SEVERED HEADS - DISCOGRAPHY (85 VIDEOS)

January 13, 2020

Severed Heads

Profile:

Severed Heads is an Australian group based and founded in Sydney in 1979. The group was originally known as Mr And Mrs No Smokin' Sign who started recording in 1977 and comprised of Richard Fielding and Andrew Wright (8). Tom Ellard joined the group in 1979 and shortly thereafter Wright departed. Once Wright left the group Fielding decided to change the name to Severed Heads. Fielding eventually left the group too, in 1981, citing it as becoming "too rock 'n roll", leaving Ellard as the sole continuing member of the group. A variety of people have played in Severed Heads, including Garry Bradbury, Paul Deering, and Stephen Jones (3), but over time the group has devolved to Tom Ellard.

Early Severed Heads music was characterised by the use of tape loops, 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, and resolving chord arrangements. This move was underscored by the incorporation of mimetic devices, such as drum machines. The result was a striking hybrid of the avant-garde, EBM and Synth-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 lead to a world tour, which was as much a multimedia event, thanks to the video work of Stephen Jones. A period of more or less dance music influenced releases followed until Volition went bankrupt and Nettwerk dropped the band which led to a re-activation and digital distribution via their own Sevcom imprint.

On 4th February 2008 Tom Ellard announced the end of the "Severed Heads".

However, they continue to play occasional live shows and played on 16th and 17th December 2011 at the 10th Anniversary BIM Fest in Antwerp, Belgium.
In 2013 they played the Adelaide Festival in Australia again.
2015 saw a performance at the Metro in Chicago for Cold Waves IV, as well as a North American tour.
2016 saw performances in Europe and back on their home turf Australia.

In 2019, they played another small tour in select cities across Europe and North America; they played their final show at the Metro in Chicago, IL, on 9th September 2019.Less

Sites:

ltmrecordings.com, Bandcamp, vimeo.com

Aliases:

Headless Corpses, Sevcom All Stars

Members:

~~Andrew Wright (8)~~, ~~Garry Bradbury~~, ~~Paul Deering~~, ~~Richard Fielding~~, ~~Robert Racic~~, ~~Simon Knuckey~~, ~~Stephen Jones (3)~~, Stewart Lawler, Tom Ellard

Variations:

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Severed, The Severed Heads

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Marketplace2,635 For Sale

Vinyl and CD

Discography

2Recent Releases

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Albums

Side 2

Terse Tapes

1980

Severed Heads - Ear Bitten / No Vowels, No Bowels album art

Severed Heads / Rhythmyx Chymx - Ear Bitten / No Vowels, No Bowels

Terse Tapes

1980

Clean

Dogfood Production System

1981

Media Jingles ‎(Cass, Comp)

Conventional Tapes

none

1981

1982

1983

1984

Clifford Darling, Please Don't Live In The Past

1985

1986

1987

1989

Cuisine (With Piscatorial)

Volition

1991

Gigapus

Volition

1994

Haul Ass

Sevcom

1998

Contoured Stimulation (Music Server Lite)

Sevcom

1998

Airconditioning Your Productivity (Music Server Lite)

Sevcom

1999

Ear Bitten 79 - 99 ‎(CDr, Album, RE)

Sevcom

none

1999

Cubicle Broadcasts (Music Server V.1)

Sevcom

2001

Gashing And Kato

Sevcom

2001

OP ‎(CDr, Album)

Sevcom

none

2002

Severed Heads - Controlled Time (Music Server Volume 4 Of 4) album art

Controlled Time (Music Server Volume 4 Of 4) ‎(CDr, Album)

Sevcom

none

2003

Op 1.2 ‎(CDr)

Sevcom

none

2004

The Illustrated Family Doctor (Original Film Soundtrack)

Mana Soundtracks

2005

Op 2.0 ‎(CDr)

Sevcom

none

2005

Op 2.5 (Millenium Cheesecake) ‎(CDr, Album)

Sevcom

none

2005

Reviews Show All 13 Reviews

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DazMon

November 9, 2017

Just saw them live again last week, they've pretty much established themselves as being the pioneers in Australian electronic music. Good to see Tom Ellard is still full of ideas and has things in the pipeline to interest us further. Can't say that for many artists from the 80s.

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macracer1

July 28, 2016

Hi ihasa67 Come Visit is only a compilation Album... can't really classify it as a Highpoint album..

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lhasa67

April 30, 2015

edited over 4 years ago

Without doubt a pivotal band in the history of rythmic electronics , while moroder was the first who managed to splice and pin multitrack to
sequencer gate clock output to create subdivided rythmic loops it is mister Ellard that took it to a whole new level. The sheer madness of sounds that whirled around my head on the brilliant 'goodbye tonsils' , from it's barroom brawl tapeloops and spittoon ms20 wrangling's , a
world of sounds sometimes so complex yet mesmerising. Come visit album was they're highpoint and from then on they kind of lost it , balancing between hunger for a hit record or the cleaned up version of the 'heads' sound winking to early house , a lesson to be learned in music is don't try to do many things mediocre , stay with the one trick you know best. The legacy of 'heads' copycats was manyfold but perhaps the most blatant ones were Aphex T. on his early output.

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duprie37

March 7, 2008

Severed Heads are important because they more or less invented the whole industrial-electronic cross-over genre. Without them, and albums such as City Slab Horror, Bad Mood Guy, Come Visit The Big Bigot and of course the quintessential Stretcher; bands such as Nine Inch Nails, Skinny Puppy, KMFDM, et al would perhaps never have been what they are and were. Severed Heads, without anyone hardly even realizing it in the 80s, managed to invent a whole new style of music that would sweep the world in the 90s all on their little own out of the far removed antipodes, without any radio station in Australia or ARIA ever even acknowledging they existed. A touch of genius perhaps and also a necessary and inevitable loop in the structure.

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January 1, 2006

edited over 14 years ago

One of my favorite bands to listen to when I was in high school. Over the years they went from industrial/experimental to techno/industrial-pop and I must say that I don't care for anything after the release "Cuisine (With Piscatorial)". What I loved most about Severed Heads was their ability to make industrial and cheese sounds so cool and it was something to sing to as well. "Dead Eyes Open" will always be a classic but I loved "Petrol (Remix Five)" and "We Have Come To Bless This House (Remix Two)" best, which just so happen to be on the Maxi single as "Dead Eyes Open".
Tom Ellard also runs Sevcom and his focus is re-releasing the old Severed Heads releases on CDr, which is good seeing as how most of the originals are sold out.

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mudslut23

August 9, 2003

One of the greatest electronic artists ever. Apparently they were influences on NIN and Skinny Puppy. At times they sounded like New Order, Erasure and Throbbing Gristle all ran into each other in a blender and then were poured over some ear splitting noise. I have too many favorite songs to name but my all time favorite that never changes is 'Harold And Cindy Hospital'.

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