Cabaret Voltaire Vs Taylor Swift

Of all the possible artists Taylor Swift could have collaborated with Cabaret Voltaire would not have been on the list but this month the team up nobody asked for finally happened. Sort of, as in the UK Swift fans who purchased the vinyl copy of the Swift single "Speak Now" were puzzled and for some appalled to find that due to a mix-up (obscure Cabaret Voltaire référence!) the track was actually a version of the Cab's single "Yashar" dating back to 1983.

CABARET VOLTAIRE  ~  "YASHAR";


UK paper "The Guardian" describes Cabaret Voltaire as "an obscure electronic band" which does not do them justice. formed in the late 70's inn Sheffield, England the Cabs were one of the founders of the first wave of Industrial Music as well as being the genre's most successful and longest lasting icons. Along with Throbbing Gristle the Cabs not only gave the genre not only a name but also a sound (dark, atmospheric, electronic drones with plenty of white noise) and a esthetic (drab, grey, thrift shop, anti-fashion and generic graphics) but even an ideological theory consisting of various threads of Anarchy, art movements Dada, Futurism, Situationism, Constructionism, Pop Art, musical movements Punk Rock, Free Jazz, Avant Garde Classical and thinkers Marshall McLuhan, John Cage, Antoine Artuad, William Buroughs and Alistair Crowley and bands the early Velvet Underground and Roxy Music, Frank Zappa, Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk, John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Albert Ayler, Syd Barrett, Karlheinz Stockhausen and various Kraut Rock bands.  

CABARET VOLTAIRE  ~  "EMPTY WALLS";


Since the 90's what is now known as Industrial Music is basically Metal dance music but the original wave of Industrial bands as laid down by bands like Cabaret Voltaire, Throbbing Gristle, Clock DVA, SPK, Severed Heads, Test Department, Einsturzende Neubauten the more obscure Robert Rental, Jass, Graph and even the early versions of the Human League, OMD and ABC were definitely not danceable and at times barely listenable to most people, and by design. The original Industrial Music bands were hardly bands at all in the traditional sense. Few of them could play any musical instruments, at least not very well. Instead they experimented with cheap analog keyboards, tape collage sound effects, disembodied voices mixed with occasional actual guitar, bass, drums and sax, buried under piles and piles of feedback, white noise and distortion. As Dick Clark would no doubt say (while plugging his ears and running from the room); "It's got no beat and you can't dance to it". After a few years of wild experimentation most of the survivors drifted into Techno Pop (Human League, OMD, ABC) or dance and trance music (Clock DVA, Severed Heads, SPK and the Throbbing Gristle offshoots Psychic TV and Chris & Cosey) with Cabaret Voltaire falling into the latter camp by the late 80's.

CABARET VOLTAIRE  ~  "SHAFT";


Before that however they made the best records of the genre. Formed by Stephen Mallinder, Richard Kirk and Chris Watson, their discography falls into different phases with the first era from about 1975 to 1980 including several singles and the first two albums featuring anti-classics "Nag Nag Nag", and "Mussolini Headkick" which codified the cacophonous wall of noise of the first wave. The second era ran through most of the 80's and focused on dense, atmospheric sound collages which eventually led to some obscure dance club hits including "Yashar" and by the end of the decade resulting in a few straightforward dance club albums which were only moderately successful. In the early 90's they broke up but they reformed a few years later recording a couple of brilliantly intricate albums of electronics and sampling as well as remixing several of their early songs. Founding member Richard Kirk died in 2021.

CABARET VOLTAIRE  ~  "MUSSOLINI HEADKICK";


Cabaret Voltaire is one of those bands I can actually remember discovering. Growing up in the pre-internet 80's it was still possible to stumble on to music you had never heard before and knew nothing about. Sometime around 1985 or 86 I found a secondhand obscure British compilation from 1979 which featured some straightforward Punk bands like the UK Subs, a Sex Pistols offshoot and Irish band the Outcasts, in fact that's why I bought it in the first place. But side two featured early Industrial bands Thomas Leer, Robert Rental and Throbbing Gristle ("United", one of their Techno Pop songs). And then there was the last track, Cabaret Voltaire's "Mussolini Headkick", one of their early singles full of white noise, grinding machinery and disembodied voices. I had never heard anything quite like it and at the time my reaction was pretty much; "What even is this and how is this even a song"? But after a couple of listens I found it oddly fascinating and eventually fell in love with them especially when I heard the Wall Of Noise anti-classic "Nag Nag Nag" which was a better Jesus & Mary Chain (who I was also already a fan of) than actual Jesus & Mary Chain.  

