Clark

Clark shares new single ‘Clutch Pearlers’

Taken from forthcoming album ‘Sus Dog’, released May 26^th on Throttle records

Previous single ‘Town Crank’ added to BBC 6 Music A-list playlist and supported by New York Times, Pitchfork, NME, Spin, The Line Of Best Fit, Fader, The Quietus, Stereogum, Brooklyn Vegan and Consequence

On May 26^th Chris Clark presents ‘Sus Dog’; his tenth studio album and the first to fully focus on his voice. Released on his own burgeoning label, Throttle Records, the record was mentored and executive produced by Thom Yorke, who sings and plays bass on the track ‘Medicine’. 

Unlike previous LP ‘Playground In A Lake’, which turned impending ecological doom into beautiful dark art, on ‘Sus Dog’ Clark often sounds uplifting, albeit in his own inimitable way.

Purveying a sort of skewed-psychedelic-hardcore-dream-pop-brilliance, prior to beginning Clark “kept on thinking ‘what would it sound like if The Beach Boys took MDMA and made a rave record?’”. This early seed grew into something epic – abundant with aural and poetic depth, clues, inferences and in-jokes. It’s clearly brilliant and immediately enjoyable, but there’s much to unpack: It’s a big but tantalizing undertaking, where plenty more treasure can be discovered amidst layers of ambiguity, obliqueness and abstraction.

The most apparent central juxtaposition here is the high-voltage synth power combined with delicate falsetto vocals, emphatically exploring the human condition; a complex, distant cousin of the ‘keep pushin’ positivity found in 90s house music. Dealing with “all these mixed emotions, clashing, crooked emotions, at war with yourself, acting out”, Chris captures the modern day, overloaded malaise. We can all be weird, or awkward, or struggling, and that’s okay. We’re all just trying to get by. This aural companion is uplifting, excitable, troubled, conflicted and beautiful all at once, much like we all can be. 

Set to a bright carefree ditty with Reich-ian tuned mallets, ‘Clutch Pearlers’ deals with social awkwardness and insecurity, but, as with much of the record, definitely isn’t earnest; more sideways, with a self-awareness and self-deprecation ensuring things never descend into the air violin sin bin. 

Context and reference wise, ‘Sus Dog’ is singular; sounding like nothing other than Clark. Elements from his oeuvre and new colours are combined to fully form a complete communication. It’s a culmination of every past experiment, questioning, pushing his own boundaries, and teaching himself. Not to discredit his feted catalogue, but this feels like a pinnacle, and a flourishing. This is an important album by a vital frontrunner. “It’s a lifetime’s worth of listening to songs and working out how to make them, tuning into how to customise all the other elements to my tastes. It feels like my debut, in a way”, he concludes.

Sus Dog is really an album about trust. I’ve only realised, since re-singing versions of Town Crank everyday (see Instagram), what I’ve been tapping into. The idea of "I don’t need to know what you mean". It’s a sparse phrase, scratching at themes embedded in other lyrics throughout the album. Trust, surrender, letting go.

Sus Dog is about unknowing, non defensiveness, beginner's mind. Discovery. The idea of being telepathic is seductive but abit dangerous. It’s all contingent, we're animals with minds more like morphIng vapour than anything solid. Constantly becoming/changing. Sus Dog is a dedication to the love of that process. I’ve written a bunch of love songs, ha never thought I'd say that.