Severed Heads were an Australian music group from Sydney, who first started life in 1979 with recordings characterised by the tape loops, synthesizers and dissonant noise of industrial music later evolving onto a more electronic based plane. Whilst fellow Australian act SPK are more well known (mainly thanks to the success of Graeme Revell who went on to become a successful Hollywood movie composer) and the two groups have shared a similar career, Severed Heads have gained their own cult fanbase and reputation as one of the hidden gems of the first wave industrial scene influential over the myriad of post-industrial and electronic subgenres which were to follow.
Gashing The Old Mae West/Kato Gets The Girl is a split EP of two songs released in 2001, not to be confused with the
Gashing The Old Mae West vinyl released in 1986 (which included a version of the song here). Both tracks were released that same year,
Gashing The Old Mae West originally used as a soundtrack for a play by Jan Hubrechso and cut down for the 1983 album
Since The Accident whilst
Kato Gets The Girl first saw life as the soundtrack of an artsy VHS videotape and was recorded at a performance at the ICA in London in 1985.
Both tracks are abstract expressions in avant-garde electronic, based around repetition touching on ambient influences. With each side scraping at just over the 23 minute mark, we are presented with two incongruous soundscapes that initially don't quite make sense but over time develop into patterns which defy conventional thought regarding structure. Several new layers of sound are introduced over time, it's all a bit of a jumble but once it sinks in after several repetitions it starts to reveal itself as intricately crafted. It's difficult to provide a distinction here, but
Gashing The Old Mae West is a little more frenetic than
Kato Gets The Girl. The latter is more of a showcase for a kind of cinematic sounding ambient, but this wouldn't quite provide an adequate description. Either way, each track is great.
Gashing The Old Mae West/Kato Gets The Girl is a difficult listen for those unaccustomed to such musical treatments, for most a deliberately inaccessible electronic work which is perhaps far too disjointed to be appreciated as background music though far too repetitive and freeform to really be thoroughly concentrated on in one dedicated sitting. Despite this, somehow this provides a happy balance to these ears and given a bit of time has become one of the most unique and invigorating releases i've heard.