CABARET VOLTAIRE  ~  "NAG NAG NAG";


The song Swifties found themselves subjected to was "Yashar" from their mid period rather than from their early abrasive cacophony but the reaction was mostly horror with terms like "weird", "creepy" and "cursed" but a few of them at least have come to enjoy the tracks calling it "definitely a vibe" so maybe a few of them will discover some new audio worlds. Surviving Cabs member Stephen Mallinder pronounced himself amused by the whole affair.

CABARET VOLTAIRE  ~  "NO ESCAPE";


This is actually not the first time Taylor Swift has had a close encounter of the Industrial kind. A few years ago due to some other technical mix-up (obscure reference call back!) as a few years ago a Taylor Swift track was uploaded onto Spotify which when downloaded turned out to be a couple minutes of white noise. Being a Taylor Swift track it still managed to briefly rocketed to the top of the charts. At the time I recall posting that somewhere in a darkened, cobweb encrusted warehouse Cabaret Voltaire, Throbbing Gristle, SPK and the ghosts of Lou Reed and John Cage are sitting around saying "What the fuck"?

CABARET VOLTAIRE VS QUEEN ~  "WE WILL NAG YOU";


Besides music the Cabs were also pioneers of making videos using Dada techniques of collages and cut-ups of found footage and I've long been using Cabaret Voltaire tracks for my video mashups. Including this one which takes a remix of "Nag Nag Nag" and a short art film by Canadian filmmaker David Rimmer (who also died this year) which gives a good idea of the sonic chaos of early the Cabs.

CABARET VOLTAIRE  ~  "NAG NAG NAG" (remix);


Another I'm quite fond of was one I did for a remix of another early track using another Dada film.

CABARET VOLTAIRE  ~  "IF THE SHADOWS COULD MARCH";


To close out here's another one for which I took the original version of the above song and remixed it myself by slowing it down and mixing it with some found silent film footage.

CABARET VOLTAIRE  ~  "IF THE SHADOWS COULD MARCH" (slowed down remix);


For any Swifties still reading (Hi BTW) here's a remix of "Yashar" the Cabs themselves did at the end of the 80's when they were becoming more of a dance band which you should find less annoying. Enjoy.

CABARET VOLTAIRE ~ "YASHAR" (REMIX);

Throwback Thursdays Retro Video Project; UK Industrial Music

I've already posted numerous videos from early industrial bands like Cabaret Voltaire, Clock DVA, Monoton, Ramleh and Destroy All Monsters but here's a few similar odds and ends.

ROBERT RENTAL & THE NORMAL ~ "SONG NUMBER 6";


Robert Rental (real name Robert Donnachie) was a Scottish pioneer of the the early electro industrial scene working with Thomas Leers and Daniel Miller (Mute Records founder) as The Normal starting in 1978. He released a few records including working with Throbbing Gristle and touring with Stiff Little Fingers. He died of cancer in 2000.

ROBERT RENTAL & THE NORMAL ~ "SONG NUMBER 7";


Both of these vids are from his first album on which the songs have no titles. I used films shot by Andy Warhol in the 1960's as part of his "Screen Tests".

YELLOW ~ "YES TO ANOTHER EXCESS";


Yellow were actually Swiss, not British but I don't know where else to put them. Anyway this vid uses an early rare horror film by DW Griffith based on Edgar Allan Poe's "The Cask Of The Amontillado". The cast includes Henry Walthall (who would later star in "Birth Of A Nation" with supporting roles by Mary Pickford, Mack Sennett and Linda Arvidson, Griffith's wife.

NURSE WITH WOUND ~ "SWAMP RAT";


Nurse With Wound are a UK group who have been around in various formations since 1978 with literally dozens of albums ranging from Industrial drone to Kraut Rock. For this vid I used an old silent fantasy film.

