comb", one of the Butthole Surfers' most nauseating songs (meant in a good way.) There's also the cheap sounding "Epilespy '82" which samples wolf cries onto a crunchy cheap synth beat. There's the very gutteral Steve Reich-ish "Gashing The Old Mae West", and then there's "Exploring The Secrets Of Treating Deaf Mutes", which pretty much invents mid-to-late 80s industrial dance music and thereafter.. Babyland, Die Warzau, and Nitzer Ebb owe as much to this track as they do to DAF. And then you get "Brassiere In Rome", which sounds more like a Steve Fisk/Negativland type tape loop track.

Did I mention that Since The Accident is one of the greatest albums ever?

donut debonair (donut), Sunday, 3 April 2005 08:23 (nineteen years ago) link

Oh yeah I don't need it to be dancey necessarily, I am not a total luddite!

ps-see you thursday stirmonster! I've been getting nervy!

Ronan (Ronan), Sunday, 3 April 2005 08:25 (nineteen years ago) link

also worth hearing is the garry bradbury 'drug induced sex rituals' - (http://www.sevcom.com/item-sexrituals.html)

frenchbloke (frenchbloke), Sunday, 3 April 2005 08:27 (nineteen years ago) link

oh yes this thursday - can't wait! why nervy?

stirmonster (stirmonster), Sunday, 3 April 2005 08:28 (nineteen years ago) link

oh, totally forgot that they used the human league's 'hard times' drums on spitoon thud. and hello stir, did you get the txt message about mixing ? did you know that k-tel own the rights to dead eyes opened in the states?

frenchbloke (frenchbloke), Sunday, 3 April 2005 08:32 (nineteen years ago) link

ah it's probably my biggest gig to date, not really nervous I suppose, have played when it's full plenty of times, just yeah, a little nervous!

Ronan (Ronan), Sunday, 3 April 2005 08:34 (nineteen years ago) link

frenchie - got the txt and replied to it. didn't you get it? k=tel?!!?

ronan - i thnk nervous is good. i always get a little nervous before i play. i'm not however looking forward to not beng able to smoke when i'm playing.

stirmonster (stirmonster), Sunday, 3 April 2005 08:36 (nineteen years ago) link

nerves often makes me change my mind about what to play at the very last minute, which can be good.

yeah the smoking thing will be weird, the door is very near the dj booth but that's not much good while you're playing. I dunno, as the DJ I wonder what would happen if you lit up.

Ronan (Ronan), Sunday, 3 April 2005 08:39 (nineteen years ago) link

i tried it in new york once and almost got thrown out the club! still, it's good practice for when they ban it here next year.

stirmonster (stirmonster), Sunday, 3 April 2005 08:47 (nineteen years ago) link

I bet live bands can do it, it's probably alot easier to stop a DJ than a band though I suppose.

Ronan (Ronan), Sunday, 3 April 2005 09:33 (nineteen years ago) link

Since The Accident... is a wonderful, wonderful album but I haven't been able to listen to it recently because I only have it on casette and I no longer have a casette player (hence my repping for all of the mid-era SH which I have on CD). Also, I agree about "Halo" being balls-out great; it's also on Bulkhead.

AND WHAT ABOUT "HAROLD AND CINDY HOSPITAL" AND "LEGION"??????????

The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Sunday, 3 April 2005 11:25 (nineteen years ago) link

mid era severed heads is the cuisine with piscatorial era. (being pedantic, i know) it's their 25th year or is it the 26th? ah well

frenchbloke (frenchbloke), Sunday, 3 April 2005 11:37 (nineteen years ago) link

Um. Every recent post I've made to this thread (barring the last one) has been about Rotund For Success, which I see as the beginning of mid-era SH.

The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Sunday, 3 April 2005 12:01 (nineteen years ago) link

humble apologies. thought you were referring to the big bigot era.
doh

frenchbloke (frenchbloke), Sunday, 3 April 2005 16:27 (nineteen years ago) link

i have recently been going through some of my old vinyl and since the accident was the first thing i put on. it's kind of their mutation period between noise tape collages and weirdo beat-driven pop with noise tape collages. and how can you go wrong with titles like "brassiere, in rome"?

basquiat (disco stu), Sunday, 3 April 2005 21:46 (nineteen years ago) link

two years pass...

http://sevcom.com/

;___;

electricsound, Friday, 15 February 2008 04:50 (sixteen years ago) link

;________________________;

fuck

Mackro Mackro, Friday, 15 February 2008 04:54 (sixteen years ago) link

Well...

http://tomellard.com/

This is Tom Ellard's web site. It's currently in test mode and nothing for the public.

The current experiment is here. It will install a plug in! It will download about 7Mb!

