Some people don’t just appear on the music scene,
they crash the party in the most spectacular style.
Chris Clark’s first album, Clarence
Park, released over two years ago, saw him
instantaneously compared to Aphex
Twin. ‘The music press need their little boxes’
did he declare to us recently. The comparison, if easy,
is entirely appropriate though. Far from just simply
rehashing a formula used by many before him, Clark showed
a very strong musical personality combined with intense
creativity, making Clarence
Park something rather unique and clever. Split
between beautiful ambient compositions and heavy techno
moments, Chris Clark seemed to refuse to make a choice.
There is however one major difference between Clark
and Richard D. James.
When James started
distributing tapes in his native Cornwall, the IDM scene
was in its in infancy. Today, over ten years later,
many have experimented in multiple directions, leaving
the movement extremely fragmented. And Chris Clark has
definitely secured his own little bit of space.
The long awaited second album from Chris Clark, Empty
The Bones Of You, shows no sign of the man settling
down. The recent EP, Ceramics Is The Bomb,
was already far more focused than Clarence
Park. If his performance during his recent
tour with Mira Calix
provided some insight into the new album, his set was
mostly geared toward the dancefloor, with heavy rhythmic
structures and aggressive soundscapes being fired at
the crowd at deafening level. Here, the schizophrenic
nature of Clarence
Park is still present in some ways, but Clark
combines both ambiences in a far more mature way. This
results in Empty The Bones Of You feeling far
more structured and fluid. Unlike Ceramics Is The
Bomb, which sometimes failed to retain the attention
of the listener entirely, the album captivates from
start to finish. Clark throws the first punch straight
in with Indigo Optimus and its dark rumbling
melody and uncompromising beat, and the more fractured
and abrasive Holiday As Brutality, setting
up the tone for pretty much the rest of the album. Both
reminiscent of early Black
Dog in sonority, these tracks work brilliantly together
as Clark seems to explore the same soundscapes from
two different angles. The post-industrial funk of Slow
Spines and Gavel, already featured on
Ceramics Is The Bomb, further reinforces the
dense atmospheric set up of this album, conveying an
increasingly mature approach to sonic structures. When
things calm down slightly, on the beautiful title track,
Tyre, Wolf or Betty, Chris
Clark reveals a more melodic side of his personality
through some stunning soundscapes and sound arrangements.
If, for most, the second album is often a difficult
affair, in Clark’s case, it is quite the opposite.
Where Clarence
Park appeared disjointed, Empty The Bones
Of You is consistent, mature and bloody captivating.
Already hailed by some as one of the albums of the year,
this second album is not so much a consecration of the
man’s talent as a consecration of the man himself.
4.9/5
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