While still retaining the sharp experimental edge of their debut, White Souls in Black Suits, its follow up, Thirst, is a stone-cold post-punk classic that stretches out and offers up some cleaner and more hooky moments as it moves away from pure improvisation. “Between White Souls and Thirst, the guitarist changed from David Hammond to Paul Widger,” explains Newton. “David introduced the perfect guitar sound for DVA in the original phase of Clock DVA, whereas Paul brought in a more rhythmic style more towards early Ry Cooder. The material we were developing was a more defined series of pieces, more structured and exact than the improvised works on White Souls and the earlier experimental electronics.”
45 years on from its original release [on Fetish], Thirst is a record from the era that sounds like no other. There’s jazz-inflected post-punk, helped by Charlie Collins’ wonderfully inventive sax playing, but also nods to more Beefheart-esque wonky grooves - aided by Newton’s raspy growls - while tracks like ‘4 Hours’ also hit home the group’s real knack for incorporating catchy songcraft with the infectious song containing an almost new wave shimmer.
Thirst was the first evidence of what would soon become a customary part of Clock DVA’s evolution: they never made the same record twice. No copies or dilution but instead ceaseless progression. “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.”
Featuring stand out tracks such as ‘Sensorium’ and ‘4 Hours’ - the sole single at the time of the original release, and ne of The Face and Rockerilla’s Singles of the Year 1981, it went on to be one of NME’s Best Indie Singles Ever and Blow Up’s 100 Songs to Remember.
Both tracks also include a new DVATION 2026 mix, by the current iteration of Clock DVA.
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