Clark - Sus Dog (new album)

[Dpek]

Oh, and a perfect example of what happened during these 14 years is the newest song. Its melody is like a slowed-down riff of Future Daniel, minus all the excitement. It's like a distant echo of a grand creative era. I know which one of these I'd rather listen to.

 

[tokn]

On 4/4/2023 at 4:03 AM, toaoaoad said:

He's doing too much coke. That album writeup reads like the ramblings of a cokehead.

Haha this is a very specific accusation which I find hard to make without knowing the guy.

 

After I've been through intense trauma as a hardcore Clark fanboy since day one regarding his lackluster output of the last ten years I've come to the conclusion the best way to deal with this is we should stop hoping for more Clark goodness and rather look out to other artists pushing golden era Clark sound further these days. Let's stark Clark Anonymous.

 

11 hours ago, Dpek said:

Oh, and a perfect example of what happened during these 14 years is the newest song. Its melody is like a slowed-down riff of Future Daniel, minus all the excitement. It's like a distant echo of a grand creative era. I know which one of these I'd rather listen to.

Exactly my thoughts, though it reminds me more of "Rainbow Voodoo". A whole LP in this style could be so amazing!

[Key]

Im on the same Clark journey as everyone else in here, Iradelphic was a glancing blow to the chest, with Playground In A Lake being the coup de grace, and the first Clark album I didn't buy. Am now checking out his stuff with bemused detachment rather than as a disappointed fan.

[toaoaoad]

8 hours ago, tokn said:

Haha this is a very specific accusation which I find hard to make without knowing the guy.

Someone in a thread somewhere in the ae forum reported meeting Clark at a show, and he asked them if they knew where he could get any coke. Kinda been running with it since then.
 

"Clark is a cokehead" is the new "Clark is in a wheelchair"  

Edited April 5, 2023 by toaoaoad

[cloud capture]

 

[tokn]

On 4/5/2023 at 7:14 PM, toaoaoad said:

"Clark is a cokehead" is the new "Clark is in a wheelchair"  

Ahh thanks for the update, I have been out of the WATMM loop for a few years sadly. It's still okay to make wheelchair jokes, right?

My theory for Clark's development always was that he had a huge pile of amazing recordings (early LPs use a lot of real drum for example and he talked about this in early interviews) and kind of fed on this, until it was used up after the BR - TD - TF triology and since then he had some kind of writer's block or problem with coming up with something as meaningful - or simply didn't care and wanted to try to make money or reach out to other audiences. But yeah, maybe this white stuff is a better explanation, which would be super sad. Again, also with the "video evidence", I wouldn't make these assumptions without knowing him.

 

[toaoaoad]

For what it's worth Iradelphic had a lot of those same sounding drum tracks too. Roughly half the tracks on Iradelphic were pretty decent actually. Take out the bad vocals and a few other cringey moments. Combined with a few tracks from Phantasm Planes and Iradelphic Sessions there's an album's worth of good stuff there. That period didn't sound to me like he had lost inspiration, it actually sounded like he was pursuing new avenues of inspiration (and the obvious Bibio influence as he started playing guitar), it just didn't always work very well.

The self-titled was not bad either, to be fair some of those tracks are quite solid. But maybe sounding less inspired there yeah. Like doing a survey of past styles. The hints of going downhill were there since Iradelphic but if I'm really fair it didn't get dire until he started adding children's choirs to everything.

I agree with most people here tho yeah, I don't have huge expectations for the guy or anything I'm just bored on watmm.

[thumbass]

 

 

[o00o]

this is a really nice track

 

Its really interesting how strong the moon shaped pool vibes are on this release due to Thoms flavor in the production 

[zero]

On 4/8/2023 at 4:21 AM, tokn said:

My theory for Clark's development always was that he had a huge pile of amazing recordings (early LPs use a lot of real drum for example and he talked about this in early interviews) and kind of fed on this, until it was used up after the BR - TD - TF triology and since then he had some kind of writer's block or problem with coming up with something as meaningful - or simply didn't care and wanted to try to make money or reach out to other audiences. But yeah, maybe this white stuff is a better explanation, which would be super sad. Again, also with the "video evidence", I wouldn't make these assumptions without knowing him.

same could be said for a lot of musical artists really. there are no shortage of bands/producers that start off incredibly strong (and more than likely have a treasure trove of early recorded material), then fizzle once they've reached some level of success. human nature or something I suppose. 

 

Edited April 25, 2023 by zero

[nobody]

3 hours ago, zero said:

same could be said for a lot of musical artists really. there are no shortage of bands/producers that start off incredibly strong (and more than likely have a treasure trove of early recorded material), then fizzle once they've reached some level of success. human nature or something I suppose. 

 

There's luck involved:
- Right place at right time
- Label notices you
- Label promotes you because you can make them money
- Press wants to talk about you (maybe for political or other reasons... anything that gets them clicks)
- Fans happen to like you (not something solely based on the merits of the music)

There are also artists who start off making bad music and then get better. You might not ever hear the bad music that came first.

