Thirst, originally released in 1981 is a stone-cold post-punk classic. While still retaining the sharp experimental edge of their debut, White Souls in Black Suits, Thirst 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, 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.”
45 years on from its original release (on Fetish), it’s a record from the era that sounds like no other.
Tag Archive: Clock DVA
Available for first time in over 35 years, Clock DVA’s White Souls in Black Suits – originally released in 1980 as a limited-run cassette on Throbbing Gristle’s Industrial Records – now returns in a newly remastered edition, reissued via The Grey Area of Mute and expanded with four bonus tracks from the same era.
Led by the visionary Adi Newton, Clock DVA remains one of the most enigmatic and shape-shifting acts to emerge from Sheffield. Their catalog spans mutant funk, noir jazz, and coldwave electronics, with White Souls in Black Suits, paired with the additionals tracks, offering an insight into the early morphology of their sound. The album features a lineup including Newton (voice, synth, clarinet, bowed electric guitar,…