It is the end of the year. I like music. That can only mean one thing: a run-down of the music I have bought this year, arranged into vague order of how much I enjoyed them.
In this twentieth anniversary year of Warp Records, it has been a stonking year for the label in my view. After some pretty disappointing years, 2009 was the year they showed that there is life in the label yet.
This year I also reached further into the past, while continuing to buy contemporary releases. Old soundtracks and music inspired by the past are heavily featured in this list.
Here is part one of my list, spanning from number 20 to number 11.
I would not normally have made this purchase. But I decided to experiment with asking for recommendations using Twitter. Noble Beast was the first suggestion I received, and I’m glad I followed it because it is a rather pleasant album. I particularly enjoyed ‘Not a Robot, But a Ghost’.
I am not yet sure what I make of Butter. If the garish cover wasn’t enough to put you off, the music is in many ways equally garish. Yet there is something enticing about the sound of this album, which mixes out-there electronic sounds with the pop-funk sensibilities of OutKast. This track, ‘Rising 5‘, is available to download on the Warp Records website.
This should have been a fine album by a national treasure. Certainly, Jarvis Cocker’s first solo album was decent enough. As it transpires, though, “Further Complications.” is merely an okay album with some strangely messy-sounding production. It does, however, have a few great moments. I particularly love the closing track, ‘You’re In My Eyes (Discosong)‘.
17. Squarepusher — Solo Electric Bass 1
While Squarepusher is best known for being an electronic music maverick, he has become an increasingly notable bass guitar player. At last, this other side of his musical talents has been showcased on a full CD, Solo Electric Bass 1. While it may be a bit too noodly and self-indulgent for some, and there is no doubt that it is a pretty dense listening experience, there are plenty of moments to enjoy and savour. Such as this piece, ‘seb-1.03′.
16. Harmonic 313 — When Machines Exceed Human Intelligence
Mark Pritchard transmogrified from his similar-sounding Harmonic 33 to Harmonic 313 with When Machines Exceed Human Intelligence. The projects’ two sounds are radically different, although approached from the same perspective: creating a sound that is heavily influenced by electronic music of the past. Harmonic 33 brought library music to life. Harmonic 313 turns to the dystopian 1980s, with a worry that artificial intelligence will one day become too intelligent and usurp the human race. Here is the closing track, ‘Quadrant 3′.
15. Clark — Totems Flare
I am still not sure that Clark is fulfilling the potential he promised with the 2001 release of Clarence Park, which I still think is his best album. However, with Totems Flare he has taken yet another step in the right direction. While earlier material was too heavily indebted to other artists, Clark has really begun to carve out his own sound. The major innovation in Totems Flare is the increased use of vocals, as demonstrated on my favourite track on the album, ‘Rainbow Voodoo’.
14. Belbury Poly — From an Ancient Star
Jim Jupp is the celebrated co-founder of the Ghost Box record label, which specialises in releasing a particular type of music (sometimes known as ‘hauntology’) which is heavily influenced by psychedelic and folk music of the 1960s and 1970s, library music, public information films, programmes for schools… with a dark twist. Although I prefer some of the other artists on Ghost Box, Jim Jupp’s Belbury Poly project is still one to keep an eye on. From an Ancient Star represents a progression in the Belbury Poly sound. This is ‘Adventures in a Miniature Landscape’.
13. Edward Williams — Life on Earth
Anyone who has an interest in vintage soundtracks or music for television will adore the soundtrack to Life on Earth, the seminal 1979 nature documentary series. It is beautiful and haunting, with a gentle and entrancing use of electronics. It was released this year after a series of coincidences, beginning with one of the 100 privately-pressed records being found in a charity shop. The quality of the recording is not great, meaning that you have to peer a bit to hear it. But this just adds to its charm.
12. Roj — The Transactional Dharma of Roj
Former Broadcast keyboardist Roj Stevens this year released his début solo album, a masterful foray into the mysterious. Roj has created a curious and slightly creepy album — just as you would expect from a Ghost Box release. Imagine eastern spiritual vibes being interrupted by imaginary transmissions from fictitious Soviet stations.
Jonny Trunk, of the eponymous record label that specialises in “music, nostalgia and sex”, this year released a collection of snippets of music that he has worked on in his spare time. Purposefully, it has not been carefully packaged. It is called Scrapbook for that reason. The tracks retain their working titles, and are sequenced in alphabetical order. But despite the apparently slapdash nature of the release, there is something magical and charming about this album. Just as you would expect from Jonny Trunk, it is equal parts nostalgia, humour and brilliance. One highlight that encapsulates this is ‘Hawks‘.