If bad songs are 0s and good songs are 1s, then imagine output like this:

But in reality, there may have been lots of bad songs that predated the good ones that you just don't know about, which can then be reworked freely. This is the "treasure trove". After the spotlight is on them and their ego is inflated, it's hard for them to get hungry again and put their heads down, maybe. As Thom Yorke said, "Satisfied is when you get fat, and like, go home."

In addition, maybe some fans want a musician to keep doing the same thing, but the musician doesn't want to. That's a hard sell. Chris Clark, BoC, Autechre, DJ Shadow, Avalanches - I'm sure many people yearn for their earlier sounds.

I don't think Clark has lost his edge, by the way, from what I've heard. He does seem to be slightly repositioning himself in the music market from purely IDM to a more singer-songwriter niche, which I bet Thom Yorke has mentored him on a bit.

[Silent Member]

I quite like it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[o00o]

 

On 4/8/2023 at 11:21 AM, tokn said:

My theory for Clark's development always was that he had a huge pile of amazing recordings (early LPs use a lot of real drum for example and he talked about this in early interviews) and kind of fed on this, until it was used up after the BR - TD - TF triology and since then he had some kind of writer's block or problem with coming up with something as meaningful - or simply didn't care and wanted to try to make money or reach out to other audiences. But yeah, maybe this white stuff is a better explanation, which would be super sad. Again, also with the "video evidence", I wouldn't make these assumptions without knowing him.

 

I think he moved to berlin and like most artists moving to berlin I know of that had their small creative live somewhere remote before he totally got sucked into the berlin scene and lost his outsider perspective he had before. I have seen it so many times with friends who where to most creative people. once they move into cities like berlin they stop being creative in the same way they where before. 

Maybe the pandemic got him back to his equilibrium which would explain this record being different 

[Hugh Mughnus]

I seem to be in the vast minority but I thought Iradelphic was great. Everything after that I couldn’t get into but I have some hopes for this new release….

Edited May 21, 2023 by Hugh Mughnus

[X4creek]

The albums out for me, on Dolgoch Tape

 

hmmm...

im gonna give this more listens over the weekend but for now I enjoy it

[X4creek]

but im also not %100 sure of what to make of it?

[thumbass]

Gonna give this a spin later today.

[DavieAddison]

His vocals are pretty good but it just sounds like he's doing a Thom Yorke impression. I know Thom mentored him on this album but I'd pretty much just rather have him sing instead.

[Friendly Stranger]

On 5/21/2023 at 12:50 AM, Hugh Mughnus said:

I seem to be in the vast minority but I thought Iradelphic was great. Everything after that I couldn’t get into but I have some hopes for this new release….

I also love Iradelphic. 

Giving Sus Dog a spin now, I find it surprisingly good!

[Friendly Stranger]

Love the first 2 tracks tbh. I like the Forest alot, I'm into his moody vignettes/ambient pieces, but do not care for the vocals at the end, yikes. 

Always down to listen to what he's making. He's clearly moved on from the style of his earlier works. Whether it lands or not, his stuff is always at the very least interesting to me. 

[o00o]

1 hour ago, DavieAddison said:

His vocals are pretty good but it just sounds like he's doing a Thom Yorke impression. I know Thom mentored him on this album but I'd pretty much just rather have him sing instead.

Yeah this - I makes it really hard to listen to as I am so used to what Thom does and it’s just not comparable 

[sidewinder]

Agreed about the vocal comments, the fact it's executive produced by Thom Yorke makes it hard to ignore his voice sounds like Thom. 

When Growls Garden came out I was cautiously optimistic about the vocals, but ended up really enjoying them as well as on Totems Flare which might be my favorite Clark. Wish he had taken that vocal approach, or at least a mix of styles, rather than this consistent falsetto. 

Still I've only played it once so far, after only listening to one of the singles, and will keep it in rotation. I'm glad he's taken things in a new direction after all the soundtrack stuff and the last few lackluster instrumental albums. Whether I end up loving this or not, I appreciate it's different.

[X4creek]

might be sacrilegious to say this but tbh I like this more than anything from the Totems Flare era, EP included

i cant really understand what some of the lyrics are trying to say though but that's fine for me

 

[Hugh Mughnus]

4 hours ago, Friendly Stranger said:

I also love Iradelphic. 

Giving Sus Dog a spin now, I find it surprisingly good!

I kind of just quickly flipped through a few tracks to get an initial vibe and I think it will be right up my alley! Grabbing it tonight

(Irony being I really am not a fan of thom pork)

[jules]

I know I’m a broken record on every new chris clark release thread - he doesn’t stop exploring - he always pushes himself - blah blah blah. While I agree with the Thom voice sentiments already expressed, I give tons of credit for just going full tilt on what his voice is. He’s used it a lot and obviously has a knack for hooks but damn, there are a ton of vocal hooks on this and good ones at that. Have to give him props for pushing his own creativity. There’s nothing better than that than any artist can do. Looking forward to exploring this much more than anything he’s done in many many years.

Edited May 27, 2023 by jules