Severed Heads
Encyclopedia
Severed Heads is an Australia
n electronic music
group based and founded in Sydney
in 1979
as Mr. and Mrs. No Smoking Sign. The original members were Richard Fielding
and Andrew Wright
, and were soon joined by Tom Ellard
. Fielding and Wright eventually left the group, leaving Ellard as a singular talent, the sole continuing member of the group. A variety of people played in Severed Heads, including Garry Bradbury
, Paul Deering, and Stephen Jones
, but over time the group devolved to Tom Ellard
.
In early 2008 Ellard announced that Severed Heads was now defunct and that no further creative output would be released under this name. Since then they have performed a 30th anniversary show on January 14, 2010 as part of the annual Sydney Festival
, and in May 2011 the group supported Gary Numan
in a tour celebrating the 30th anniversary of Numan's album The Pleasure Principle
. In a May, 2011 interview, Tom Ellard explained: "Some people thought it was a bit rude of me to just shut it down without a proper farewell tour and so we decided we would drag it out just one more time and say our toodly-doodly’s."
Early Severed Heads music was characterised by the use of tape loop
s, noisy arrangements of synthesizers and other dissonant sound sources, putting Severed Heads in the general category of industrial music
. After several releases in that vein, Severed Heads began incorporating various popular music tropes, such as a consistent 4/4 rhythm, strong melodic lines, resolving chord arrangements and Ellard's thin but gently eerie vocals and elliptical, poetic lyrics. This move was underscored by the incorporation of mimetic devices, such as drum machine
s and bass synthesizers. The result was a striking hybrid of the avant-garde
industrial and pop.
Severed Heads were signed to Nettwerk
records in North America, and Volition Records
in Australia, and charted in 1984 with the song "Dead Eyes Opened". This deal led to a world tour, which was as much a multimedia event, thanks to the video synthesizer
s of Stephen Jones. They also charted in the United States
in the late 1980s with a 12-inch single
of "Greater Reward" (from the album Rotund For Success) assisted by several remixes by Sydney
-based producer Robert Racic
. Racic, who produced album tracks and various singles on and off through the late 1980s and early 1990s and became integral to the Severed Heads sound of that period.
Nettwerk severed its relations with Ellard in the early 1990s, leaving the band adrift in the marketplace. Ellard sought out another label for his next release, Gigapus, in 1995, which was released on Volition in Australia and Decibel Records elsewhere. Around this time, the band had a major Australian hit with a remixed version of "Dead Eyes Opened". Both Volition and Decibel soon folded, and once again, Severed Heads were unaligned with the traditional music industry, and didn't fully own the rights to their music. This changed in 1998, when Sony Music sold Ellard the rights back for a nominal fee.
With his music back in his hands and fully independent, Ellard took this on as a challenge and began developing an independent music system, which is entirely Internet based, at sevcom.com (the link is below). During the early 2000s, Tom Ellard blazed an independent path for his art and developed several innovative products, such as the Sevcom Music Server, a subscription based ambient music
distribution system.
Ellard has worked on a side project, Coklacoma, which released a few CDs in the late 1990s. By 2004, he was heavily involved with developing video but increasingly felt that the Severed Heads label was a thing of the past, and in 2008 opted to jettison the name. Ellard also worked extensively during the 1990s with other Sydney based electronic musicians and groups such as Paul Mac
(of Itch-E and Scratch-E
) and Boxcar
, former alumni of the now-defunct Volition label, as well as The Lab
.
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n electronic music
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
group based and founded in Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
in 1979
1979 in music
See also:Record labels established in 1979* 1979 in music This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1979.-January–February:*January 1...
as Mr. and Mrs. No Smoking Sign. The original members were Richard Fielding
Richard Fielding
Richard Fielding was a founding member of the Australian electronic dance group Severed Heads in 1979 in Sydney. He has been a member of other experimental, avant garde music groups such as Z-Glutz, The Loop Orchestra and Budgie Woops! He has had a career as a radio presenter on various New South...
and Andrew Wright
Andrew Wright
Andrew Wright is a Canadian multimedia artist from Ottawa, Ontario. He is best known for his work with video and large-scale photography. He holds a specialist degree in Art and Art History from the University of Toronto and a Masters in Fine Arts at the University of Windsor...
, and were soon joined by Tom Ellard
Tom Ellard
Thomas Ellard , is an Australian electronic musician best known as the founding member of the electronic and industrial music group Severed Heads.-Early life:...