First CD review in a while. Hope you don’t mind. It is short though.
I won’t say much about this, but I will say that I am as disappointed in this EP as I was in his last album.
After ‘Ted’ itself we are presented with Bibio’s remix of ‘Ted’. I don’t think I’ve ever properly listened to any Bibio before. Going by this ‘remix’ (which to my untrained ears sounds more like a cover version than a remix), he’s not much cop. It’s just folksy guitars with effects to make it sound dated. In a similar vein to Boards of Canada’s The Campfire Headphase, which shouldn’t be too much of a shock since Bibio was apparently a big influence on BoC’s most boring album.
Beyond that we have ‘Bruise Animations’ which sounds like it’s had lots of parts recycled from one of the tracks from Body Riddle, but I can’t be bothered working out which.
‘Springtime Epiphany’ sounds like a slowed-down version of ‘Springtime Epigram’ from the album. But towards the end something new comes along — in the shape of synth-farts.
I was prepared to give the whole thing the benefit of the doubt until the final track, ‘Cremation Drones’ started. What a blatant rip-off of Boards of Canada this is! I really wish Chris Clark would get some ideas of his own because he is clearly talented. But he nicks his label mates’ ideas too much.
‘Tyre’ from Empty the Bones of You seemed to be influenced by the piano tracks from Aphex Twin’s DrukQs. Then, on Body Riddle, Clark copied Aphex Twin’s ‘Nannou’ almost wholesale in ‘Night Knuckles’. ‘Betty’ from Empty the Bones of You was also influenced by Autechre’s classic ‘VLetrmx’, and there’s not much attempt to hide it.
It honestly wouldn’t surprise me if he started twiddling around on a bass guitar for his next album.
What is strange is that Chris Clark’s most original album was also his first one, Clarence Park. He seems to be getting less adventurous as he goes on. I found Chris Clark so exciting six years ago. Now, it is sad to say, I almost dread new output of his.
Enjoy, if you can, the video to ‘Ted’. (Even this is just Chris Cunningham lite. Also, inexplicably, the track has had a minute chopped off for the video. Not enough footage?)
Warp’s hype machine went into overdrive for the latest release from Chris Clark. This hype included a very odd email that began:
I want to write something different to the usual shrill “Buy it it will make you better” fare. Something free of the ‘Stunning! *****’ corporate blandishments that have been born out of the marketing adjective arms race.
…and then proceeded to gush pretentiously for about four times as long as was strictly necessary.
Chris Clark’s early releases showed a lot of promise and it sounded like Body Riddle, which was three years in the making, was destined to establish him as one of the best in his field, up there with the Aphex Twins and the Squarepushers of this world.
What a let down the album turned out to be! There is nothing very offensive about Body Riddle. I just find it a bit uninteresting and bland. Clark seems to have sucked all of the fun out of himself. The production is slicker than ever, but that means nothing without a good tune or some interesting ideas.
‘Herr Bar’ is a fantastic opener, but we’ve already heard that on the Throttle Furniture EP released earlier this year. I love Throttle Furniture — a small collection of five tracks that could hardly be any better. The averageness of Body Riddle has left me scratching my head. Maybe I’m getting too old?
But tracks like ‘Frau Wav’ and ‘Springtime Epigram’ just sit there in the background, characterless. What a contrast from the vibrant material Chris Clark has brought us in the past.
The album is not without its good moments. For instance, ‘Herzog’ and ‘Ted’ are a fun pair of tracks. But most of the time it feels as though Clark is just demonstrating what he’s learned since his last album rather than concentrating on making good music.
Since his previous album, Empty the Bones of You, I have suspected that Chris Clark might be too much of a perfectionist. The album sported new versions of ‘Slow Spines’, ‘Wolf’ and ‘Gob Coitus’, none of which were particular improvements on the glimpses we had been given before.
‘Gob Coitus’ in particular — while still an absolutely amazing track — was ruined compared with the early version of the track used in a Warp Records animation competition. It seems as though Clark is a bit too tinker-happy and not really sure when it is time to stop.
What’s also noticeable about Clark’s recent material is how obvious his influences are. If ‘Night Knuckles’ wasn’t such a good track I would hate it for being such an obvious rip-off of Aphex Twin’s ‘Nannou’. The cut-up live instrumentation makes him sound more like Squarepusher and Four Tet than the Chris Clark I loved from the Clarence Park era.
