Clock DVA - History

History

The group was originally known for making a form of experimental electronic music involving treated tape loops and synthesisers. Clock DVA became associated with industrial music with the 1980 release of the track 'Brigade' on the Sheffield compilation EP '1980: The First Fifteen Minutes' on Neutron Records and their cassette album White Souls in Black Suits on Throbbing Gristle's Industrial Records. The album Thirst, released on Fetish Records, followed in 1981 to a favourable critical reaction, knocking Adam and the Ants' Dirk Wears White Sox from the top of the NME Indie Charts, by which time the band had combined musique concrète techniques with standard rock instrumentation. "4 Hours", the single from "Thirst" was later covered by former Bauhaus bassist David J on his 1985 solo e.p. "Blue moods turning tail".

The band split up in 1981, with the non original members of the band going on to form The Box.

In 1983, Newton formed a new version of the band. First releasing the single "High Holy Disco Mass" on the major label Polydor Records under the name DVA, the band then released the album Advantage (with several singles) under the name Clock DVA. After a European tour, however, the band split acrimoniously.

After the 1983 breakup of Clock DVA, Adi Newton formed The Anti-Group or T.A.G.C. They released several albums continuing in a similar vein to the early Clock DVA, yet more experimental. Newton also formed a side project called Psychophysicist, with Andrew Mackenzie, which released one album.

In 1987, Adi Newton reactivated DVA and invited Dean Dennis and Paul Browse back into the fold to aid Newton's use of computer aided sampling techniques which he had been developing in the Anti Group. The album Buried Dreams, an electronic album which received critical acclaim as a pioneering work. Browse left the group in 1989 and was replaced by R E Baker. The album Man-Amplified was the next album to be released, an exploration of cybernetics. Digital Soundtracks, an instrumental album, was the next release. Following Dennis's departure, Newton and Baker produced the album Sign.

Adi Newton reactivated Clock DVA along with his creative partner Jane Radion Newton in 2008 and, for the first time since 1994, performed live in June 2011 at Wave-Gotik-Treffen festival in Germany.