Ned Raggett, Friday, 15 February 2008 05:26 (sixteen years ago) link

I mean, it's not like HE'S dead.

Ned Raggett, Friday, 15 February 2008 05:26 (sixteen years ago) link

haha yes well

still the end of an era tho

electricsound, Friday, 15 February 2008 05:27 (sixteen years ago) link

all the way to the bottom, maggie.. you've made it... *sob*...
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUGHHH!
-- donut bitch (donut), Monday, March 1, 2004 4:30 PM (3 years ago) Bookmark Link

;_; ;_; ;_;

Mackro Mackro, Friday, 15 February 2008 05:44 (sixteen years ago) link

ohhhhhhh that sucks though

John Justen, Friday, 15 February 2008 05:54 (sixteen years ago) link

why kill off a name that was essentially a solo project?

dan selzer, Friday, 15 February 2008 14:03 (sixteen years ago) link

Big Severed Heads fan (well, up to Gigapus, at least). "Rotund for Success" is their most accessible, beginner-friendly album, I suppose, but I always preferred the experimental noise of their earlier albums ("Blubberknife", "Since the Accident", and "City Slab Horror"). Favs include "Gashing the Old Mae West", "Acme Instant Dehydrated Boulder Kit", "Dead Eyes Opened", "Goodbye Tonsils", "Harold and Cindy Hospital", "Greater Reward", and "All Saints Day" (that song shoulda been huge!).

eeyore19, Saturday, 16 February 2008 21:19 (sixteen years ago) link

three months pass...

Holy crap. Some genius has put their Rock Arena in-studio from 1986 up on Y0uTooB :

Part 1 :http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OjAnr4dsLs

Part 2 :http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGiKhPQ-k74

(Fast forward 7 minutes. Turn volume up to 11. Wait for your head to explode).

SeekAltRoute, Tuesday, 3 June 2008 12:00 (fifteen years ago) link

ten months pass...

giving the 'commerz' comp a spin at work today (due to no-one else being around, hah). all that sped-up tape fuckery at the end of 'halo' is pretty inspired.

i thought i'd snagged a copy of the joakim's 'dead eyes opened' edit recently from tigersushi but they said they'd listed it on the website by mistake and didn't actually have any copies left. ;__;

fahn fahn fahn on the suggest bahn (haitch), Tuesday, 14 April 2009 05:17 (fifteen years ago) link

I wonder why disc 2 of ComMerz never got released on emusic? I dloaded half of 1, 2 never came out and now I think 1's been yoinked as well :(

one art, please (Trayce), Tuesday, 14 April 2009 05:31 (fifteen years ago) link

vol 2 is there now. i thought vol 1 came down because it was the wrong album but they never bothered putting up the right one

lorax enforcement officer (electricsound), Tuesday, 14 April 2009 05:38 (fifteen years ago) link

did you guys read about the dream I had about you on the ILX dreams thread on ILE?

Take The Gothheads Bowling (Bimble), Tuesday, 14 April 2009 05:39 (fifteen years ago) link

no i've never looked at that thread

lorax enforcement officer (electricsound), Tuesday, 14 April 2009 05:43 (fifteen years ago) link

did anyone here ever pick up the adenoids box?

lorax enforcement officer (electricsound), Tuesday, 14 April 2009 05:43 (fifteen years ago) link

Nar i was wrong, 2 was always up and its 1 that was never available. Which is a bugger cos i dont have much of their older stuff. Except for a mangled casette copy of "Clifford", somewhere.

one art, please (Trayce), Tuesday, 14 April 2009 05:44 (fifteen years ago) link

eight months pass...

from sevcom: ANNOUNCING ADENOIDS 4 CD SET SOON AVAILABLE

woo

journey to the center of fat butt (electricsound), Monday, 11 January 2010 04:25 (fourteen years ago) link

also ellard's blog has been great lately

journey to the center of fat butt (electricsound), Monday, 11 January 2010 04:44 (fourteen years ago) link

three weeks pass...

over at a friend's house rehearsing for a show, I see a copy of 'Since The Accident' on a chair and mention that I've always wanted to hear the early stuff and he just looks at me and says 'I don't understand how you haven't heard the early stuff'. I mention 'Well I have a copy of Cuisine and love it' and he just tells me to be quiet, goes to the shelf, pulls the other 1983-84 CD 'City Slab Horror' off and gives them both to me

so... yeah, okay, this band.

and they did -not- have a sampler? how did they do this much collage & rhythmic collage with just a delay unit? control voltage & filtering on a 4-track? I mean yes Brian's comment upthread about Throbbing Gristle and Cabaret Voltaire spot the precedents neatly but this band pretty much wrote the earliest formal book on the way sampling was later implemented into industrial dance music, only it's far better, weirder and more musical than most of everything that followed

is that 4 CD set of 77-81 out yet?

