Severed Heads + Borusiade 💀

Artist: Severed Heads
Title: Clean
Catalog #: DE-265
Format: 2xVinyl/Digital
Release Date: January 24, 2020

Food City
Our Own Home
Charivari
Nightsong
Car Advertisment
Love
Dont Saxophone
Book
Tiny Fingers
Heavily Tatooed Men + Women
Violins And Moonlight
Stomach
You Will
Turtledove
Flower
Clean Loops
Floopness
Ladies + Gents Digital
Somehow Pain
Subjective
Always Randy 
Unbreakable 
Traumat
Opera
Siren 

Our first release of 2020 is a deluxe 2xLP reissue of Severed Heads’ debut 1981 album ‘Clean’. One of the longest surviving bands to emerge from the Australian post-punk independent music scene, they began in Sydney in 1979. Severed Heads is basically a nom- de-plum for Tom Ellard, who incorporates elements of ‘industrial’ noise-generation, tape cutting & looping and electronic sound synthesis. As the project developed song-structures and vocals were employed in a more-or-less recognizable mutant electro pop style. 
‘Clean’ was amongst the first vinyl releases under the Dogfood Productions banner of Terse Tapes, previously a cassette-only label. For this records Tom used an array of synthesizers (Kawai 100F, Casiotone, Roland CR78+SH1+CSQ100), sequencers, tapes and occasional guitar and violin played by Garry Bradbury. Severed Heads have a language of their own, music that juxtaposes all sorts of noise, in all sorts of ways so that a structure evolves, (fragmented) melody and rhythm being almost a by-product.  As one reviewer said in 1981, “It is an ugly album that you simply cannot ignore, it thuds and screeches and makes you stare just to wonder what kind of people would procure such an album.” For this deluxe reissue we’ve included a bonus disc featuring 13 songs, 5 of which have never been released before, culled from live performances, the ‘Side 3’ cassette and a ‘Clean’ demo tape that only surfaced last year, plus “Food City” missing from previous reissues. 
All songs have been remastered by Tom Ellard, with vinyl EQ and lacquer cutting by George Horn at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley. Each copy is housed in a gatefold jacket featuring black and white xeroxed artwork from the first vinyl edition. Inside the gatefold are liner notes by Tom Ellard plus photos and press clippings from the period. “‘Clean’ is original and powerful and everybody should listen to it at least once, just so they know where the boundaries lie.” Ashley Crawford, Virgin Press 1981. 25% of proceeds will be donated to the Australian Fire Relief Fund for First Nations Communities, that offers specific direct support to some of those communities with critical costs to cover expenses.

Artist: Borusiade 
Title: Fortunate Isolation 
Catalog #: DE-266
Format: Vinyl/Digital
Release Date: February 7, 2020

Welcome Them
Time (No Time)
When I Read The News Today
Mirror Hall (This Relief)
They Pass By
The Death Of A Desire (A Ghost)
Lament (Fortunate Isolation)
To The Self
Follow

We are proud to release ‘Fortunate Isolation’ the sophomore album from Borusiade. Born and raised in Bucharest, Romania, Borusiade aka Miruna Boruzescu started DJ-ing in 2002 as one of the very few female DJs in the city’s emerging alternative clubbing scene. Influenced by a classical musical education, a bachelor in film direction and fascinated by raw electronic sounds, Borusiade first combined these universes in the construction of her DJ sets and starting 2005 also in her music production. A sound of her own has slowly crystallized, often dark with poignant bass lines, obsessive themes and by all means melodic. She has released EPs on labels like Pinkman, Unterton, Cititrax, Correspondant and Cómeme, who released her debut album ‘A Body’ in 2018.
‘Fortunate Isolation’ is perhaps Borusiade’s most personal release to date. Eight songs that capture a bystander witnessing the world as it undergoes drastic changes. We have disconnected ourselves from ecology, humanity, preservation, care for what surrounds us, for what is still alive. Borusiade adds, “| know that this place, our home has went through so many other extinctions, but | believe things will find their own way on this planet only once we are gone. Entropy creates a time-line but also a transformation – a new beginning.” The album’s sound is gloomy and powerful mixing sonic film sequences, rhythmic excursions and soothing yet obsessive vocals that touch one’s deepest senses. Lyrically the songs tackle themes of forgotten memories, spirituality, mortality, and destruction. All songs have been mastered by George Horn at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley. Each copy is housed in a jacket designed by Eloise Leigh with decaying daguerreotypes against a rust color palette and includes an insert with lyrics.