Clark - Body Riddle

Has it been a month? God, I'm so bad about updating my blog. Anyway, I have a towering album to tell you about.

This album is dirty.

And I'm talking about the good dirty. The dirty that makes you feel joy in your soul. The dirty that makes you happy that people are making music like this.

Chris Clark has been making music for a while, but I just recently found out about him (thanks Brian!). This album really punched me in the teeth, so I went back and checked out some of his previous work. Frankly it wasn't anything special, but on this one he really found his stride and then some.

Back to the whole dirty thing, Clark fuzzies up his samples and makes electronic music sound like it was played by a live but drunken noise orchestra....in a good way. This is probably the most organic-sounding electronic record I've ever heard. I know intellectually that it's all very intentional, calculated and planned, but that doesn't really alter the listening experience. When you're hearing this record you feel like you're hearing improvisation and exploration. I don't know if non-musicians will understand this, but I can see Chris Clark in a poorly lit room with his head down and bobbing slowly, playing the same measure over and over on the keyboard in order to find the perfect progression. Just doing it again and again until it's right. Over and over and over and over. Until it's right.

That's how music is written, for those of you who have never done it.

So back to the album....The first few songs are very strong, with their pseudo-jazz beats and intriguing melodies blending together nicely. The first two songs fade into track three quite well, eventually melting down into a nice decrescendo. The meltdown completes the first trio of songs, establishing the fact that on this record Clark isn't just throwing together a bunch of great songs but is in fact crafting an album.

Then comes track four, 'Herzog'.

Track four is from the future.

Though there are basically no drums, this synth-heavy track sounds like it's from the kind of future that I want to live in. There are huge climaxes and intricate melodies all wrapped up in the same analog, improv-heavy style that kicked the album off. Track four makes you realize that this album is something special. It has fantastic dynamics and beautiful distortion. Yum.

When track four fades out you figure that it's melting down, but as soon as you're lulled to sleep track five slams in with the groove that got me to check out the album in the first place. Though it's only, 2:54 long, 'Ted' has all of the intensity and intricacy that IDM should be all about. The song is gone almost as soon as it came, but damn if it doesn't leave a lasting impression.

Tracks 6, 7 and 8 are all great. Yep. Check them out and enjoy them. They rock. But they're basically (really good) filler before the closing triptych of triptychs.

Man oh man, 'Matthew Unburdened' is a great track. It's got a hauntingly off-beat rhythm that lulls you to sleep before throwing you off again, once again in a good way. It fades in and out with ease, switching melodies in a deft attempt to create a song that could have easily been a completely satisfactory album-closer had Clark not written two more songs that truly shut the album all the way down. Seriously, 'Matthew Unburdened' could have ended things and I would have been happy.

But holy crap, 'Night Knuckles'. You really just need to hear this song. It's the most beautifully frenetic song ever. This song is what Four Tet has been trying to do all along. It uses bells and melodies and what sounds suspiciously like a bunch of spoons to craft a driving, intensely beautiful experience. It goes a million miles an hour but never sounds like it's a hurry, because the undercurrent of melody proceeds at just the right pace. There are some melodic transitions that just kill me. Just when you think it's over the song comes back and just hits you in the face with driving melody and wonderfully intricate percussion. Man oh man.

Then comes the last track, 'The Autumnal Crush'. At this point you should have already bought the album just from reading about it, but if you haven't then this song will heal your soul. Holy crap. It starts with a bittersweet melody that makes you close your eyes and try to find the melody inside the melody. Then the beat drops. And just when you think that beat has built into something special, the real beat drops. Again, holy crap. And when that one is done, another layer gets put on top. This song has a simple melody that just keeps cycling and cycling, getting distorted more and more until it works its way into your soul.

Yeah yeah, whatever, it's just music. But hey, listen to this record and you will be amazingly moved. Seriously. Buy it. Listen to it. Close your eyes and get carried away.

Rating: 4.5/5 Stars

Buy It!