Last year, Clinic cleared house with rarities collection, Funf. As underwhelming as it is, it could prove to be the band's most significant statement, as their fifth studio album, Do It! sees Clinic make their first steps forward since their classic debut, Internal Wrangler.
Do It! eschews the scratchy D.I.Y. aesthetic that has atrophied Clinic's career over the last three albums and goes for a pin-sharp production style, but most importantly, the Liverpudlians have knuckled down on the songwriting front, making Do It! their most immediately likeable album in eight years.
Clinic haven't lost any of the idiosyncrasies that have formed their sound since inception, but their quirks no longer overpower the songs. This is clear from the outset with the fractured psych-punk-stomp, 'Memories', which alternates between Nuggets fuzz and eerie prog-pop melodic interludes, but the transition never jars, serving the overall feel of playful schizophrenia. Elsewhere, 'Emotions' is a woozy dreamboat sway that Johnny Ray would have been proud of, 'The Witch' is the closest they've come to the spirit of The Monks without aping them outright, while the overdriven sax and violence whirlwind of 'Shopping Bag' is thrillingly bracing.
Ade Blackburn's tortured sneer is as simultaneously malevolent and vulnerable as it's ever been and on 'Free Not Free' channels an eloquent grace not tapped since 'Distortions'. All of which makes Do It! Clinic's best full-length since their first and quite possibly their best full stop. What a pleasant surprise.
http://highvoltage.org.uk/displaydemoreview.asp?num=3533&band=161
Tuesday, 8 April 2008
Album: Andrew Weatherall - Watch The Ride (Harmless)
Nowadays you can download excellent mixes for free on an almost daily basis. Free from licensing constraints, DJs are free to put whatever the hell they like on an online mix, leading to net mixes more closely resembling what it's like to catch those DJs in their natural settings; a sweaty club.
This means then, that to persuade the average electronic music fan to part with upwards of ten quid for a mix CD, labels and DJs are having to pull out the stops a little more. Mixes are inherently more transient than artist albums anyway, with only a handful of mixes resonating past their meagre shelf-life. The Watch The Ride series has thus far been more throwaway than most, seeing the likes of Tom Findlay and Zinc turn in 'will this do?' snoreathons. That they've snagged Andrew Weatherall, one of the best DJs around, is head-turning enough in this crowded marketplace and the trademark Weatherall magpie spirit is definitely in evidence here.
It's a typically dark, dubby, danceable affair, with the curveballs coming thick and fast, but as with most mixes, come the end, you can't help but feel that the thrills are merely vicarious in nature. Maybe this mix might open people up to the Afro-jazz-disco delights of Mock & Toof or the emotive melodic techno of Danton Eeprom, but in an age where you can get better mixes than this for free, it just serves as a reminder that your money will be better spent going to see Weatherall in a dingy basement somewhere.
http://highvoltage.org.uk/displaydemoreview.asp?num=3596&band=492
This means then, that to persuade the average electronic music fan to part with upwards of ten quid for a mix CD, labels and DJs are having to pull out the stops a little more. Mixes are inherently more transient than artist albums anyway, with only a handful of mixes resonating past their meagre shelf-life. The Watch The Ride series has thus far been more throwaway than most, seeing the likes of Tom Findlay and Zinc turn in 'will this do?' snoreathons. That they've snagged Andrew Weatherall, one of the best DJs around, is head-turning enough in this crowded marketplace and the trademark Weatherall magpie spirit is definitely in evidence here.
It's a typically dark, dubby, danceable affair, with the curveballs coming thick and fast, but as with most mixes, come the end, you can't help but feel that the thrills are merely vicarious in nature. Maybe this mix might open people up to the Afro-jazz-disco delights of Mock & Toof or the emotive melodic techno of Danton Eeprom, but in an age where you can get better mixes than this for free, it just serves as a reminder that your money will be better spent going to see Weatherall in a dingy basement somewhere.
http://highvoltage.org.uk/displaydemoreview.asp?num=3596&band=492
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