The noughties have seen probably the most radical changes in the music industries since the advent of the record. Consumption habits have dramatically moved from traditional to digital formats, music has been increasingly seen as something to steal rather than to buy, and listening habits means that nowadays, the album is becoming increasingly redundant. Or is it? Whereas it had, at least in some circles, become totally acceptable to fill records with substandard music, it is now essential for artists to create consistent pieces of work if they want to retain the attention of their audience. The last ten years have delivered their fair share of hits and misses, and this list doesn’t pretend to be in any way shape or form exhaustive. This is just, in no particular order, the definitive list of the 20 albums that have defined the noughties at themilkfactory.

JOANNA NEWSOM
Ys
DC303CD
Drag City 2006
05 Tracks. 55mins41secs
.

An album like no other, by an artist like no other. Containing just five songs, some developed over fifteen minutes, Ys, named after a small mythical city on the coast of Brittany, France, is the second album by American folk singer and harp player Joanna Newsom. Van Dyke Parks wraps lush orchestrations around Joanna Newsom’s weird and wonderful tales to give her poetic lyrics additional relief and accentuate the emotional nature of her compositions.

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MURCOF
Martes
BAY23CD
The Leaf Label 2002
09 Tracks. 51mins55secs
.
.

Sampling contemporary classical works and assembling them into stark electronic pieces, propelled by micro beats and glitches, Mexican artist Fernando Corona, recording under the name Murcof, created one of the most compelling and evocative electronic debuts of the decade.

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BROADCAST
Tender Buttons
WARPCD136
Warp Records 2005
14 Tracks. 40mins32secs
.
.

By the time they released their third album, Broadcast had simmer down to just Trish Keenan and James Cargill, and had shed most of the rich and ornate forms of previous records to only retain the gritty electronic core of their music.

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ANIMAL COLLECTIVE
Merriweather Post Pavilion
WIGCD216
Domino Recording Co. 2009
11 Tracks. 54mins42secs
.
.

Merriweather Post Pavilion is a far cry from the primal tribal sound of Animal Collective’s early records, yet it is also a testament of how the band have retained the essence of their sound while continuously evolving into more song-based forms.

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PORTISHEAD
Third
1764013
Island Records 2008
11 Tracks. 50mins06secs
.
.

It took over ten years for Portishead to release the follow up to their eponymous second album, but Third proved worth the wait. Gone was the trip-hop of the mid-nineties, replaced with healthy doses of Krautrock, but at the heart of it still lies ‘that voice’.

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ARVE HENRIKSEN
Cartography
ECM2086
ECM Records 2008
12 Tracks. 51mins11secs
.
.

After three genre-defining albums for Rune Grammofon, Arve Henriksen’s Cartography, released on ECM, showed a more mature approach. Working with the cream of Scandinavian jazz, Henriksen created with this fourth album a truly masterful work.

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BIOSPHERE
Dropsonde
TO66LP
Touch 2005
06 Tracks. 37mins52secs
.
.

After a series of increasingly isolationist ambient records, Biosphere’s Geir Jenssen took a different path with his eighth album, incorporating jazz rhythms and richer, warmer soundscapes into his sumptuous ambient compositions.

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CLARK
Body Riddle
WARPCD149
Warp Records 2006
11 Tracks. 42mins21secs
.
.

Clark has established himself as the most consistent of Warp’s electronic artists of the decade with a string of excellent electronic records. Gritty, raw and angular, Body Riddle, his third album, defined Clark’s sound more than any other.

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AUTECHRE
Quaristice / Quaristice (Versions)
WARPCD333X0
Warp Records 2008
11 Tracks. 67mins49secs
.
.

Seventeen years on from their first release, Autechre continue to redefine their sound record after record. Quaristice, with shorter, snappier tracks, showed a return to more accessible musical forms, while its sister album, Quaristice (Versions), offered totally different versions of some of the same tracks.

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BURIAL
Untrue
HDBC002
Hyperdub Records 2007
10 Tracks. 50mins28secs
.

A strong progression from the clinical dubstep of Burial’s debut, Untrue introduced haunting voices and swirling melodies, wrapped around razor sharp beats.

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TWINE
Twine
GI18
Ghostly International 2003
09 Tracks. 63mins32secs
.

Twine’s fourth album constituted the pinnacle of the duo’s electro-acoustic work. Processing acoustic and electric instruments and incorporating them in their complex electronic constructions, occasionally adding vocal samples, they created a truly compelling record.