Milton Parker, Wednesday, 3 February 2010 01:09 (fourteen years ago) link

they were definitely using a sampler by the mid-late 80s, but i don't know exactly when they made the switch.

the cd box isn't out yet, not sure exactly who's doing it but i've assumed ascension records is because the did the M2 box..

a place to bury st edmunds (electricsound), Wednesday, 3 February 2010 01:16 (fourteen years ago) link

>they were definitely using a sampler by the mid-late 80s, but i don't know exactly when they made the switch.

looks like 1986

http://www.sevcom.com/documentation/harley/14.html

digital delays are samplers too more or less, but still pretty amazed at the results they got scrambling and dicing with synced delays on those early records. can hardly wait for the box of early stuff - the liner notes to the VOD version are online at sevcom as well

Milton Parker, Sunday, 7 February 2010 00:17 (fourteen years ago) link

five months pass...

fuck i just grabbed a cheap vinyl of rotund for success -- very sick! is this their ecstasy album?

不合作的方式 (r1o natsume), Tuesday, 27 July 2010 16:02 (thirteen years ago) link

not entirely sure how you mean that

you could argue it's their most euphoric, although Gigapus vies for that title as well

"There's no way a Filipino can hold a championship trophy." (HI DERE), Tuesday, 27 July 2010 16:16 (thirteen years ago) link

and they did -not- have a sampler? how did they do this much collage & rhythmic collage with just a delay unit? control voltage & filtering on a 4-track?

Regarding City Slab Horror/Since the Accident era stuff, there's a lot of tape looping going on, if I remember correctly. An American in Paris/Tarzan's Grip/That That Revolves, I remember reading was one long live session of tape loops coming in and out.

dan selzer, Tuesday, 27 July 2010 23:10 (thirteen years ago) link

i think tom ellard's first sampler was the ensoniq mirage which came out in 1984. so prior to that it was all tapes

不合作的方式 (r1o natsume), Wednesday, 28 July 2010 00:47 (thirteen years ago) link

I figured it out once I heard the epic 25 minute live version of 'Gashing The Old Mae West', which makes it a little clearer. Like a bollywood plunderphonic take on This Heat's '24 Track Tape Loop'.

The Network CD reissue of Since The Accident & the Sevcom Clifford Darling Please Don't Live In The Past comp are my favorites. And that Adenoids box is a lot to digest but has scads of completely addictive little pieces on it.

I'm definitely a Clifford I guess in that they get a lot less interesting once they bought actual samplers and tilt towards industrial pop, I didn't like Come Visit The Big Bigot as much as I thought I was going to, but relistening to Cusine again, that seems like an album where the songs got back into the weirder arrangements from the earlier records. Either way count me in as a big fan, I need to hear some of the more recent albums as well & it's too bad Ellard took down that essay I linked to because it had some of the better critical/theoretical writing on sampling in music that I've read

Milton Parker, Wednesday, 28 July 2010 00:48 (thirteen years ago) link

sean - please do make that available as an mp3. i'd like to hear it, even just out of curiosity. i adore 'dead eyes opened'.

Better late than never....?
Edgar Lustgarden reading Death on the Crumbles

Sean Carruthers, Wednesday, 28 July 2010 03:24 (thirteen years ago) link

I used to have Clifford Darling on a casette someone did for me and I lost it, buggeration.

Gumbercules (Trayce), Wednesday, 28 July 2010 03:46 (thirteen years ago) link

Sean you're a peach!

we will all be able to tell which is the best (lukas), Wednesday, 28 July 2010 03:47 (thirteen years ago) link

OMG wait, its all on emusic now! Rotund, Clifford,. everything. When the shit did that happen? Gah.

Gumbercules (Trayce), Wednesday, 28 July 2010 03:48 (thirteen years ago) link

Just listened to "Power Circles" and the tape loops remind me of "Come Out" by Reich, but with music.

Gumbercules (Trayce), Wednesday, 28 July 2010 03:52 (thirteen years ago) link

Just discovered that Retread, Cuisine/Piscatorial and Gashing the old Mae West are all available for free download at sevcom.com right now - anyone who is wondering about any of these should go check em out!

Sean Carruthers, Friday, 30 July 2010 00:30 (thirteen years ago) link

five months pass...

An ancient curse sweeps over the land!

Severed Heads once more drag themselves out in a shameless display ... four nights in May in four capital cities. Details follow.

Then a serious concert by Tom Ellard in October.

And watch out in December!

???

poppagemoose (electricsound), Wednesday, 5 January 2011 04:48 (thirteen years ago) link

!

poppagemoose (electricsound), Wednesday, 5 January 2011 04:51 (thirteen years ago) link


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