ORCHESTRAL MANEUVERS IN THE DARK ~ "DAZZLE SHIPS";


OMD were known for their series of synth pop hits however their early work was more experimental including this track from their fourth album for which I used a 1905 Segundo De Chomon film.

OMD ~ "UNIVERSAL";


For this later track vid I used a French silent film from between 1904 - 1908 which includes some early animation.

Throwback Thursdays Retro Video Project; UK New Wave

Assorted UK New Wave;

PUBLIC IMAGE LTD;
The post Sex Pistols project of Johnny Lydon (nee Rotten) had little in common with the Pistols but would be effectively the first Post Punk band and would be a huge influence on the likes of Joy Division, Gang Of Four, Bauhaus, the Banshees, Killing Joke, Clock DVA and pretty much every other artsy dark and moody UK band ofthe 1980's by eschewing the thrashy power chords of punk for funky-dub bass lines and shards of angular guitar and Lydon's keening vocals. The classic albums were the first self titled debut and the second "Metal Box" with it's iconic film can packaging. PIL would carry with an ever fractious lineup. At the end of the eighties they suddenly took an unexpected turn to more conventional sounds for their last three albums. The Pistols would briefly reform in the nineties.

PUBLIC IMAGE LTD ~ "ALBATROSS";


For this video I used an early Gothic horror film from French director Maurice Tourneur "The Wax Figures" (1914)

SUBWAY SECT; Subway Sect were part of the first wave of London punk bands but they were radically different than than the thrashing three chord punks. Led by singer Vic Goddard the Sect filtered their slower Stooges chords through a low-fi artsier lens. They only released a few singles (including a minor hit with "Ambition") while the album they recorded sat on the shelf unreleased to this day after Goddard fired the rest of the band before completely restructuring them as a non-rock cabaret act for a few years. Subway Sect's time in the limelight didn't last long but their crude, droning art-punk and drab black and grey visual aesthetic would have an influence on the next generation of art punks like the Fall, Wire, Magazine, Joy Division and the Psychedelic Furs. The Jesus & Mary Chain would go on to cover "Ambition" in their early days.

SUBWAY SECT ~ "CHAIN SMOKING";


For this vid I used some footage of a London Cabaret in the 1930's

SUBWAY SECT ~ "WE OPPOSE ALL ROCK & ROLL";


This vid uses footage from a 1930's newsreal of a rally by the British Blackshirts and leader Sir Oswald Mosley that turned into a riot.

MAGAZINE:

Magazine were formed by singer Howard DeVoto after leaving the Buzzcocks. They had several albums and a few hits from 1977 - 1981. After the band petered out guitarist John McGheogh went on to Visage (first album) and three highly regarded albums with Siouxsie & The Banshees finally ending up with Public Image Ltd by the late eighties. He died in 2004. This song was later covered by Bauhaus singer Peter Murphy on his first album and also by Trotsky Icepick.

MAGAZINE ~ "THE LIGHT POURS OUT OF ME";


This video uses some street scene footage from 1920's Wiemar Germany.

FINGERPRINTZ;

Fingerprintz were a Scottish group who put out three highly regarded but not very successful albums between 1979-1983. Each of their albums were quite different with the first album being artsy guitar based, the second more power pop and the third slick and dancable. In spite of getting great reviews nothing quite worked and they broke up with singer Jimmie O'Neil and guitarist Cha Burns reforming as the Silencers who would face a similar fate.

FINGERPRITNZ ~ "SYNCH UNIT";


This early instrumental with a spaghetti western feel uses a clip of a silent western starring Jack Hoxie, (in the white hat of course).

THE PSYCHEDELIC FURS;

The Furs started out as an artsy post punk band with a droning cacophonous sound of the Subway Sect/Wire school. After original producer Martin Hannett had to bow out in order to rescue New Order after the death of Ian Curtis the Furs went to Steve Lillywhite who had previously produced the first albums by Siouxsie & The Banshees and Ultravox. (Note; Another young band also being produced by Hannett also ended up with Lillywhite, that band was U2). Lillywhite would produce the Furs first two albums.

