ComMerz Severed Heads Artist

{|Severed Heads|} have had one of the more tangled discographies imaginable, with alternate editions of albums, re-recordings, and an increasing number of CD-R and Internet-only releases in recent years. Distilling a cohesive and comprehensive overvi... Read more

{|Severed Heads|} have had one of the more tangled discographies imaginable, with alternate editions of albums, re-recordings, and an increasing number of CD-R and Internet-only releases in recent years. Distilling a cohesive and comprehensive overview out of it all is no easy task, but with the two-disc {|ComMerz|}, compiled and remastered by {|Tom Ellard|} himself for release on the {|LTM|} label, {|Severed Heads|} come as close to a good introduction for newcomers as can be created, covering near a quarter century's worth of music. For listeners overseas who mostly knew the group through their mid- to late-'80s work licensed via {|Nettwerk|} and haven't kept up with {|Ellard|} in the years since, {|ComMerz|} provides a perfect balance -- the first disc ranges from {|Adolf a Karrot|} from {|Blubberknife|} to selections from {|Bad Mood Guy|}, while the second starts with {|Rotund for Success|}' {|Greater Reward|} and continues straight up through {|Under Gail Succubus|}' {|Snuck|} from 2006. The fact that {|ComMerz|} excludes the very earliest {|Severed Heads|} era shows just how hard it is to get a truly all-encompassing overview together -- and as aficionados of the group know thanks to 1996's {|Severything|}, it's not as if {|Ellard|} hasn't taken it into account before. So this functions more as an accessible overview of the group, depending on how the term is defined -- {|Goodbye Tonsils|} and the monumental {|Hot with Fleas,|} for instance, may have never made the contemporary Top 40 but are still addictively catchy. Above all else, {|ComMerz|} is a showcase of constantly evolving {|electronic|} music, finding approaches that would become cliches in the hands of lesser musicians, exploring new sounds and beats in bloody-minded defiance of whatever a particular trend might be. {|Bernie Maier|}'s liner notes, themselves reduced from a longer biographical overview available online, provide excellent context for the band's history and grapplings with the music industry as a whole. ~ Ned Raggett Less