. Fielding and Wright eventually left the group, leaving Ellard as a singular talent, the sole continuing member of the group. A variety of people played in Severed Heads, including Garry Bradbury
Garry Bradbury
Garry Bradbury is an Australian electronic musician active in Sydney's experimental music scene since 1979 where he was an early member of the pioneering post punk / industrial band Severed Heads, from 1981 to 1985, appearing on the albums: Since the Accident, City Slab Horror, Blubberknife and...
, Paul Deering, and Stephen Jones
Stephen Jones (musician)
Stephen Jones is an Australian electronic musician and video artist. Born in Sydney, Australia, Jones, together with Tom Ellard, was a principal member of Severed Heads from 1983 to 1992...
, but over time the group devolved to Tom Ellard
Tom Ellard
Thomas Ellard , is an Australian electronic musician best known as the founding member of the electronic and industrial music group Severed Heads.-Early life:...
.
In early 2008 Ellard announced that Severed Heads was now defunct and that no further creative output would be released under this name. Since then they have performed a 30th anniversary show on January 14, 2010 as part of the annual Sydney Festival
Sydney Festival
Sydney Festival is Australia's largest and most attended annual cultural event running every January since it was first held in 1977. Its program features around 80 events including contemporary and classical music, dance, circus, drama, visual arts and artist talks...
, and in May 2011 the group supported Gary Numan
Gary Numan
Gary Numan is an English singer, composer, and musician, most widely known for his chart-topping 1979 hits "Are 'Friends' Electric?" and "Cars". His signature sound consisted of heavy synthesizer hooks fed through guitar effects pedals.Numan is considered a pioneer of commercial electronic music...
in a tour celebrating the 30th anniversary of Numan's album The Pleasure Principle
The Pleasure Principle (Gary Numan album)
The Pleasure Principle is the third studio album, and debut album under his own name, by electronic music pioneer Gary Numan, released in 1979...
. In a May, 2011 interview, Tom Ellard explained: "Some people thought it was a bit rude of me to just shut it down without a proper farewell tour and so we decided we would drag it out just one more time and say our toodly-doodly’s."
History
The band's name change to Severed Heads, from the aforementioned Mr. & Mrs. No Smoking Sign, was meant, in part, as a joke. Tom Ellard: “...We were called Mr. & Mrs. No Smoking Sign, because that was really ugly. Then, we wanted to fool people that we were Industrial and it worked. Severed Heads was a really dumb name, so that’s what stuck. Forever. I hate it by the way.”Early Severed Heads music was characterised by the use of tape loop
Tape loop
In music, tape loops are loops of prerecorded magnetic tape used to create repetitive, rhythmic musical patterns or dense layers of sound. Contemporary composers such as Steve Reich and Karlheinz Stockhausen used tape loops to create phase patterns and rhythms...
s, noisy arrangements of synthesizers and other dissonant sound sources, putting Severed Heads in the general category of industrial music
Industrial music
Industrial music is a style of experimental music that draws on transgressive and provocative themes. The term was coined in the mid-1970s with the founding of Industrial Records by the band Throbbing Gristle, and the creation of the slogan "industrial music for industrial people". In general, the...
. After several releases in that vein, Severed Heads began incorporating various popular music tropes, such as a consistent 4/4 rhythm, strong melodic lines, resolving chord arrangements and Ellard's thin but gently eerie vocals and elliptical, poetic lyrics. This move was underscored by the incorporation of mimetic devices, such as drum machine
Drum machine
A drum machine is an electronic musical instrument designed to imitate the sound of drums or other percussion instruments. They are used in a variety of musical genres, not just purely electronic music...
s and bass synthesizers. The result was a striking hybrid of the avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
industrial and pop.
Severed Heads were signed to Nettwerk
Nettwerk
The Nettwerk Music Group is the umbrella company for Nettwerk Management, Nettwerk Records, Nettwerk One Publishing, Nutone Records, and Artwerk. With over 150 employees, the Vancouver-based company has offices in New York, Los Angeles, London, Boston, Nashville, and Hamburg...
records in North America, and Volition Records
Volition Records
Volition Records was a Sydney, Australia-based record label specialising in electronic music styles such as house, techno, synthpop and trance. It was founded by Andrew Penhallow in the late 1980s, but folded in the late 1990s....
in Australia, and charted in 1984 with the song "Dead Eyes Opened". This deal led to a world tour, which was as much a multimedia event, thanks to the video synthesizer
Video synthesizer
A Video Synthesizer is a device that electronically creates a video signal.A video synthesizer is able to generate a variety of visual material without camera input through the use of internal video pattern generators, as seen in the stillframes of motion sequences shown above. It can also accept...
s of Stephen Jones. They also charted in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in the late 1980s with a 12-inch single
12-inch single
The 12-inch single is a type of gramophone record that has wider groove spacing compared to other types of records. This allows for louder levels to be cut on the disc by the cutting engineer, which in turn gives a wider dynamic range, and thus better sound quality...
of "Greater Reward" (from the album Rotund For Success) assisted by several remixes by Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
-based producer Robert Racic
Robert Racic
Robert Racic was an Australian DJ and record producer. Born in Melbourne and highly influential within electronic and house music circles he was largely unknown outside Australia...
