Label: Futurismo

Released 1987, reissued 2023

Futurismo present a deluxe vinyl package of the never before reissued 1987 avant industrial album: Bad Mood Guy by Severed Heads. With an oeuvre of electronic experimentation that dates back to 1979, Australia's Severed Heads rawly garnered everything from the sources around them: the sounds of the city, tape loops, old machines, distortion. Although essentially one man, chief noisemaker Tom Ellard, he was joined here by film maker/homebrew video synthesizer operator Stephen Jones, and effects producer Robert Racic: who had worked with New Order. The result is a punishing view of pop, all crunching rhythms and electronic juxtapose. By incorporating popular tropes such as consistent rhythms, melodic vocal lines and drum machines this was perhaps as near to a little "boogie-oogie-oogie" as Severed Heads were likely to get, but the outcome is a striking hybrid of the avant-garde, EBM and Synth-pop, an industrial vortex in which the sounds of the 20th century are sucked in and spat out around a monstrous dance beat. Never pandering to expectations, Ellard saw dance music as a benchmark area where exploration was still possible. Big ideas and big sounds, not to mention big headaches when the original CBS mixes were left in a taxi cab. Whilst many of their contemporaries persisted without dignity, Bad Mood Guy's cool melancholy assured a fanbase in America and dance floor loyalty with 'Hot With Fleas', which dares to sit alongside classics like 'Dead Eyes Opened'. The unique inventiveness inherent in Severed Heads work makes this release essential for fans of Throbbing Gristle, Kraftwerk, Skinny Puppy and Cabaret Voltaire. This remastered version of the original CD contains lost original versions and remixes and comes with a fold-out art-zine booklet with liners by Ellard.

Track Listing:

1. Hot With Fleas 3:21
   
2. Nation 5:28
   
3. Unleash Your Sword 3:30
   
4. Jetlag 4:50
   
5. Contempt 5:08
   
6. Bad Mood Guy 2:42
   
7. Dressed In Air 4:08
   
8. Rabbi Nardoo Flagoon 6:48
   
9. Heaven Is What Heaven Eats 2:48
   
10. Mad Dad Mangles A Strad 4:24
    
11. Bad Mood Guy (Day 1) 2:43
    
12. Unleash Your Sword (Day 1) 3:34
    
13. Canine (Day 1) 4:34
    
14. Nature 10 (Terse) 3:14
    
15. Contempt (Day 1) 2:43
    
16. I've Always Hated Severed Heads (Live) 3:37
    D1 Hot With Fleas (12" Remix) 7:20
    D2 Nation (NYC Mix) 4:15
    D3 Canine (12" Remix)