WARP FACTOR

CLARK
The Bakery
Friday, April 27, 2012

Life is Noise have brought an impressive roster of electronic artists to these shores, the majority of these from the quirky, cool end of the scene and they continue this excellent track record with a return visit of Clark, over here to promote his latest long player Iradelphic, recently released on Warp Records.

Turnablist Zeke warmed up the crowd with a nice mix of funky treats and bass driven beats, interspersed with his trademark cutting and scratching, it’s good to see that he has managed to incorporate these tricks into his set without making them look gimmicky and upsetting the flow. Declan from RTRFM’s Trainwreck upped the bmps and managed to encourage the crowd in from the beer garden so that by time the clock struck midnight the expectancy levels had grown sufficiently for the main man to take to the stage.

Clark has built up quite a reputation in the EDM world since he released his debut album Clarence Park (recorded whilst he was still at university) back in 2001 and his steady output (albeit with about three years in between each long player) since then has done it no harm at all. His most recent album was recorded in many countries and showed him turning to a vast array of older analogue equipment to play, sample and create field recordings. He had one of these vintage synths with him tonight and it was with this that he kicked off his set playing the opening chords to Com Touch off the aforementioned album, before turning to his MIDI controller and morphing the track into a pounding tech stomper which the crowd lapped up, whilst the imaginative visuals provided a fitting background on the big screen.

From here, the pace didn’t really let up for the rest of the night. Wisely, Clarkhad decided to forego some of his eclectic down tempo output in favour of more pumping dancefloor friendly moments, and it was a grand decision as each track was greeted enthusiastically by the bobbing, swaying audience. Tracks such as Future Daniel from 2009’s Future Totem album, with its syncopated breakbeat, staccato synth stabs and soaring breakdowns, really got the pulses racing. He continued to pump the adrenalin with blasts of saw tooth synths and a brand of techno that was at times reminiscent of early ‘90s Belgian hardcore with its thumping kick drum and Beltram’esque ‘hoover’ refrains. All this was seamlessly mixed with the electronic maestro ever active on his controls, turning occasionally to his synth to play another lead.

All to soon Clark’s somewhat shortened set came to an end. It’s only been a year since he was last in these parts but judging by the crowd’s reaction (and on a night when the likes of Derrick May and the Funkoars were also playing elsewhere in town) another return visit would go down a treat.

ANDREW NELSON