Adi Newton is a founding figure of British experimental music whose work has shaped the genre for nearly five decades.
Before founding Clock DVA and TAGC/The Anti Group in 1978, he was an original member of The Future, the project that evolved into The Human League. Clock DVA stands alongside Throbbing Gristle and Cabaret Voltaire as a pioneer of late-’70s and ’80s experimental sound, with releases like the 1980 debut Thirst on Fetish, named by Paul Morley in his NME review as one of the best debut albums of the decade, and the 1988 electronic landmark Buried Dreams.
Through TAG, a shifting collective working under his direction, Newton has pushed into extreme electronic territory with works like the ambisonic Digitaria and the Test Tones series. His art has been presented at ARS Electronica Linz, the V&A London, and the Reina Sofía in Madrid. He describes music-making as research, guided by intuition and arcane, occult, and futuristic knowledge.
Adi remains very busy working in all these projects and performing live with Clock DVA and TAG. Clock DVA recently released the 45th Anniversary reissue of Thirst, remastered and out on double “thirst-red” vinyl, CD, and digitally via The Grey Area of Mute.
You can find Clock DVA at The Free and Easy Festival in Munich on August 2nd. You can find TAG at a very special London Interzone three day series where he will be performing with Stephen Mallinder of Cabaret Voltaire. The event is described as “a three-day convergence of radical theory, sound, recognising the ongoing impact of the works of US writer William S. Burroughs and the Beat Generation, with London as a primary historical and contemporary nexus point for the American avant-garde.”
Painter, sonic and kinetic engineer, pataphysical pantheist, existentialist super-naturalist traveler. He joined Radar to talk about all of it.
Radar features discussions with artists and industry leaders who are creators and devotees of music and is produced by Dylan Hundley and The Vinyl District. Dylan Hundley is an artist and performer, and the co-creator and lead singer of Lulu Lewis and all things at Darling Black. She co-curates and hosts Salon Lulu which is a New York based multidisciplinary performance series. She is also a cast member of the iconic New York film Metropolitan.