THE PSYCHEDELIC FURS ~ "SO RUN DOWN";


This track from the first album uses a 1908 George Melies film.

THE PASSIONS;

The Passions were a band a female singer (Barbara Gogan), who put out three well reviewed albums between 1979 - 82 with two classic hits including "I'm In Love With A German Film Star" and "African Mine" before they broke up. Later guitarist Kevin Armstrong later went to play with David Bowie in Tin Machine, Iggy Pop, Morrissey and Sinead O'Connor. And that's about it.

THE PASSIONS ~ "I'M IN LOVE WITH A GERMAN FILM STAR";


I naturally used an Andy Warhol screen-test of Nico because of course I did.

THE CULT; The Cult started out as a murky proto-Goth band as The Southern Death Cult who released a couple of singles and ep's before briefly shortening it to the Death Cult with another ep before finally settling on The Cult who finally settled on a cleaner big guitar and vocal sound with some psychedelic imagery on the "Dream Time" and "Love" albums which finally became, um, cult hits in the UK and Canada. By 1987 they evolved into a more 1970's hard rock sound with "Electric" and it's follow-up "Sonic Temple" which finally broke them into the U.S. market. It didn't really last though and the next few albums got diminishing results and cock-rock gave way to grunge. Eventually they broke up and singer Ian Astbury joined a reformed version of the Doors with Ray Manzerek.

THE CULT ~ "PHOENIX";


For the opening track off of "Love" I used an old film "A Trip To Mars".

THE CULT ~ "NIRVANA";


For this track from "Love" I used some early animation from German Dada film-maker Walter Ruttmann from the 1920's.

THE FIXX;

The Fixx were one of the last groups of the post-Joy Division Simple school of artsy, atmospheric, keyboard heavy, New Wave with their first album coming out in 1982 although they had been kicking around for a few years. Unlike the likes of Simple Minds, Ultravox and Japan however the Fixx surprised everyone, including probably themselves, by scoring a series of hits on both sides of the Atlantic, helped no doubt by the rise of MTV. This track off of the first album uses a short art film made for the Dadaist Fluxus Film collective circa 1967.

THE FIXX ~ "THE FOOL";


This track off of the first album uses a short art film made for the Dadaist Fluxus Film collective circa 1967.

THE FIXX ~ "THE SIGN OF FIRE";


This track uses an early film about a home invasion.

THE CHAMELEONS;
The Chameleons (sometimes called the Chameleons UK in the USA for legal reasons) were a band from Manchester with a loud echoey guitar sound and deep voiced vocals somewhat midway between early U2 and Sisters Of Mercy. They put out three albums between 1983 -86 before breaking up and reforming a couple times including a reunion tour this year. The first album was the best.

THE CHAMELEONS ~ "DON'T FALL";


This song of the first uses a clip from a Harry Houdini adventure movie from the 1920's.

THE CHAMELEONS ~ "SECOND SKIN";


Another song from the first album using an early French film about a stalker.

ERASURE; One of the bigger synth-pop bands, Erasure were a spin-off from Depeche Mode starting in 1985 with a number of hits. ERASURE ~ "SHIP OF FOOLS";


This vid uses an early colour film (1926) using dancers from Martha Graham's modern dance troop.

RIP to Ric Ocasek and The Cars

THE CARS ~ "HELLO AGAIN";


I grew up in the late 70's & early 80's during the Punk & New Wave era. When I was a kid I wasn't really into music. The only records I had were some of my dad's old Jazz records (Slim Gaillard, Fats Waller, Woody Herman, Glen Miller, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Tod Rhodes, Jellyroll Morton, Teddy Wilson, the Ink Spots and Benny Goodman's 1938 Carnegie Hall concert) and some K-Tell albums. You know; those compilations where they would take a gaggle of songs that had been on the top forty and tossed them together regardless of whether they had anything in common with each other so you could find acceptable hard rock like Rush, Kiss and Nazareth alongside drippy pop singers Dan Hill, Burton Cummings, Tony Orlando and disco, country and novelty songs. All slightly edited and crammed together so tightly that each album would average twenty songs with crappy sound, garishly ugly covers and titles like "20 AMAZING DYNAMITE ROCK HITS!". You know; Classy. I didn't listen to them much. If you had asked me who my favorite bands were I would have said the Monkees because they had a cool TV show that was on after school, Suzi Quatro who was Leather Tuscadero on "Happy Days" and maybe Alice Cooper and that's about it.