It is interesting to contrast Body Riddle with the free CD that comes with the initial copies. Throttle Clarence is a collection of early Chris Clark material from the same period as the release of his first album, Clarence Park. Given that these tracks have taken over five years to see the light of day, I assume that either Chris Clark or Warp thought that this wasn’t good enough to be released at the time.
But I enjoy listening to Throttle Clarence so much more than Body Riddle. It might lack the technical mastery and slickness of Clark’s recent material, but it’s so much more fun! Body Riddle never comes anywhere close to being as fun as tracks like ‘Lady Palindrome’ or ‘Friday Bread’.
Throttle Clarence is a real treat, exhibiting a carefree Chris Clark who might not have had the same technical expertise as he does today, but certainly had an ear for a good tune that is a pleasure to listen to.
By complete contrast, Body Riddle makes you work too hard for too little reward. As I said, it’s not that there’s anything particularly bad about it. But it’s just a tad too po-faced for me. There’s nothing to latch on to. Put simply, I haven’t been able to fall in love with any of the tracks.
What a shame. I have been very excited about Chris Clark. All of his previous material has shown that he has the potential to make a truly great album. But it’s only been potential so far. And now we’ll probably have to wait for another three years before we can see if that potential will finally come to something.
Chris Clark’s first album, Clarence Park, was one of the albums that really grabbed me when I was first getting into Warpy electronic IDM whatever music. He seemed to be an exciting prospect, but I didn’t quite fully get into the EP and album he released in 2003.
Well, now Chris Clark has finally re-emerged with some new tunes! Warp say he is no longer Chris Clark, just Clark. Although the cover looks to me as though it says ‘Lark’, or ‘(Lark)’, or maybe ‘Clark)’ at a stretch. Which is it? We just don’t know. I’ll stick to ‘Chris Clark’ for the time being.
This 3″ CD is a mini-EP, a taster of what to expect from Clark’s new album. Given that four of the five tracks have been left off the album, it is mouthwatering to imagine what the standard of the tracks on the album must be like.
The track that is on the album, ‘Herr bar’, opens Throttle Furniture. It is a lot more intricate than previous Chris Clark work. Those subtle little drum rolls and and glockenspiel-style sound make this sound very much like a darker Four Tet. Good track.
‘Re-Scar Kiln’ follows up, and if Clark really wants to discourage people from comparing him to AFX he is going about it the wrong way, because this sounds like it could easily be a remix of some Analord tracks. Nevertheless, it’s a great track.
‘Urgent Jell hack’ comes next to slap you about the face. This is possibly the most exciting track on the album, a madcap journey that never stops changing, but sounds cohesive throughout, retaining a common thread. I think it’s a bit Squarepushery actually with an DrukQs-era Aphex Twin slant towards the end. I am truly in trouble for doing the lazy and comparing him to AFX and Squarepusher, huh?…
Aaaargh. Track four is ‘Frau Wav (brief fling)’. I heard this one before I got the CD, because Warp had it available for your listening pleasure on their front page. I was seriously sceptical about this track at first. It sounded too brash and simplistic. But get underneath its skin and it’s just as dirty as all the other tracks, especially during the second minute. A properly fun track, and it segues nicely into the closer, ‘Dusk Swells’. It is a brooding ambient piece, one of those ones that seem neverending; quite minimalist, but always changing slightly at the same time. Think a dark version of Sigur Rós’ ‘Smáskífa’, if you can.
All-in-all, this is another step up for Chris Clark. It makes the gap in between Clarence Park and his 2003 material seem much smaller than it was. I’m looking forward to the album now!
There’s a CD in my collection, ‘Clarence Park’ by Chris Clark, that I’ve had for a few years now. I had the urge to listen to one of the tracks this evening. ‘Bricks’ was the track. And it now sounds different. I can’t explain this. There’s nothing wrong with the CD, because it’s the same with the MP3. It’s quite unsettling. Why does the track sound different all of a sudden?
Jim Jupp is the celebrated co-founder of the Ghost Box record label, which specialises in releasing a particular type of music (sometimes known as ‘hauntology’) which is heavily influenced by psychedelic and folk music of the 1960s and 1970s, library music, public information films, programmes for schools… with a dark twist. Although I prefer some of the other artists on Ghost Box, Jim Jupp’s Belbury Poly project is still one to keep an eye on. From an Ancient Star represents a progression in the Belbury Poly sound. This is ‘Adventures in a Miniature Landscape’.
Comments closed