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BENOÎT PIOULARD
Précis
KRANK098
Kranky 2006
14 Tracks. 36mins52secs
.
.

Combining delicate acoustic song forms and electronics, American musician Thomas Meluch, recording as Benoît Pioulard, produced a stunning record, filled with poetic touches and intelligent pop music.

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THE BLACK DOG WITH BLACK SIFICHI
Unsavoury Products
PUPLP3
Hydrogen Dukebox 2002
20 Tracks. 65mins26secs
.
.

Prior to The Black Dog becoming a trio again, Ken Downie recorded this record with Scottish poet Black Sifichi, who can be heard throughout the album placing his odd surrealist tales over Downie’s impeccably classy electronica.

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MAX RICHTER
The Blue Notebooks
CD1304
130701/Fat-Cat Records 2004
11 Tracks. 40mins36secs
.
.

One of the brightest talents on the new classical scene, composer and pianist Max Richter created a truly evocative piece of work with his second album, mixing delicate piano pieces, compositions for string quartets, discreet electronics and found sounds.

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THE VILLAGE ORCHESTRA
Et In Arcadia Ego
HPLL014
Highpoint Lowlife 2005
09 Tracks. 57mins00secs
.

The first album by Marcia Blaine School For Girls member Ruaridh Law was released five years ago on the excellent Highpoint Lowlife, deploying inspired atmospheric soundscapes and complex beat structures over just under an hour.

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310
Recessional
BAY33CD
The Leaf Label 2003
15 Tracks. 54mins37secs
.
.

Combining elements of hip-hop, jazz, electronica and folk has been at the core of 310’s work for over a decade now, but on their fifth album, their third for Leaf, the duo formed of Joseph Dierker and Tim Donovan gave their sound a more accessible twist while losing none of its original intricacy.

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VARIOUS PRODUCTION
The World Is Gone
XLCD204
XL Recordings 2006
12 Tracks. 46mins52secs
.
.

Operating under a rather anonymous name, British duo Various Production conjured the contradictory forces of urban dubstep and pastoral folk into one fascinating record, served by a plethora of vocal contributors.

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COLLEEN ET LES BOITES A MUSIQUE
Colleen Et Les Boîtes A Musique
BAY53CD
The Leaf Label 2006
14 Tracks. 38mins55secs
.

French artist has released three magnificent records in the last decade, yet it is this mini album, originally commissioned by French public service radio station France Culture, composed entirely on music boxes and processed on computer later on, that has proved the most enduring, evocative and poetic of the lot.

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SUPERSILENT
6
RCD2029
Rune Grammofon 2003
06 Tracks. 57mins51secs
.

The sixth album by Norwegian super group Supersilent showed yet another dimension to the quartet’s incredibly vast repertoire by investigating the slightly more subtle ambient side of their improvisation work.

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BEN FROST
Theory Of Machines
HVALUR2
Bedroom Community 2006
05 Tracks. 38mins40secs
.
.

Australian musician Ben Frost’s first album for Bedroom Community was like a series of shockwaves delivered in the space of forty minutes and five tracks. A deeply haunting and often threatening record, it continues to make a considerable mark.

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VARIOUS ARTISTS
Warp20 (Box Set) / Warp20 (Recreated) / Warp20 (Chosen)
WARP20.0 / WARP201 / WARP 202
Warp Records 2009
– / 21 Tracks / 24 Tracks. – / 99mins13secs / 127mins18secs

Warp20 (Box Set)
Boomkat: BX

Warp20 (Recreated)
Amazon UK: CD Amazon US: CD Boomkat: CD iTunes: DLD

Warp20 (Chosen)
Amazon UK: CD Amazon US: CD Boomkat: CD iTunes: DLD

LFO. Three metallic blue letters, straddled by a ghostly shape, set on a black background. Three letters that changed things forever. The year was 1991, I was browsing through the new arrivals in my local records store, and the Designers Republic artwork of LFO’s Frequencies was standing out from the blur, calling out for my attention. An hour or so later, I was left baffled by a record which I was struggling to understand. On one side, the lush flow and shattering bass of LFO or Simon From Sydney irresistibly titillated my appetite for crisp evocative electronics, on the other, I had never experienced anything quite as bare as Mentok 1 or We Are Back. This album bore its influences on its sleeve, literally, and it took a few listens to ‘get it’. But ‘get it’ I did. More than I could have ever wished for. I was hooked. Not only on LFO, but also on Warp.