However we also used to also have a cottage in Parry Sound where we would go practically every weekend and longer during the summer. It was pretty rustic, no running water, no phone, no TV. But we did have electricity and thus a radio. I never really listened to much radio at home in Toronto, after all there was the TV. But up north there was nothing to at night, or during the day if it rained, except read books and listen to the radio. Late at night I would hear crackling over the airwaves CBC shows like "Quirks & Quarks", old radio shows like "The Inner Sanctum" and "Quiet Please", top forty chart shows like Kasey Kasem's "America's Top 40" and "90 Minutes With A Bullet". This was happening just as New Wave (if not actual Punk Rock) was becoming a chart presence so I started to hear some news sounds among the usual dreary Kansas, Boston and Chicago.

THE CARS ~ "JUST WHAT I NEEDED";


The first band I remember falling in love with was the Cars with their cool linear sound and spacey keyboards fairly leaping out of the speakers next to the stodgy likes of the Eagles and Stampeders. Songs like "Just What I Needed", "Lets Go", "My Best Friends Girl" and "Shake It Up" made the likes of Supertramp and Elton John seem as old as ragtime. Soon there would be more; the Pretenders, B52's, Motels, Police, Diodes, Vapors, Blondie, Talking Heads, Devo, Teenage Head, OMD, Rough Trade, Martha & the Muffins. Along with a few not exactly New Wave but still somehow related types like Tom Petty, Nick Lowe, Cheap Trick, Max Webster, Dire Straits. It wasn't just big city radio either. I can still recall as if it was yesterday the time the local small town DJ came in and announced he had been in Toronto record buying and had the latest hit to unveil. Before doing so he warned the parents they might want to leave the room before playing...the B52's "Rock Lobster". Then laughing nervously. Thereafter there would be more; Devo's "Whip It", Teenage Head's "Disgusteen", Max Webster's "Check", the Vapors "Turning Japanese", M's "Pop Musik", the Knack's "My Sharona". Every time after playing one of these the befuddled local small town DJ would come on an say something like; "Well I'm not quite sure what that was but lets play some Fleetwood Mac", to which I would say; "NOOOO!".

The Cars first album was actually one of the first proper albums I got, although I didn't actually buy it. Mostly because I never had any money and what little I did have went to books, comics and model soldiers, not music. One day in 1980 or 81 I found a cache of albums somebody was tossing out (I think they were moving) which along side some old dinosaurs like Steppenwolf, Grand Funk, the Faces, Queen, Firefall, Nazareth and Uriah Heep (A double live album yet! This is why punk happened) there were a dozen New Wave and New Wave adjacent albums; the Cars, B52's, Romantics, Pretenders & Knack's first albums, the Police, Rockpile, Motels, Blondie, Tom Petty, Dire Straits, Max Webster, Suzi Quatro. After that I was hooked although I didn't get around to actually buying anything myself til 1982 and Joan Jett's "I Love Rock & Roll".

THE CARS ~ "LET'S GO";


There was, and is still, a tendency to dismiss these New Wave bands as being pale shadows of real Punk Rock, corporate record company attempts to cash in on a genuine underground movement. And it's true you would never hear any real Punk Rock on the radio (aside from occasionally the Clash, Teenage Head or once in a blue moon maybe the Ramones) let alone Hardcore or Industrial music. But there is no doubt New Wave was a gateway drug for those too young to find their way to an underground club or those living too far away from a big city scene. The campus radio scene was in it's infancy at the time, Much Music and MTV were several years away and the internet a generation off. At any rate the best of the New Wave songs easily stand out even today.

