“… cuts across boundaries” - MOJO “… still sounds powerful, a glimpse of the early industrial sound before the movement became codified into a genre” - UNCUT “… an avant-garde exhibition of atonal electronics, skronking saxophone and jagged guitars interspersed with Adi Newton’s malevolent whispers” – ELECTRONIC SOUND “…testament to an era of experimentation that paved the way for so much that followed” - BLITZED “…an important document” – CLASSIC POP “a vital rediscovery—an album that helped define the early intersections of industrial, post-punk, and proto-EBM” - IGLOO MAG
CLOCK DVA have released the long-awaited remastered reissue of their debut album, White Souls in Black Suits, available for the first time in 35 years. Originally released in 1980 as a limited cassette on Industrial Records, White Souls in Black Suits is out now, with four bonus tracks, on grey vinyl and CD via The Grey Area of Mute. “We set out to form a new sound combination,” says Clock DVA’s Adi Newton. “To combine acoustics and electronics, merging the German electronic wave with the edge of The Stooges, the avant-garde of the French GRM Musique Concrète, and the pioneering audio-visual creativity of The Velvet Underground. To create a harder form of electronic music with real energy.” Listen to “Anti-Chance” HERE, a direct collaboration with Cabaret Voltaire that saw two of Sheffield’s most innovative outfits join forces. “On ‘Anti-Chance’ we used random tapes from both DVA and Cabaret Voltaire,” explains Newton. “It was a direct William Burroughs / Brion Gysin [inspired] audio cut up piece.” Chance is fundamental to change.
Clock DVA, who formed in Sheffield in 1978, quickly proved to do just that. Also inspired by science fiction, Russian constructivism and beat literature, Clock DVA soon created a unique sonic alchemy that for the best part of the last half century has proven to be an endlessly influential reference point across everything from post-punk to EBM via industrial and techno. This singular audio-visual assault quickly saw people take notice. Fellow Sheffield pioneers Cabaret Voltaire soon became friends and collaborators, as did Throbbing Gristle who released the debut on their imprint, Industrial Records.
Experimentation can be heard all over their debut album which was, astonishingly, recorded in just a single day. “There is a cultivated myth that it was culled from 16 hours of improvisation but I'd venture the true figure is closer to 8 hours,” says drummer Roger Quail. It’s a record that is dark, eerie and brooding with a tense atmosphere as screeching guitars nestle up alongside toots of sax and electronic sci-fi-like soundscape explorations. It was a sound befitting of a group of people who were hell-bent on exploring new terrain. “Adi used to talk about being kinetic a lot around this time,” recalls Quail. “Keep moving, don't stand still – and I think this restlessness informs much of the music around this time.” And, for Quail, he’s been knocked sideways revisiting the work ahead of its re-release. “I hadn't heard White Souls… since the early 90s,” he says. “I'm blown away by the sound of this new master. There's a bit where we actually appear to invent Talk Talk's Spirit of Eden - to my ears anyway.”
The group built up a fierce reputation as one of Sheffield’s most ferocious live outfits who could melt minds and charge the atmosphere of a room like few others. “We did have a reputation as being wild and unpredictable,” explains Newton. “But that was good because it gave us an edge.” The stage was also a means for the group to explore with their burgeoning visual presence, which has since become a staple part of their identity and is something they are considered as pioneering for as their sonics. “For me it was always a staging, like theatre,” Newton explains. “We have developed visuals throughout the DVA history, from using 8mm film and 35mm film slides in the early days and via the earliest digital computer graphics back in 1987 with the Amiga B2000 to the present day with visual artists we have worked with, along with our own creations.” The album features Newton (voice, synth, clarinet, bowed electric guitar, and tape treatment), founding member Steven James Turner (bass treatment), David J. Hammond (guitar treatment), Charlie Collins (saxophone, flute & percussion), Roger Quail (percussion) and Simon M. Elliott-Kemp (synth). It was recorded at Cabaret Voltaire’s Western Works studio. White Souls in Black Suits is out now on The Grey Area of Mute. Purchase or stream the album HERE. | 
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