The brainchild of Steve Beckett and the late Rob Mitchell, who founded the label twenty years ago in the former metallurgic city of Sheffield, Warp found itself at a crossroad between the dying acid scene and the nascent UK techno/electronica movements, fuelled by waves of grooves and beats coming from Detroit, and soon gathered a fledging roster comprising the likes of Nightmares On Wax, Sweet Exorcist, the project of Richard ‘DJ Parrot’ Barratt and former Cabaret Voltaire member Richard H. Kirk, LFO, Tricky Disco or DJ Mink, all names who have become synonymous with this then new sound coming from the north. The first release, Forgemasters’ Track With No Name, dressed in a highly visible purple sleeve, sounded as mysterious as its title, and the following EPs, Nightmares On Wax’s Dextrous, Sweet Exorcist’s Test One, DJ Mink’s Hey! Hey! Can You Relate, Tricky Disco’s and LFO’s eponymous releases, all released within a year, started to give a much clearer idea of the label’s direction.

WARP1 came in early 1991, courtesy of Sweet Exorcist. This very first artist full length contained just seven cuts of minimal beats, bleepy electronica and hypnotic loops, and, together with the albums that followed, LFO’s seminal Frequencies and Nightmares On Wax’s A World Of Science, established the blue print of what Warp would stand for in the first half of the nineties. But, while these albums all shared a taste for beelpy house and techno, they had clear individual identities. CCCD was tinted with Afro beats, Frequencies openly referenced Kraftwerk, A World Of Science was soulful and groovy.

The next significant step, and perhaps the single most defining moment of the label’s twenty years’ history, came the following year with the release of a new compilation, entitled Artificial Intelligence, which kicked off the series of the same name. Then, names such as B12, The Black Dog or Autechre were only known to a few, but this collection, and the subsequent albums, changed all that. Six albums, by Polygon Window, The Black Dog, B12, Richie Hawtin, Speedy J and Autechre, bookended by two compilations, released over two years, would forever place Warp at the forefront of contemporary electronic music. Since, there has been the acid jazz/funk of Jimi Tenor, the retro-futuristic pop of Broadcast, the sweet folk of Gravenhurst, the progressive hip-hop of Antipop Consortium, the angular rock of Battles… but Warp remains above all a hive of forward-thinking electronic music, whether in the hands of Boards Of Canada, Squarepusher or Clark.

Twenty years is a very long time in popular music, yet going through the label’s releases, it also feels like a blink. The first outings on the label of Aphex Twin (1994), Boards of Canada (1998), Broadcast (2000), Jamie Lidell (2000) or Clark (2001), the Peel Session series, they are all still vivid markers in the label’s history. Compiling a ten track album out of such a vast and varied catalogue was always going to be an impossible task, and one that Steve Beckett couldn’t manage. His contribution to the Warp20 (Chosen) collection contains fourteen, carefully selected from thousands, lifted off albums or EPs, and often away from obvious choices (Broadcast’s Tender Buttons, Flying Lotus’s GNG BNG, Mike Ink’s Paroles or Aphex Twin’s Bocephalus Bouncing Ball) alongside slightly better known tracks (Grizzly Bear’s Colorado, Squarepusher’s My Sound or Jamie Lidell’s Daddy’s Car). By contrast, the first of the two (Chosen) CDs was selected from votes fans recorded on a special website, and expectedly features some of the most iconic and best known tracks on the labels, from Aphex Twin’s Window Licker, which opens, Squarepusher’s My Red Hot Car or Battles’ Atlas to LFO’s LFO, Luke Vibert’s I Love Acid, Autechre’s Gantz Graf or Clark’s Herzog, all neatly lined up like for an identity parade. Such an exercise is likely to cause controversy through obvious omissions (there is, for instance, no mention of Mira Calix, B12, Prefuse 73 or Two Lone Swordsmen) but covering as wide a catalogue as that of Warp in such a short formatted way is, quite, impossible.

The second half of this Warp20 selection goes much further than the traditional remix exercise, as was the case with Warp 10. Various members of the roster, past and present, were each asked to cover a track released through the label in the last twenty years. The result is, to say the least, eclectic and full of surprises, from the playful (Born Ruffians version of Aphex Twin’s Milkman, here combined with To Cure A Weakling Child, Plone’s On My Bus, as interpreted by Plaid), to the slightly odd (John Callaghan basing a composition on Autechre’s Tilapia), and the poetic (Boards Of Canada’s Kaini Industries as viewed through the eyes of Bibio or Jamie Lidell’s wonderfully impressive revision of Grizzly Bear’s Little Brother) to the insanely brilliant (Luke Vibert’s take on LFO, Mark Pritchard’s excellent 3/4 Heart, originally by The Black Dog, Mira Calix’s exquisite and orchestral In A Beautiful Place Out In The Country, Pivot’s Colorado or Gravenhurst’s magnificent reworking of Broadcast’s I Found The F).

