Clock DVA - Buried Dreams

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!