squarepusher LOL @ Clark Review

[Guest hahathhat]

things that made me LOL have been boldenated

 

When it's come to Chris Clark, we've always tended to sit on the fence - there was nothing we could really say against his intelligently constructed music, it just never really excited us. His Growl's Garden EP, released earlier this year, forced us to reconsider our position - 'The Magnet Mine' in particular was absolutely killer. And so it is that we deem news of a fresh studio album from the currently Berlin-based Brit to be very good news indeed.

 

Totem's Flare is Clark's sixth album to date, and acts as the third and final part of a trilogy begun with Body Riddle (2006) and continued with 2008's Turning Dragon. Though Totem's Flare shares a lot of the same sonic signatures as its predecessors, it represents a big step up for Clark as a producer. Opening track 'Outside Bloom' is all ominous drone to begin with before going down a warped dubstep route, only for plangent, de-tuned raved chords and scuffed breakbeats to enter the mix, deliberately recalling classic early 90s warp fare from AFX and Forgemasters.

 

'Rainbow Voodoo' is a misguided gabba-pop monstrosity that kind of devalues all the other tracks on the album, but all is forgotten and forgiven by the time we hit the sublime, washed-out techno-funk of 'Look Into The Heart Now'. 'Luxman Furs' is pitched somewhere between Zomby gloop-step and juddering Alkan-friendly electro-trance. The half-baked Squarepusherism of Track 6 we can live without. Beatless track 'Primary Balloon Landing' recalls the best of Kevin Drumm and William Basinski (no mean feat) and we currently can't get enough of closing track 'Absence''s Vini Reilly-in-space guitar ambience.

 

It's not a triumph per se, but Totem's Flare is undoubtedly Clark's most accomplished and rewarding work to date, one which pushes out to new and unexplored territories while gleefully showing off its roots in classic British electronica. It's due out on July 13 via Warp Records and is well deserving of your time and attention.

 

http://www.factmagazine.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2560&Itemid=26

 

it sounds like they skimmed WATMM thread for the album, chopped it up into fine pieces, and arrived at a salad that makes no sense.

[sneaksta303]

lol @ "track 6". I mean wtf, they are publishing a review and can't be bothered to know the song title???

[Guest idrn]

[Mr12000]

Oh god! Misguided gabba-pop monstrosity? What are they on about?

 

 

 

 

 

 

[thehauntingsoul]

way to talk in second person.

 

[delet...]

yes the 'we' thing was a touch off .. kinda like the cherry on top of the shit sandwich that was that review ...

[Bubba69]

"When it's come to Chris Clark"

 

is that proper grammar? dont they mean "when it comes", or "when it has come"?

[Guest JohnTqs]

"When it's come to Chris Clark"

 

is that proper grammar? dont they mean "when it comes", or "when it has come"?

 

yeah when it comes

 

lol

[Guest bitroast]

track 6 sounds more like clark to me than half-baked squarepusher.

[MAXIMUS MISCHIEF]

i find it so hilarious how people review music like this. pulling numbers like "5.4" out of their ass, and talking about shit all for 7 paragraphs and trying to justify what ever stupid-ass score they gave it.

 

i would hate to have that job, poor bastards.

[sidewinder]

track 6 sounds more like clark to me than half-baked squarepusher.

 

Exactly. And it's the best track!

[plstik]

[Guest idrn]

the only people you can trust for music reviews are musicians themselves and friends. that way you have a frame of reference and context to their opinion, you can see where they're coming from. there's more un-processed honesty and less pretension.

 

if anyone spoke to me like some of the writing in pitchfork, or like some of this review, i'd probably want to punch them in their mouth. i kind of suspect that most music journalists exist with their own ilk. like they sample exotic aesthetics, then prance back to their macbooks with some kind of notion that they have a definitive grasp on things.

 

sort of like wine-tasters who have never gotten pissed or tried mixing red and white in a single sitting.

 

/yes im drunk

[Guest vodor]

"When it's come to Chris Clark"

 

is that proper grammar? dont they mean "when it comes", or "when it has come"?

 

yeah when it comes

 

lol

 

actually, since the rest of the sentence is in the past tense, i'm sure that he means "when it has come," and "it's" works as a contraction for "it has" if one is writing casually, which he appears to be. pretentiously, but casually.

 

he's a shit writer in practically every other regard!

[Silent Member]

What a nice review. Very well written.

 

 

[Braintree]

Haha, I guess everything in this genre sounds like Squarepusher if you don't know what you're talking about.

 

I honestly didn't like this album much on first listen, but it's starting to grow on me.

[jeremymacgregor87]

lol at "Fact" magazine

[Guest Renivatio]

Haha, I guess everything in this genre sounds like Squarepusher if you don't know what you're talking about.

 

And the sad part is that some people into their idmz still think that way.

[Guest hahathhat]

the interview had the air of... well, it reminds me of english class in high school. i'd have to read some book that was either decades or centuries old and then write a paper "analysing" it. at 15 years old, i simply did not have the maturity or attention span for that sort of thing. i wanted to get that shit over with and get back to playing nintendo. so i'd bash out some summary (to prove that yes, i did read it) then dress it up with hifalutin literary crap and sprinkle on bits of stuff the teacher said in class.

 

i now know how the teacher felt reading my papers.

[Mr12000]