Albums Of 2009

1. Clark
Totems Flare
Despite liking most of what Chris Clark has produced to-date, I took an instant dislike to Totems Flare, ditching the album for revisit after a single play. I was foolish to ignore a lifelong lesson; the best albums are always less than appealing on first listen.

It’s just that Clark’s previous solo album (ignoring the Techno step-out, Turning Dragon), Body Riddle, was so imaginative, so surreal, so original, that Totems Flare initially seemed like its bleepy, over-processed little brother.

Fortunately, there’s a lot more to Totems Flare than that, the album’s amazing pop melodies are simply entrenched in a plethora of technical detail. All is revealed within five plays; that’s when tracks such as Growls Garden and Talis fully reveal themselves as brooding Electronic Pop classics, up there with the best that the underground has had to offer over the past 30 years.

The words ‘Pop’ and ‘Clark’ appear unlikely bedfellows, but Totems Flare really does embrace what Clark calls the “brute force” of modern Pop engineering. What makes Clark even more appealing is that his music has considerable depth, substituting glossy, lightweight electronic music for dark, dysfunctional and intense electronic music, yet remaining fully accessible.

Without question, Totems Flare cements Clark’s position as one of the most vital electronic musicians around today.