{"title":"Severed Heads","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSevered Heads is an Australian group founded in Sydney in 1979. Originally known as Mr And Mrs No Smokin' Sign, the group was formed by Richard Fielding and Andrew Wright. Tom Ellard joined in 1979, leading to a name change to Severed Heads. Over time, the group evolved with various members joining and leaving, but ultimately Tom Ellard became the sole continuing member.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe early music of Severed Heads was characterized by tape loops, synthesizers, and dissonant sound sources, placing them in the industrial music category. However, they later incorporated popular music elements such as a consistent rhythm and melodic lines. This fusion of avant-garde, EBM, and Synth-pop resulted in a unique sound.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eSevered Heads achieved success with their song \"Dead Eyes Opened\" which charted in 1984. They were signed to Nettwerk Records in North America and Volition Records in Australia. Despite facing setbacks when Volition went bankrupt and Nettwerk dropped them, Severed Heads continued their musical journey through self-distribution via their own SevCom imprint.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAlthough officially announced as ended by Tom Ellard on February 4th, 2008; Severed Heads still occasionally performs live shows around the world. Notable performances include appearances at BIM Fest in Belgium (2011), Adelaide Festival (2013), Cold Waves IV festival in Chicago (201\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"ear-bitten","title":"Ear Bitten","description":"\u003cp\u003eDark Entries picks up Severed Heads yet again for \u003cem\u003eEar Bitten\u003c\/em\u003e, a double LP reissue of some of the band’s earliest material. As originary Aussie industrial legends - although founder Tom Ellard would balk at being branded as such - Severed Heads shaped the continental subcultural sound with their kitchen electronics, chaotic tape loops, and quietly infectious nursery-rhyme-esque melodies. In 1979 Ellard, Richard Fielding, and Andrew Wright abandoned the moniker Mr. and Mrs. No Smoking Sign and adopted the edgier name Severed Heads “to pretend to be an industrial band such as Surgical Penis Klinik \u0026amp; Throbbing Gristle.” Noise-rockers Rhythmx Chymx had placed an advertisement in a local shop looking for a band to share the costs of pressing an LP. The Heads set about recording a Dadaist racket on a pair of open reel dictaphones and a cassette deck using a TRS-80 computer, Kawai Synthesizer 100F and Korg Mini Pops drum machine. Ear Bitten was released in 1980; original copies now fetch obscene sums, in part due to most of Severed Heads’ copies perishing in a fire at Richard’s home. The band’s next endeavor was a cassette titled Side 2, a collection of free-form experiments fashioned as Ear Bitten’s second side. For this reissue, Dark Entries has collected both Ear Bitten and Side 2 on the first disc, presenting the album in its full form. Disc two includes the original first version of Ear Bitten, which was only unreleased because it was (Indie exclusive release (Indie exclusive release 8 recorded in a format not suitable for pressing. The album comes in a gatefold sleeve designed by Eloise Leigh and includes photos, liner notes, and reproductions of the original Xerox inserts from the 1980 issue. Ear Bitten delivers 22 tracks of pain you can dance to!\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Dark Entries","offers":[{"title":"2LP - Black","offer_id":50426634273099,"sku":"2217642","price":37.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/Severed_Heads_-_Ear_Bitten_ea5efafd_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1726815064"},{"product_id":"bad-mood-guy","title":"Bad Mood Guy","description":"\u003cp\u003eFuturismo present a deluxe reissue of the never before reissued\n1987 avant industrial album: \u003ci\u003eBad Mood Guy \u003c\/i\u003eby Severed Heads.\n\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWith an oeuvre of electronic experimentation that dates back to 1979,\nAustralia’s Severed Heads rawly garnered everything from the sources\naround them: the sounds of the city, tape loops, old machines, distortion.\n\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAlthough essentially one man, chief noisemaker Tom Ellard, he was joined\nhere by film maker\/homebrew video synthesizer operator Stephen Jones,\nand effects producer Robert Racic: who had worked with New Order. The\nresult is a punishing view of pop, all crunching rhythms and electronic\njuxtapose. By incorporating popular tropes such as consistent rhythms,\nmelodic vocal lines and drum machines this was perhaps as near to a\nlittle “boogie-oogie-oogie” as Severed Heads were likely to get, but the\noutcome is a striking hybrid of the avant-garde, EBM and Synth-pop, an\nindustrial vortex in which the sounds of the 20th century are sucked in and\nspat out around a monstrous dance beat.\n\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNever pandering to expectations, Ellard saw dance music as a benchmark\narea where exploration was still possible. Big ideas and big sounds, not\nto mention big headaches when the original CBS mixes were left in a taxi\ncab. Whilst many of their contemporaries persisted without dignity, Bad\nMood Guy’s cool melancholy assured a fanbase in America and dance\nfloor loyalty with ‘Hot With Fleas’, which dares to sit alongside classics like\n‘Dead Eyes Opened’. The unique inventiveness inherent in Severed Heads\nwork makes this release essential for fans of Throbbing Gristle, Kraftwerk,\nSkinny Puppy and Cabaret Voltaire.\n\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe deluxe remastered version of this LP comes with a 2nd LP containing\nlost original versions and remixes, and comes in a choice of ltd edition\ncoloured vinyl. It is packaged in a metallic silver outer sleeve, a metallic gold\ninner sleeve and comes with a 12 page artzine booklet with liners by Ellard.\n\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Futurismo","offers":[{"title":"Pink | LP | x2","offer_id":50465251885387,"sku":"2000522","price":39.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"LP | x2","offer_id":50465251393867,"sku":"2000521","price":37.