These two collections offer just a glimpse into the first two decades of a label that has unmistakably marked its era, like Blue Note, Impulse, Motown or Island did theirs. (Chosen), with its straightforward selection provides an ideal entry point to the label and proves a worthy companion to Warp 10+2: Classics, released to celebrate the label’s tenth anniversary, while (Recreated) offers a much more oblique and novel way through the catalogue, and is more likely to appeal to fans. In addition, Warp are releasing an extremely limited box set which, besides these two compilations, will also feature a mix CD in the tradition of Blech or WarpVision, plus three 10″ comprising previously unreleased material by Autechre, Boards of Canada, Broadcast and more, plus double 10” of loops to play with, the lot encased in a stunning box and accompanied by a catalogue documenting over 400 record covers designed by some of the most exciting studios around. Now, that’s a compendium! Happy anniversary Warp. Here’s to the next 20 years.

Warp20 (Recreated): 4.7/5 / Warp20 (Chosen): 4.9/5

Warp Records

Warp20 (Box Set)
Boomkat: BX

Warp20 (Recreated)
Amazon UK: CD Amazon US: CD Boomkat: CD iTunes: DLD

Warp20 (Chosen)
Amazon UK: CD Amazon US: CD Boomkat: CD iTunes: DLD

CLARK
Totems Flare
WARP185
Warp Records 2009
11 Tracks. 44mins53secs

Buy: CD | LP

It is almost hard to believe that Clark only released his first album eight years ago so much has he become, in that time, one of the strongest, most consistent and emblematic artists on Warp, to the point of challenging the might of heavy weights like Aphex Twin or Squarepusher. His constant deliveries, started with Clarence Park, have since considerably grown in confidence and vision, and his unashamed use of heavily electronic sounds, at a time when others seemed to move away from those, has made him one of the finest purveyors of the genre.

With Totems Flare, Clark’s follow up to last year’s Turning Dragon and his fifth full length, he continues to create strong and gritty electronic music, and he wastes no time showing off his latest dirty grooves with album opener Outside Plume and Growls Garden, the leading track to his recent EP. Although the latter feature vocals, albeit distorted and rendered incomprehensible for the best part, these two are utterly Clark in every way. But, as soon as Rainbow Voodoo kicks off, at first showered by 8-bit video bleeps, before soon turning into an electro-punk assault, the album suddenly takes a different dimension. Clark once again lays vocals on the piece, and while this is not the first time he uses his voice on a record, there is here a move toward more structured song forms, at least for a moment. While his voice also appears later on Look Into The Heart Now, Talis and Suns Of Temper, it does so in much more processed fashion, echoing in that Growls Garden.

Turning Dragon made a resolute push toward the dance floor, but with Totems Flare, Clark returns to slightly less straightforward forms. Of course, the beat is as important here as it has ever been on any of his records, but while tracks such as the acid-fuelled Look Into The Heart Now or Totem Crackerjack, with its bip-bop slant in the first part, then groovy electro in its second, certainly wouldn’t sound out of place in a club, the focus is once again more on the dense sonic spaces that Clark knows how to create so well. Later, on Future Daniel, Clark dispenses once again his trademark electro-grit and fat groove, but the drums at times evokes a more openly rock setting. On Primary Balloon Landing Clark uses heavily processed guitar sounds to create a muffled effect occasionally reminiscent of My Bloody Valentine, while a gentler and almost ethereal guitar motif on Absence brings this album to a somewhat unexpected close.

While it continues to bind a wide range of electronic textures and ideas together, Totems Flare fails to entirely impress in the way its predecessors did. While it is difficult to pinpoint with precision where this album refuses gel quite so successfully, the use of heavily processed vocals, although working pretty well on Growls Garden or Talis, doesn’t quite feel so necessary elsewhere. There is also a slight feeling of complacency here, as if Clark had momentarily lost sight of his end goal and was left running around to find his way again. This is especially true on the over-charged Rainbow Voodoo, which bends under the pressure of its many components and ends up biting its own tail. But, while Totems Flare lacks the integrity Body Riddle or Turning Dragon, it remains a strong album, still very much driven by the same vision and energy.

