CLARK
Turning Dragon
WARPCD162
Warp Records 2008
11 Tracks. 46mins35secs

Since he first appeared on the scene, in 2001, with his debut album, Clark has systematically upped the stakes with each new release, first by refocusing his sound essentially around electronics and gritty textures with Ceramics Is The Bomb and Empty The Bones Of You, then by refining his template and pushing into darker and dirtier territories with Body Riddle and its companion EPs, Throttle Furniture and Ted. With Turning Dragon, Clark steps up the pace, pushes up the experimentation levels and gets down and dirty on the dance floor.

Recorded in his apartment in Berlin, where Clark has recently moved, Turning Dragon is a much more immediate and incendiary collection, which builds on the momentum of the recent Throttle Promoter EP, yet those expecting a whole album of blasting Dirty Pixie or Kin Griff may be in for a shock. Continue Reading »

CLARK
Throttle Promoter
WAP238
Warp Records 2007
04 Tracks. 14mins39secs
Format: Digital / 12″

The press for Throttle Promoter, Clark’s newest release, has described the EP as a “surprise”, intended to pique interest for another surprise – his upcoming full-length, Turning Dragon, due January 2008. So much for months of pre-release hype, then, but it would seem that Clark has had enough of that. 2003’s Empty The Bones Of You was promoted as a more mature, darker, and more industrial Clark (still using his full name Chris Clark at the time), a promise upon which it delivered. 2006’s Body Riddle saw another reinvention of the persona, with the now-truncated Clark focusing on intricately layered, obsessively DSP’d beats, and more delicate and emotional atmospheres. Continue Reading »

Clark has just released a new EP, Throttle Promoter, ahead of the release of his fourth album, Turning Dragon, on 28 January on Warp. Throttle Promoter is currently only available from Bleep.com, but it will be made available from other digital stores from Monday 10 December. The EP is also released on 12” through regular stores. Throttle Promoter is said to take Clark’s sound from the excellent Body Riddle from last year to a ‘tougher rave sound’.

Clark is also to play a string of dates in the UK around the time of the release of the album, starting in London on 7 February, then Glasgow on 8 February and Manchester on 16 February.

Clark | Warp Records | Bleep.com