From: awrc@dcs.ed.ac.uk (Al Crawford)
Newsgroups: rec.music.industrial
Subject: Re: DVA
Date: 14 Dec 92 15:38:23 GMT
Reply-To: awrc@dcs.ed.ac.uk (Al Crawford)
Organization: The University Of Edinburgh - Department Of Computer Science

And lo, locklin@titan.ucc.umass.edu (Lupo the Butcher) spake unto the
masses saying:
>
> I've heard the name around; more lately.
> Are they dancy industrial ala Skinny Puppy or "true" industrial?
> Someone make a comparison before someone  else flames my above choice of
> adjectives....

Hokay, in brief...

ClockDVA, formed around 1977/8 by Adi Newton (ex-couple of minor groups,
including The Future who later became The Human League). First release, on
Industrial (i.e. they qualify as true industrial) was _White Souls In Black
Suits_ (1980), an album of avant-jazz, vaguely industrial, almost
completely improvised music. Meant as a parody of the "white soul" of the
period, it's based around atonal saxes, clarinet, tapes, noise etc.
Features input from Cabaret Voltaire. Definitely an acquired taste though.

Second album (I'm ignoring EPs for the most part) was _Thirst_ (1981) on
Doublevision (later re-released on Fetish, I think). Rather more
conventional, I'd describe it as being guitar driven rock with an
industrial twist (noise, those dying saxaphones again, tapes). Includes the
pretty wonderful "4 Hours".

Third album was _Advantage_ (1983) which is probably my favourite of the
bunch.  Power pop with a slightly odd processed jazz/bebop sound. Great
stuff, but not really industrial by any stretch of the word.

After this the group disbanded, while Adi Newton concentrated on other
projects, such as The Anti-Group Conspiracy. ClockDVA was reactivated in
1988 or thereabouts as a trio. First up was the "The Hacker" EP. The group
had now moved into something that could probably be described as "dancy
industrial" - dark, uptempo synth music - but it retains the complex and
downright obscure Newton lyrics and seems somehow more...intelligent than
most of the other music that falls into the dance-industrial genre. The
album from this period is _Buried Dreams_ (1989) which is a good 'un, a
mish-mash of bizarre symbology and source material with the music weebling
between up-tempo dark dance industrial and quieter electronics+samples
pieces.

1990 saw the release of the generally disposable live album _Transitional
Voices_ which hinted at what was to come in sacrificing some of the lyrical
complexity of earlier material in favour of a more danceable sound. This
year they released _Man-Amplified_ which isn't *that* far removed from
being a concept album about machine intelligence. It's a lot more
dance-oriented, verging on techno at times but retaining a rather darker
feel and a couple of non-dance style tracks.

So I guess you could say that over their history ClockDVA have been both
dancy industrial *and* "true" industrial. As for comparisons, recent
ClockDVA is... not as "newbeat" as Front 242, not as dancey as Frontline
Assembly, not as noisy as Skinny Puppy, not as poppy as (old) NIN, not as
guitary as (new) NIN or Ministry, about the only "new" industrial group I'd
draw parallels with are The Klinik (although their sound relies more on
analogue than digital synths and is more percussive). As you'll have
guessed from the above humming and hawing, it's difficult to draw any
straight comparisons. Dark, synthetic, deadly serious, intellectual (or
tries to be), that's about all I can say. I know some nice simple
comparisons would make things easier, but the best I can say is that for
the most part recent CDVA would be more likely to appeal to dance
industrial (or New Industrial, or Modern Industrial, or Industrial Rock, or
Hell, That's Not Industrial, *This* Is Industrial, or whatever you want to
call it) than to the TG/EN/early CV fans.

-- 
			Al Crawford - awrc@dcs.ed.ac.uk
	  Department Of Computer Science, The University of Edinburgh
   Rm 1410, JCMB, Kings Buildings, Mayfield Rd, EDINBURGH, EH9 3JZ, Scotland
	     Tel: +44 (0) 31 650 5165  Fax: +44 (0) 31 667 7209
Newsgroups: rec.music.industrial