3.9/5

Clark (MySpace) | Warp Records
Buy: CD | LP

CLARK
Growls Garden
WAP272
Warp Records 2009
06 Tracks. 25mins18secs
Format: 12″/CD/Digital

Buy: CD

Warp’s enfant terrible returns with another devastating slice of dirty gritty electronic music. Follow up to last year’s Turning Dragon, his most upbeat record to date, Growls Garden ups the ante once again as Clark launches another digital assault on the dance floor. Counting six tracks and clocking just over the twenty five minute mark, this EP is perhaps Clark’s most eclectic release since Clarence Park, as he revisits the dark hues of Empty The Bones Of You or Body Riddle (Growls Garden, Distant Father Torch), and, as he did with Turning Dragon, cuts some fine body-jerking grooves and harsh beats (Seaweed, Gonk Roughage).

The title track is also the first to carry the man’s voice, albeit heavily twisted and processed. Written in a matter of days, filling a gap during the recording of Clark’s next album, Growls Garden, Seaweed and Distant Father Torch have the urgency and angularity of true Clark monsters; rough around the edges, heavy footed, corrosive. Elsewhere, The Magnet Mine appears more complex and tortured, with multiple layers fighting for attention, while Gonk Roughage, once again using Clark’s voice as part of its structure, sounds like a nasty 12-rounder down a back alley. Only Farewell Mining Town, with its dense ambient sound waves, shows a hint of gentle elegance here and brings this EP to a surprisingly atmospheric end.

A true Warp stalwart in the great tradition of Aphex, Autechre or Squarepusher, Clark delivers another might blow with this latest EP. Whether this is in any way shape or form representative of his next album is anybody’s guess, but Growls Garden has too much to offer for it to matter at all.

4.6/5

Clark (MySpace) | Warp Records
Buy: CD

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. Built from a now familiar pool of processed acoustic sounds, gritty electronics and environmental noises, Turning Dragon is much sharper, more angular than its predecessors. Clark leaves behind the complex refined textural motifs of Body Riddle and casts his attention onto resolutely techno formations. New Year Storm and Volcan Veins, which open the record, demonstrate this shift particularly well. On the former, Clark splatters a heavy beat with caustic squelches and occasional melodic debris, while he blends processed vocals and harsh metallic noises to give the latter an edge that is maintained pretty much thereafter.

For Wolves Crew, Arch Of The North, Mercy Sines and BEG all share with the aforementioned a taste for loud and abrasive sounds, powerful beats and gut-twisting bass. The metallic tones and loose soundscapes of For Wolves Crew are echoed by the contrasted sonic collage of Mercy Sines, which, caught between the vast reverb of its background section and the sturdy rhythmic pattern that are pressed on top, gives out an uneasy claustrophobic feeling, while the dense layers off the heavy duty BEG eventually dissipate to reveal the quite magnificent spreads of Penultimate Persian, occasionally reminiscent of Autechre, especially in its middle section.

On Truncation Horn, Clark adopts a cut’n'paste technique which evokes label mate Jackson, but the addition of a guitar-driven groove gives the piece a much funkier twist, while Violenl and Radiation Clutch are resolutely darker and more oppressive. Clark seems to accentuate the corrosive aspect of his music by reducing it to more minimal forms. Deprived of their natural breathing space, these two tracks recoil into some of the most inhospitable territories he has visited. The Berlin techno influence is never more obvious than on the latter, where Clark applies vast reverbs to blur the boundaries of the backdrop and pushes the linear beat to the forefront. Only Hot May Slides seems somewhat too straightforward and well behaved to fit in properly here.

Fuelled by a much rawer and more spontaneous energy than its predecessors, Turning Dragon puts on record what Clark has been experimenting with on stage and allows him to expand further his panoply of moods. It is certainly his most immediate record. Turning Dragon at time craves the intricate detailing of Body Riddle but the sheer energy of the music largely compensates and contributes to make this Clark’s most entertaining release.

4.4/5

Clark | Warp Records

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.

Now, there’s Throttle Promoter, and, for the first time, this doesn’t feel like an evolution. Which is not to say that it needs to. Body Riddle was, in many ways, a fruition of everything Clark’s previous material had hinted at – deeply organic, noir spaces, inhabited by meticulously programmed (and performed) percussion. Throttle Promoter offers more of this, with an emphasis on crunchy, faux-electro beats and glitchy backdrops.

