Originally a cassette on Industrial Records, the imprint of Throbbing Gristle, the first Clock DVA release has now been reissued on vinyl, CD, and digital formats by Mute. Even 45 years after its original release, White Souls in Black Suits remains a bracing dive into chaos and improvisation.
While the racket of opener "Content" suggest something close to free jazz, "Discontentment" is more malevolent and precise. A vague stylistic similarity to early Throbbing Gristle makes a listener now see why Adi Newton ended up on the group's imprint. Most of this material is similarly ramshackle, giving these bedsit DIY efforts the vibe of souvenirs from the dawn of industrial itself. The epic "Film Soundtrack (Keyboards Assemble Themselves at Dawn)" is impressive in its moodiness, while "Anti-Chance", a standout here, finds the three members of Cabaret Voltaire (Richard H. Kirk, Stephen Mallinder, and Chris Watson) joining Adi Newton to create magic out of noise. That said, "Still/Silent" with its eerie keyboard ideas jostling against each other seems very much of a style similar to The Normal and others from the early days of Mute. Closer "You're Without Sound" has a rough, vaguely Bauhaus-y feel to it that makes it a bit more accessible than lots of this set. That said, none of this is exactly conventional in the terms of what New Wave and post-punk bands were up to in 1980.
While it's easy to hear the tracks on White Souls in Black Suits as rough approximations of a style we'd later call industrial, that's not to suggest this material is dated in any substantial way. The risk-taking and sense of freedom here is invigorating still. Adi Newton, armed with the most basic of instruments, achieves a kind of Fad Gadget-y level of ingenuity here that elevates these pieces from mere curiosities from the past, into timeless examples of what once made industrial music so dangerously exciting.
White Souls in Black Suits by Clock DVA is available now via Mute Records. Details below.