Oh London, so much to answer for... . Clinker, one of the stars of the London underground rock scene is back again. The history of Clinker can be seen as one man`s struggle toward the stars. In recent past they have released the single/EP Hallucination Generation, and Pizzo Tung EP as well. Their last self-named LP was a brilliant album, undoubtedly the strongest unsigned album of 2008. Another sign of their growth in popularity emerges from frequent performing, where they have a formidable line-up consisting of 4-6 people at times.My initial thoughts about the new album are that the songs herein can be divided into at least 3 sections. As multifaceted as Clinker used to be. While some colours of the past are replaced by new ones. For instance, the head-on psychedelic tunes and intrusive baggy rhythms on earlier albums are removed from here. Through songs such as Searching for a New World, Hold Out Your Fists and Hallucination Generation, Peter Jordan has for the first time demonstrated his volition to move a bit more towards the charts of recent pop music – there’s a lot of energy, synthetic and danceable sequences roll over these fast-paced tracks. Also, there are two tracks, The Line and Mire, that are full of feedback-driven harshness. Moving fast and hit hard. Compared to the video version of Mire, the album version comes complete with a saxophone solo, having thereby an intriguing blend of straightforward noise rock and a tumultuous jazz element. Quieter moments are presented in tracks like Painted Red, and Long Way Around. Also Let`s Go Out And Get Fucked can be classified as one of those, though it is a shimmering sunshine pop track first of all. Although the last three tracks differ from each other by intensiveness and tonality, all of them show their affinity towards inward-looking dreamlike tunes. Music Gives You Power is the absolute highlight on this album though and probably Clinker’s best ever – somehow in this exceedingly epic insight there lacks many words to properly describe it. However, may be it is comparable to tracks with a divine touch like The Asphalt World (Suede), Broken Heart (Spiritualized), Holes (Mercury Rev), or Grumpus (Lambchop).
Although I can only fantasize how the next Clinker album will sound, it is thinkable that the next one, sometime in the future, would appear as the transitional album between a new life and the past in the history of the London duo. Hopefully in the meantime they will have enough luck to be the-next-big-thing in the world.
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8.4
