Clark

English electronic musician Chris Clark provided a diligent summary of English electronica of the previous decade (Squarepusher, Aphex Twin, Autechre, etc) on Clarence Park (Warp, 2001), whose short instrumental pieces ran the gamut from ambient music to glitch music and to drum'n'bass and to synth-pop etc. The album parades the distorted, frenzied, hard-rocking The Dogs, the swirling machine music of Proper Lofi, the syncopated minimalism of Bricks, the dramatic, narrative A Laugh With Hills, the brief comic skit The Chase, and especially the childish melodic vignette Lord Of The Dance. Clark's versatility is impressive, but he rarely combines multiple styles in the same song. Each one feels like a demonstration of what can be done with a particular style.

Empty the Bones of You (2003) was similarly eclectic and even too technical, but also aesthetically more accomplished. If the first album had been background muzak for the glitch generation, this one was a technical demo for the glitch practitioners. Clark excels at polyrhythmic fests like Indigo Optimus and at glitchy ambient soundscapes like Empty the Bones of You , but the highlights might be the shredded lullabies Slow Spines and Umbilical Hut. Clark enjoys deconstructing pop music, hence the distorted warped carillon motifs Holiday as Brutality and Gob Coitus, and enjoys draining energy from dance music, hence the tribal industrial Early Moss and its degenerate relatives Wolf and Gavel. The vast cosmic vortices of Farewell Track and Betty seem to belong to a different album.

However, the stylistic puzzle of Body Riddle (2006), returning to a more humane dimension, upped the ante of IDM with the fractured rhythm and xylophone of Herr Bar, the moving aria of Frau Wav, the anthemic progression of Herzog, the pounding enthusiasm of Ted, the industrial gothic dance of Vengeance Drools, the frantic, hammering, music-box lullaby Night Knuckles, the thundering crescendo of The Autumnal Crush, and especially the acrobatic syncopated locomotive dance of Roulette Thrift Run.

Turning Dragon (2008) aimed squarely for the dancefloor and Totems Flare (Warp, 2009) tried to diversify into ambient house, breakcore (Rainbow Voodoo) and electroclash (and even singing in Growls Garden).

Iradelphic (2012) and Clark (2014) were uneventful. His best material of this period probably came out on the mini-album Fantasm Planes (2012), the single Superscope (2014), and the four-song EP Flame Rave (2015), with the seven-minute To Live And Die In Grantham.

Clark progressively abandoned dance music with the subsequent albums: Death Peak (2017), with the lengthy Un U.K., Kiri Variations (2019), which remixes the soundtrack for a TV mini-series, and Playground in a Lake (2021), an exercise in digitally-manipulated chamber music, notably the 11-minute Life Outro.

Sus Dog (2023) was his first album dominated by his vocals and a return to the dance beat, followed by Cave Dog (2023), which was more of the same but with more trivial beats.