After prolifically turning out albums in his own quasi-retro style, Chris Clark returns with what appears to be his most accessible album in Iradelphic. Recorded over three years in six countries, Clark treads explores sounds which we’ve not come to expect from him, namely pastoral, down-tempo pop. With this new flavour, Clark entwines flourishes of texture, Kraut-rock and scarred ambience.
Opener Henderson Wrench and Tooth Moves recall the loping pace of The Declining Winter; being acoustic, warm and subdued. Open, which features Martina Topley-Bird, has aesthetic parallels to both; Topley-Bird’s breathy vocal loop effectively the tea stain on Clark’s construct. Secret is more buoyant and sounds a little like classic Bristol-era trip-hop. All playful, it goes down like a good breakfast.
Tracks Com Touch and Skyward Bruise/Descent recall Clark’s staple electro-noodlings of years past, where The Pining parts 1 to 3, which inhabit the latter half of the album, encapsulate Clark’s diversity on Iradelphic: swinging seamlessly from vibrant, Mice Parade-esque rhythms to soulful, nuanced moments, and segueing into the beautiful Broken Kite Footage which recalls anything from Juliana Barwick’s The Magic Place.
Iradelphic is a grower, and once it blooms in your soul, you’ll keep returning to it again and again.
BY STEVE PHILLIPS
Best Track: Broken Kite Footage
If You Like These, You’ll Like This: Outside Closer HOOD, Totems Flare CLARK, Copia ELUVIUM
In A Word: Autumnal