. Racic, who produced album tracks and various singles on and off through the late 1980s and early 1990s and became integral to the Severed Heads sound of that period.
Nettwerk severed its relations with Ellard in the early 1990s, leaving the band adrift in the marketplace. Ellard sought out another label for his next release, Gigapus, in 1995, which was released on Volition in Australia and Decibel Records elsewhere. Around this time, the band had a major Australian hit with a remixed version of "Dead Eyes Opened". Both Volition and Decibel soon folded, and once again, Severed Heads were unaligned with the traditional music industry, and didn't fully own the rights to their music. This changed in 1998, when Sony Music sold Ellard the rights back for a nominal fee.
With his music back in his hands and fully independent, Ellard took this on as a challenge and began developing an independent music system, which is entirely Internet based, at sevcom.com (the link is below). During the early 2000s, Tom Ellard blazed an independent path for his art and developed several innovative products, such as the Sevcom Music Server, a subscription based ambient music
Ambient music
Ambient music is a musical genre that focuses largely on the timbral characteristics of sounds, often organized or performed to evoke an "atmospheric", "visual" or "unobtrusive" quality.- History :...
distribution system.
Ellard has worked on a side project, Coklacoma, which released a few CDs in the late 1990s. By 2004, he was heavily involved with developing video but increasingly felt that the Severed Heads label was a thing of the past, and in 2008 opted to jettison the name. Ellard also worked extensively during the 1990s with other Sydney based electronic musicians and groups such as Paul Mac
Paul Mac
Paul Mac is a musician, producer and music remixer from Sydney, Australia. He was classically trained at Sydney's Conservatorium of Music. Paul Mac formed the bands Smash Mac Mac, Itch-e And Scratch-e, The Lab, and The Dissociatives, as well as releasing two records under his own name...
(of Itch-E and Scratch-E
Itch-E and Scratch-E
Not to be confused with the fictional characters Itchy and Scratchy from The Simpsons.Itch-E and Scratch-E is an Australian electronic music group formed by Paul Mac and Andy Rantzen in Sydney in the early 1990s initially recording on the Volition label...
) and Boxcar
Boxcar (band)
Boxcar is an Australian Sydney-based synth pop and techno band. Formed in the mid-1980s in Brisbane by main songwriter guitarist and vocalist David Smith, he was soon joined by keyboardists Brett Mitchell and Carol Rohde and somewhat later by drummer-percussionist Crispin Trist. They initially...
, former alumni of the now-defunct Volition label, as well as The Lab
The Lab (band)
The Lab were an Australian Sydney-based electronic music band consisting of keyboardist Paul Mac, vocalist Yolanda Podolski and vocalist and bassist Warwick Factor. An early line-up included a second bass player. They formed in the late 1980s and initially recorded on the rooArt label...
.
Selected discography
- Ear Bitten (1980)
- Clean (1981)
- BlubberknifeBlubberknifeBlubberknife is a 1983 studio album by Australian experimental rock group Severed Heads. It was originally released on cassette.-Side B:#An American in Paris#Tarzan's Grip#Umbrella#Lower Than the Grave#J. Edgar Hoover / C.M.I.D.#Ad Infinitum...
(1983) - Since the AccidentSince the AccidentSince the Accident is a 1983 studio album by Australian experimental rock group Severed Heads.-Side A:#A Relic of the Empire#A Million Angels#Houses Still Standing#Gashing the Old Mae West#Dead Eyes Opened#Golden Boy-Side B:#Godsong#Epilepsy 82...
(1983) - "Dead Eyes Opened" (1984)
- City Slab Horror (1985)
- Clifford Darling, Please Don't Live In The Past (1985)
- Come Visit the Big Bigot (1986)
- Bad Mood Guy (1987)
- "Greater Reward" (1988)
- Bulkhead (1988)
- Rotund For Success (1989)
- Retread (1991)
- Cuisine (1991)
- Gigapus (1994)
- "Dead Eyes Opened 94" (1994) (remix)
- Severything V. 1 (1996) (CD-ROM)
- Haul Ass (1998)
- Op1.0 (2002)
- Op2.0 (2004)
- The Illustrated Family Doctor (2005) (Soundtrack)
- Op2.5 - Millennium Cheesecake (2005)
- Under Gail Succubus (2006)
- Viva! Heads! (2006)