At any rate back to the Cars. Ohio based Ric Ocasek (singer/guitarist & main songwriter) and Benjamin Orr (bassist/singer) had been working together for a while as folk-rockers since 1970 under various names and lineups with notable lack of success before moving to Boston. One of those abortive lineups included sax and keyboard player Greg Hawkes who had also played in comedian Martin Mull's band. By 1976 jazz influenced guitarist Elliot Easton and drummer David Robinson were added, Robinson was something of a veteran of the band new Boston Punk scene thanks to being in Johnathan Richman's band The Modern Lovers and DMZ and The Pop. As the band moved from artsy Folk Rock to a Roxy Music influenced New Wave it was Robinson's idea to change the name of the band from Milkwood (a Dylan Thomas reference) to the more modern sounding The Cars. They would get signed in 1977 and record the first album which quickly became the first American New Wave hit record that didn't come out of New York.

THE CARS ~ "SHAKE IT UP";


They were, along with Blondie, the first American New Wave band to have hits, and they were easily the most successful with a string of top 40 hits; "Just What I Needed", "Lets Go", "My Best Friends Girl" and "Shake It Up", in fact the entire first album (1978) sounds like a greatest hits album. Their mix of state of the art keyboards with just enough guitar to rock out, slightly nasal voices and short, snappy songs helped define the early eighties. One of the odd notes about them was the fact that Ric Ocasek and Ben Orr shared vocal duties even though they essentially sounded the same. They would continue to have hits for most of the rest of the decade even as a new generation of more underground American bands would make the Cars seem already old hat. They tried to dress the part with skinny ties and tight pants but their long hair was a little off-brand. 1984's "Heartbeat City" was their last big splash as they made the most of the new MTV, teaming up with Andy Warhol to make a series of splashy videos for "You Might Think", "Magic", "Hello Again" and the ballad "Drive" scoring several hits. These videos showed Ocasek's girlfriend, supermodel Pauliana Porikova to good effect as well as Warhol in his last major work and in which he showed he was easily the worst lipsyncher ever. The Cars, like most American bands and unlike the UK New Wavers, had never shown much interest in videos previously. The famously gawky Ocasek would get to live out the rock star dream by marrying supermodel Paulina. This was essentially their last hurrah however, 1987's "Door To Door" stiffed and they broke up rather acrimoniously. Ocasek would have a few minor solo records (as would Ben Orr) but he would become better known as a producer for the likes of Suicide, Bad Brains, Romeo Void, Hole, Nada Surf, Bad Religion, Black 47, Guided by Voices, Weezer, Bebe Buell, No Doubt, Johnny Bravo, D Generation, Possum Dixon, Martin Rev and going full circle, Jonathan Richman. He also produced books of poetry and photographs.

THE CARS ~ "YOU MIGHT THINK";


Ben Orr died in 2000 and Ocasek shunned any band reunions saying he had no desire to perform live and was especially not interested in touring. The Cars did do a reunion tour without him in 2005-06 with Todd Rundgren on vocals which Ocasek at first gave legal permission for but then mocked, as did most fans. There would finally be a proper reunion (without Orr of course) in 2016 with a new album and tour. They were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame in 2018 which would be their last gig. Ric Ocasek was found dead of heart disease in his New York townhouse this September 15 aged 74.

THE CARS ~ "SINCE YOU'RE GONE";

Throwback Thursdays Retro Video Project; Cabaret Voltaire pt.3

I already made a bunch of Cabaret Voltaire here and here but since then I've made a few more so....

CABARET VOLTAIRE ~ "THE SET UP";


For this early track I used an early colour film by George Melies.

CABARET VOLTAIRE ~ "PREMONITION";


This vid uses another George Melies short "Satan In Prison".

CABARET VOLTAIRE ~ "NO ESCAPE";


This vid for a live version of a cover of a Seeds song uses an early short about an attack on a train.

CABARET VOLTAIRE ~ "IF THE SHADOWS COULD MARCH";


This bid uses a distressed fragment of a short doc showing a ship entering a harbour in Holland. Sountrack taken froma short track off the second album slowed down multiple times.

