sound of the suburbs

Something noisy for you today from a band that I don't often listen to, but when I do it's for real !!!!!! Head Of David were one of the pioneering bands that breached the gap between heavy metal and what we have come to label today as industrial metal such as played by Pitchshifter and Fear Factory. Coming from the Midlands region an area that could well be considered as the cradle of all things hard 'n' heavy in the UK. Sociologists would probably have you believe that the grim industrial landscape that was well into decline in the 80's was responsible for this doom laden aggression, I'm not so sure as the style of music they payed found a home with many an adolescent, their debut album even made it to no. 3 in the UK indie charts in 1986. Their experimental side can be borne out by the fact that they had been picked up by the UK left field label Blast First, label mates included Sonic Youth and Band Of Susans. The inter band chemistry proved to be volatile and bassist Dave Cochrane left after the Steve Albini produced second album 'Dustbowl' to play with Godflesh. The remaining trio crawled on to record a third album 'Seed State', 1991 before disappearing.
We all know that Peel had a wide taste in music and that he had a soft spot for noisy records and so it comes as no surprise that Head Of David were invited to record two sessions in 1986, these are the four songs that made up the first of them from July:



None of these songs out stay their welcome as they all clock in under the 3 minutes mark. My personal favorite is 'Tequila' which boasts a chorus that you could almost imagine Jack Nicholson humming in The Shining! .