THE WIRE NO. 506 :: CLOCK DVA WHITE SOULS AND THIRST (MUTE RECORDS) :: REVIEWED BY LOUIS PATTISON :: NOISE, INDUSTRIAL & BEYOND ::

Noise, Industrial & Beyond di Louis Pattison

Clock DVA
Thirst
Mute CD/DL/2×LP
White Souls In Black Suits
Mute CD/DL/2×LP

Often overlooked in the Sheffield synth demimonde that spawned groups like The Human League and Cabaret Voltaire, Clock DVA are nonetheless worthy of rediscovery through this new Mute reissue campaign. Things moved fast in the 1980s, and a gulf separates 1980’s White Souls In Black Suits and the following year’s Thirst. The former – recorded in a day at Cabaret Voltaire’s Western Works studio and released on Throbbing Gristle’s Industrial Records – is a raw document of avant-electronics and spirited punk-funk improvisation, blunted a little by its low fidelity production but delivered with a manic energy that just about saves the day. By Thirst, they’d changed guitarists – David Hammond replacing Paul Widger – and figured out how to write songs, refining a sound that blended Suicide and Throbbing Gristle with a cryptic, lupine songcraft inherited from Captain Beefheart. “4 Hours” in particular has endured: anthemic in that 80s post-punk way, while still sounding like it was beamed in from another planet.