CABARET VOLTAIRE ~ "PARTIALLY SUBMERGED";


This vid uses footage of Edie Sedgewick from Andy Warhol's "Poor Little Rich Girl" (1965)

CABARET VOLTAIRE ~ "NEWS FROM NOWHERE";


This vid uses more footage of Edie, this time doing her laundry

CABARET VOLTAIRE ~ "WALLS OF KYOTO";


This vid for a live version off "Hai! Live In Japan" uses an Op Art film by George Cupp from 1977.

CABARET VOLTAIRE vs QUEEN ~ "WE WILL NAG YOU";


This track is a mashup of the Cabs and Queen and uses another Op Art film by George Cup from the 1970's

The Throwback Thursdays Retro Video Project Presents; Clock DVA

More from my Throwback Thursday Retro Video Project.
This week; Clock DVA. A Northern English band led by Adi Newton who combined a jazz-funk lineup with post-punk/industrial influences on their first three albums. After that the band broke up and Newton continued on as a purely techno band under the Clock DVA name. Guitarist John Valentine Carruthers would go on to join Siouxsie & The Banshees. They don't seem to have made any proper videos during their classic early phase so mine appear to be the only ones.

CLOCK DVA ~ "SENSORIUM";


A track off their 1981 second album "Thirst" (also their best) using a silent "Lone Ranger" cartoon which was filmed off of a television set. This one definitely has the feel of an early Cabaret Voltaire video.

CLOCK DVA ~ "BLUE TONE";


Another song off of "Thirst" using an early French film "History Of A Crime". The film itself obviously filmed on a stage backdrop and is interesting in using a second stage during the scene where the prisoner is shown sleeping to portray him dreaming of his past life. This was a technique used on stage but not in film once they figured out how to do flashbacks.

CLOCK DVA ~ "MOMENTS";


This song from "Thirst" uses a strange British sci-fi comedy "The Automatic Motorist" from 1911. The film's idea of space is basically that of George Melies films but unlike Melies this film uses multiple sets and allows for a car chase and would have made the Melies films of only a few years earlier seem old hat by comparison.

CLOCK DVA ~ "FOUR HOURS";


The closest thing early Clock DVA had to a single (from "Thirst), here mashed up with a George Melies film "Zeus' Thunderbolts".

CLOCK DVA ~ "PIANO PAIN";


Another track from "Thirst" using some very early BBC TV footage that was captured on an American TV where it was somehow beamed through freak atmospheric conditions. Since almost no TV recordings exist from that era it's interesting to see how similar it was to that of the 1950's Golden Age. Incidentally while most people assume that TV started in the 1950's it's not at all true as I've written about here.

CLOCK DVA ~ "NORTH LOOP";


This one uses Edison Studios newsreel footage of the San Francisco earthquake and fire.

CLOCK DVA ~ "DISCONTENTMENT";


This track off the obscure 1980 debut album "White Souls In Black Suits" which was put out by Industrial godfathers Throbbing Gristle on their Industrial label on cassette only. Yes I actually have one. The video uses newsreel footage of New York shot for the French Pathe company sometime in the mid 1930's. Note; I had some trouble with sound levels on this one.

CLOCK DVA ~ "STILL SILENT";


This track from "White Souls" uses another Op-Art Fluxus film, by John Cavanaugh.

CLOCK DVA ~ "THE CAGE"


This track comes from a set of early demos and uses a "In The Land Of Nod" a weird film which uses some early stop action animation.

CLOCK DVA ~ "SEXUAL OVERTURE";


Another early demo for which I used a WW1 British film "The German Spy Peril". Actually it's only part of the final reel in which the hero is captured by an oddly large group of spies and tossed into a tunnel under Big Ben with a bomb. The rest of the film is apparently lost.

CLOCK DVA ~ "UNTITLED DEMO TRACK 2";


This is another early demo and uses one from a series of amateur videos various people made as homages to the Andy Warhol "Screen Tests" of the 1960's

CLOCK DVA ~ "THE SONOLOGY OF SEX";


This song is from the b-side of the "Sound Mirror" single from 1990 put out by the latter, synth only version of Clock DVA. The song is about Elizabeth Bathory the infamous Bloody Countess of the sixteenth century so I used various still photos portrayals of the Countess including some of actresses who have played her on screen including Isabelle Hupert and Palmoa Picasso.