Liverpool's surgical mask sporting band Clinic have such a great recipe for success. Namely, catchy hooks and driving beats. It doesn't hurt that they also have a shtick: the aforementioned surgical masks. (Check out the pics on their 'Space page.)The first thing you see when visiting the band's official website is a menu. On this menu the band is described as "A succulent yet tropical blend of lounge, drizzled with psychedelia, with just a hint of dementia." I don't know that I could say it better myself. Though they are an English indie-rock band, Do It! most definitely has some lounge flavor, and it's pretty obvious that the band has a lot of Pink Floyd in their catalogue. The dementia? That comes through too. Front man Ade Blackburn whispers and sings and generally illustrates a lack of sanity that is so convincing as to force you to wonder if the surgical masks are hiding the patients as they run the asylum.
However, their fourth album, Do It!, is so much more than just indie-rock with lounge and psychedelic flavors added. The album has driving songs that hook, and the band uses strange instrumentations to create hypnotic textures (flute, synthesized fog horn, church bells, etc.) that lull the listener into a fall sense of security before bashing the whole thing to pieces with their raucous sound. The album kicks off with "Memories," a song that houses a riff so thick and fuzzy as to make you wonder if it's the long lost twin of Keith Richards' "Satisfaction" riff, but is counterbalanced by the soothing vocals of Blackburn (who reminds me of Eamon Hamilton of brakesbrakesbrakes). This juxtaposition is nearly perfect in its execution, and even moreso in its catchiness. The followup punch, "Tomorrow," is a surf-tinged floater that immediately shows the other side of the plate. With haunting harmonica and whispered vocals adding a texture that is present throughout Do It!
The band has several songs from the album posted on their 'Space, and "Free Not Free" is available as a free download at clinicvoot.org. Here are a couple videos for the first two singles off Do It!
"Free Not Free"
"The Witch"
The album is out now on Domino Records (Arctic Monkeys, Franz Ferdinand), and is available on iTunes and in your finer record stores.
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6 comments:
i dont think i like this. i think maybe i enjoyed it a bit more when it was original and thom yorke was crying all over the bends. thumbs down from me on a first listen....that could change...or stay the same
yeah, but you hate limey music, for the most part. so you're opinion is suspect right there.
love you, lu.
no youve got me all wrong. i LOVE limey music....hello!! the kooks?!?!? bloc party??? im just really not digging this one, brosef.sorry.
meh. it doesn't suck.
Lemme through out a third comparison - I think the band sounds closer to Blur (or even Broadcast) than either Radiohead or brakesbrakesbrakes. Blackburn sounds really Albarn-ish to me.
okay, lu, you got me. you like 3 limey bands: radiohead, kooks and bloc party... ;)
seeeeee??? so fuck of gwant. 3 isnt none.
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