Clock DVA - Buried Dreams

A warning to people searching out the 1998 remaster from Nextera [Catalog#: ERA 9815-2]: it is horribly compressed and audibly clips, totally unacceptable remastering by any standards. Beyond that the usual suspects crop up such as a flat presentation etc., but the clipping is what makes it unlistenable. Very disappointing. Seeing as this disc is currently going from some pretty hefty prices, I thought it best to warn potential buyers--- btw if you're looking for the exclusive bonus track, you can find it readily available on the "Sound Mirror" CD single.

Even if you have acquired the three singles ('The Hacker', 'The Act' and 'Connection Machine') containing this album's tracks, you should go after this historical Long Play.
The double-sleeve cover presentation is simply amazing: the out-of-the-usual images are finely combinated with also odd resumes of each one of the tunes.
Two of them, in special, are worthy of mention. 'Buried Dreams', a sinister minimal-ambient electronic masterpiece with sexual screaming samples and a the speech about the history of Elizabeth Bathory, the Countess of Blood (La Comtesse De Sang) and her life of blood-sadistic crimes on the XVIIth century.
'The Reign' appears as a far obscure EBM of slow BPMs whose environment of darkness is titled as 'A Happy Death' by the french writer Albert Camus in the cover resume.

Adi Newman resurrected Clock DVA in 1988 after five years of experimenting with other styles of music under his Anti Group moniker. The new Clock DVA consisted of Adi's 'Advantage'-era band members (Newton, Paul Browse, & Dean Dennis) but the music was far different.

The hard funk and dark jazz of previous years has been replaced with all electronic and industrial instrumentation with Newton keeping his trademark coarse and sinister vocal delivery from track to track. As such, this is possibly the darkest album the band has produced to date. Themes of mysticism, occult, sexual perversion, and death permeate track after track, particularly on 'Hide' (my favourite), 'The Act' & 'The Reign'. There's also some decidedly more accessible stuff here like 'Sound Mirror' and 'The Hacker' which deal with more futurist and technological themes. Newton would pursue this further with subsequent releases in the early-90s.

The music itself is quite dark and tense and a bit scary and varies in volume quite a bit. Many tracks have a loud-soft quality. I found myself turning up a track during a quiet intro only to have my eardrums scathed with sudden stabs of electronoise and Newton's vocals creep in.

I LOVE when that happens.

The only problem I have with the disc is production. The CD version sounds a bit thin, especially after hearing the mastering on 'Advantage'. There seems to be little bottom end here. If you're into sound production, you might need to play around with your stereo equalizer (if on hand) to enjoy this album better.

Fans of Skinny Puppy, Klinik, Converter, and the more experimental aspects of industrial dance music might find this an essential addition to their collection. Reccommended!

One track on this is a very extended sample from the brilliant psychological thriller The Conversation, directed by Francis Ford Coppola. You would have to see the movie to understand why it's a brilliant sample and why Clock DVA are geniuses for using it. Very strange and abstract fellows here.