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"CD","offer_id":50465250935115,"sku":"2000520","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/3eac9790-e5b5-7022-2cbd-9ab479123193_32470822_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727283892"},{"product_id":"dead-eyes-opened","title":"Dead Eyes Opened","description":"\u003cp\u003eSevered Heads are one of the longest standing bands to have emerged from the Australian post-punk and experimental scene. They began in Sydney in 1979, and were an early outfit to incorporate elements of 'industrial' noise-generation, tape cutting \u0026amp; looping and electronic sound synthesis. As the project developed, song-structures and vocals were employed in a more-or-less recognizable mutant electro pop style. After many line-up changes featuring Gary Bradbury and psychedelic guitarist Simon Knuckey, Severed Heads became the solo vehicle for composer Tom Ellard. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn 1983 they released a C-60 cassette called \u003ci\u003eSince The Accident\u003c\/i\u003e that grabbed the attention of Ink Records, a subsidiary of Virgin in the UK. Ellard added a throwaway track at the last minute to fill out the cassette, not wanting to leave an unseemly gap on a C60 tape. This track, \u003ci\u003eDead Eyes Opened\u003c\/i\u003e was catchy enough to get a lot of airplay on the main non-commercial radio station in Sydney. The band was asked to make this song into a 12” single. For this extended version, Tom Ellard and producer Patrick Gibson went to M Squared studio and passed the multitracked recordings through various EQ's and delays. \u003ci\u003eDead Eyes Opened\u003c\/i\u003e features samples from a radio program narrated by Edgar Lustgarten, a crime journalist from England, referencing a double murder case that occurred in 1924. The rhythms are made by a TR-808 drum machine and an SH-1 synthesizer. A KORG PolySix was used for strings and additional atmospheric elements. The lead solo was a Casiotone run through an Octaver foot pedal. On the B-side are two solo compositions \u003ci\u003eBullet\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eMount\u003c\/i\u003e that Ellard recorded at Terse Tapes in 1982. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAll songs are remastered for vinyl by George Horn at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley. Housed in the original jacket featuring the iconic photograph of a girl with a painted face wrapped in some cloth by Juilee Pryor. Each copy includes a fold-out newsprint poster with a large photo of the band wearing Art Unit skull shirts on one side and liner notes and press clippings on the other. 30 years later Severed Heads are still paving the way for powerful, imaginative, and challenging music.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Dark Entries","offers":[{"title":"Black | 12\"","offer_id":50470100205899,"sku":"378018","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/eed37096-ad16-4928-9c59-1dec5e93828a_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727372439"},{"product_id":"emergency-broadcasts-fi","title":"Emergency Broadcasts","description":"\u003cp\u003eSevered Heads are an Australian electronic music group founded in 1979 as Mr. and Mrs. No Smoking Sign. The original members were Richard Fielding and Andrew Wright, who were soon joined by Tom Ellard. Fielding and Wright had both left the band by mid-1981 with Ellard remaining the sole consistent member for the rest of the band's existence. In 1984 the band released Dead Eyes Opened as a single, which was remixed in 1994 and re-released, reaching No. 16 on the ARIA Singles Chart. Two of their singles, Greater Reward (1988) and All Saints Day (1989), reached the top 30 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs chart. Ellard disbanded the group in 2007 and continued with other projects. Subsequent Severed Heads reunions have occurred, the last one a headlining Europe tour in 2019 plus a couple shows in 2025. Emergency Broadcasts combines two rare albums by Severed Heads made available only on the legendary sevcom website in the early 2000s. First comes a barrage of live performances across Australia based entirely on chopped up daytime TV. The worst of regional television makes for the best media barrage with grunge-in-cheek beats. Up next I Taste D King is strange chill-out music for TV jingles and program pauses. For the first time the complete video for both albums is available and linked by a QR code on the album sleeve. The whole package has been remastered and refreshed with new hand crafted artwork\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Klanggalerie","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":57379808510283,"sku":"R4438-8056","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/30Aciw-I.jpg?v=1779206627"},{"product_id":"cuisine-with-piscatorial","title":"Cuisine (With Piscatorial)","description":"\u003cp\u003eSevered Heads reattach themselves to Dark Entries for an expanded reissue of their 1991 opus Cuisine (With Piscatorial). This double-LP reissue is the first time that \u003cem\u003eCuisine (With Piscatorial)\u003c\/em\u003e appears on vinyl, with a previously unreleased early version of “Seven of Oceans.” Also included is a 6-page booklet with liner notes, lyrics, and press clippings.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAs original Aussie industrial legends – although founder Tom Ellard would balk at being branded as such – Severed Heads shaped the continental subcultural sound with their kitchen electronics, chaotic tape loops, and infectious nursery-rhyme-esque melodies. \u003cem\u003eCuisine (With Piscatorial)\u003c\/em\u003e was the long-running project’s ninth album, and is a commentary on the state of music. Ellard explains: “The whole food joke is really about what music's about and how disposable it is; people have records like they have cups of coffee.” The album also presents a turn away from the dancefloor formalism of the era, which Ellard dismissed as already sufficiently explored. Cuisine brings us punchy pop kernels of the prime Heads variety, all clocking in around three minutes. Cuts like “Pilot in Hell” and “Ugly Twenties” rank among the band’s best through their deadly skewering of synth pop tropes. But the album also offers us a Piscatorial section, where Ellard felt free to “go fishing for ideas.” Here we get a taste of the project’s demented cut-up sensibilities, like on the “Quest for Oom Pa Pa” suite, where vintage jazz records are collaged into an angular nightmare. \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Dark Entries","offers":[{"title":"2LP - Black","offer_id":57748829471051,"sku":"R7330-9847","price":37.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/bc2a5a07-f639-c34d-914a-acdefa49a3df.jpg?v=1782992720"}],"url":"https:\/\/shop.roughtrade.com\/de\/collections\/severed-heads.oembed","provider":"Rough Trade","version":"1.0","type":"link"}