See See hits the ground running with a bursting sense of immediacy, featuring Clark’s sharpest sawtooth-led melody since Frau Wav (Brief Fling), from last year’s Throttle Furniture EP (see? Even the titles are connected). At only two minutes and thirty seconds, it’s a relatively brisk spray of glitch electro.

Next up is Dirty Pixie, featuring a pounding loop that could almost be described as danceable, like a cubist restructuring of acid house. The Aphex Twin-like distortion on the percussion harks back to Clark’s first album, 2001’s Clarence Park (which was, at the time of its release, rumored to possibly be another side project of Richard D. James). This harsh acid electro motif is carried through to track three, Kin Griff, which, truth be told, grows a bit tedious after the first two similar-sounding pieces.

Saving the best for last is a Clark trademark – just listen to The Autumnal Crash, on Body Riddle, for proof – and Throttle Promoter does not disappoint. Anchored in a minimally plugging, 606-sounding loop, the mouthful-titled Gaskarth/Cyrk Dedication (Tape) cycles through a series of percussion and bass ephemera, blanketed by a far-off, resonant, wash of ambience. Eventually, this ambience bows out in a brief surge of reverb, leaving the last 30-odd seconds to focus on the bare bones of the popping beat, at last closing the release in an exhausted cut-up of abrupt delays.

At only fifteen minutes, Throttle Promoter accomplishes the curious task of feeling both endless and extremely brief. Brief due to its length at face value, and endless due to the persistent rhythms, which never stop to rest. By the time the EP is over, it feels like a sprint – part tiring, but mostly thrilling. Clark’s EPs have a history of being generally more beat-oriented and immediate than his full-lengths, but given the undauntingly sudden and commanding nature of this sampling, the listener is left waiting impatiently for the full blast of urgency in January.

3/5

Clark | Warp Records
Buy it: iTunes

CLARK
Body Riddle
WARPCD149
Warp Records 2006
11 Tracks. 42mins21secs

It’s been three years since Chris Clark unleashed his Empty The Bones Of You box of delights and promptly reaffirmed his position as one of Warp’s most promising talents. This sophomore effort wasn’t so much revisiting his early musical escapades, as heard on Clarence Park, as totally reinventing his sound, turning it upside down to strip it out of its puppy fat and refocus. Having since lost his first name so people wouldn’t ‘wasted oxygen on “Chris”’, Clark returns with Body Riddle and once again goes right back to the roots and settles new scores.

On first listen, Body Riddle shares more than a few similarities with its predecessor: fat synthetic sounds, rolling rhythmic patterns, heavy bass lines and acute melodic sense. Yet, as his limited Throttle Furniture EP, released earlier this year, pre-empted, everything here is more detailed, more fine-tuned, as if the man had spent the last three years locked up in a studio manually building every single bar of this record. This is fine craft. Here, Clark layers his sounds with incredible precision, at times blending strings, electronics and beats into one big conglomerate of textures, at others assembling infinitely small sonic details into magnificently light and airy compositions. Shimmering melodies appear from nowhere and infectious grooves rise from the most unlikely soundscape without disturbing a single moment the dense fabric of this record.

Right from the start, Clark hits hard and scores high. Her Barr is remarkably ambitious and complex. Built on countless tectonic layers, the mood persistently changes from dream-like sequences to dark and gritty industrial noises, incorporating the main melodic line in a variety of forms and tones. This constant shift sends shockwaves throughout Body Riddle, infecting even the more minute details and resulting in sound constellations unexpectedly erupting in convulsions, beats patterns morphing into complex organic formations and random noises melting into lush melodic plains. On Herzog, a whirlwind of electronics debris crashes down on an uplifting melodies to rise again and again, while a clunky beat and distorted keyboards drive Ted to the border of futuristic disco heaven. Elsewhere, Springtime Epigram and Dew On The Mouth offer more tempered timbres, surprisingly evoking Boards Of Canada in part. Night Knuckles is wonderfully frenetic and spasmodic while The Autumnal Crush charts vast spaces and draws the night in to reveal delicate iridescent noise formations.

All this infinite detailing could have well been the death of this record, but Clark is way too smart not to continuously inject playful touches throughout and retain the sheer entertainment value of his music. Sharp, incisive, accessible and thrillingly enjoyable, Body Riddle reveals Clark at his most confident and masterful yet.

Explore: Throttle Clark | Warp Records
Buy: CD