Tag Archives: Chris Clark

Clark – Totem Crackerjack

28 Aug

Well I am back at school for my senior year and I have no clue what I’m doing. I am looking for jobs and throwing myself at people (literally). I need money. You don’t realize how much of a motivator money is until you have none of it.

As for general back to schoolness, I have a great song that will get you right into the doing stuff mood. I posted a Chris Clark song around the same time last year and I felt that it would be appropriate to post another one now.

This song, Totem Crackerjack, is from his latest album, Totems Flare. Not quite dance and not quite anything for that matter, this song takes you on a wild electronica ride.

The entire beginning of the song can only be described as the feeling of kicking ass. Listening to this makes any task seem like an epic adventure. It takes something as menial as job searching and turns it into something out of an action movie. A series of jaw-dropping transitions give it essentially a plot better than most films.

Right around two minutes the song rises into a sped up version of Pink Floyd’s On the Run. After the this brief homage the song goes into another quick instrumental sequence. The ending, the first one anyway with the light bell sounding thing, serves as sort of the aftermath of this frantic rush of sequences.

The final ending with the eerie piano is absolutely gorgeous, and I like to think of it as the credits. Also, the music video is really cool and confirmed my movie plot idea sort of. I definitely recommend watching it for some fun trippyness.

A brilliant display of British electronic music and an all around great song. I’ll be listening to it a lot as I drive to classes… starting tomorrow. I love it and hate it already. I do it for the money. Time to jump on the bandwagon of life. A moneyless world only exists in magic hippie fantasies. lol

-oko

&)

P.S. Mail me some money please and or hire me please.

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Chris Clark – Herr Bar

12 Sep

I wish everybody had a happy Labor day and Rosh Hashanah vacation! It feels like summer vacation is just ending, and that first week of school was a week-long vacation from summer vacation. I mean that is what syllabus week is anyway.

So considering that Tomorrow will be the first day of school, I have a song that will get everybody pumped to educate. I heard it right before syllabus vacation and my ears exploded. Listening to it on the way to school made sitting in class and listening to professors explain their grading policies, mildly amusing. I mean this is the type of music that could make anything seem fun.

And that type of music naturally is jazz. But lo! It is not just simply jazz, but an unholy combination of jazz and IDM. For all of you that didn’t google IDM after reading my first post, it stands for intelligent dance music. In actuality, dancing to this type of music would be impossible without breaking a few joints.

Typically IDM is electronic music characterized by extreme speeds and tons of experimentation. I always notice that it tends to use every single rhythm know to man in a span of about 15 seconds. You be the judge.

And the IDM song I have in mind is by a Brit named Chris Clark. He sometimes shortens his artist name to just Clark, as is the case with this particular song. Its name is Herr Bar and it is off the album Body Riddle. This is the only album on which I have heard IDM-jazz experimentation, and let me tell you. It is an experience.

Although this particular bass and the chiming piano are seen in much new age IDM, this particular combination simply screams jazz. Like as if jazz was lying dormant waiting for someone to do this. However, it quickly reminds you that it is IDM, since it flies off into every single tangent it can find. I’ll bet you 5$ that you can’t find any parts which repeat.

Since IDM is technically the cutting edge of electronic music, it is a showcase of many new styles. My favorite, as seen in Herr Bar, is the simultaneous decaying and bending of notes which gives the synth such a dreary yet beautiful sound.

The second half of this song switches into a sort of psychedelic extended ending, losing the jazz but maintaining the level of experimentation. If you are into this song, I definitely recommend the entire album. It is definitely something to have, myself buying it as soon as money finds me.

…I’ll bet you 5$ that you will listen to this song at least 10 times within the next 24 hours. &)

-oko

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