Iradelphic

I was blown away by this album; Iradelphic is a musical experience, touching many dimensions! This album is totemistic of Clark’s skill and creativity as an experimental artist. To his critics, Clark has no responsibility in being your musical patron or to meet your expectations. Any great artist is constantly inverting -exploring- his or her own artistic understanding and imagination.

I hate to read bad reviews , its one thing to comment that this album is not your taste , or you like some of his other albums better than this one but if any of you are a electronic musician like me you understand what it means to be one and how much work goes into doing this. You may not like this album but judge it on its quality its creativity its pure disregard to what you expect to hear or better yet what you want to hear. I promise you will find this album an adventure you will want to take over and over. I have been following his career since the first release and a true musician is a searcher and is always evolving. This is just a another example of his true artistry at work. Who wants to write the same boring crap over and over again ? My hats off to Chris for bringing us all yet another album of beautifully crafted music. Your an inspiration Chris , thank you :) - Kaiton

Clark may have lost some listeners with a change in style in this album, but not me. He's still doing what he does better than anyone else, merging the chaotic to a point where musical clarity emerges. Genius isn't always understood, I guess, but I for one hope he keep doing his thing, I'll listen.

I’ve been listening to a lot of Clark lately. Although some may snicker at his latest attempt to disengage himself from associations with purely electronic music, it is an utterly welcome direction from my perspective. Hearing Clark take a further step from the digital-only cookie-cutter post-IDM production is something I always wanted to witness. Throughout the years Chris Clark has definitely attempted to fuse whatever instrumentation he found available at the time with his intricately designed atmospheric dark electro sound. His past catalog show such embraced diversions in albums like Body Riddle (Warp, 2006), Turning Dragon (Warp, 2008) and Totems Flare (Warp, 2009). But it is with Iradelphic that Clark has taken the greatest leap to establish himself as not only one of the finest electronic musicians around, but also as one of the non-electronic musicians nowhere to be found. For Iradelphic Clark steps away from his elaborately approached programmed sound and picks up a few acoustic instruments and even some vocals for a good measure. The audible difference of this resolution is unhindered, as is the unmeasurable source of influences that Clark has picked up along the way. In fact, it’s nearly impossible to put your finger in identifying anything concrete that has lended a hand in the development of the album. But what’s absolutely clear is that Iradelphic is without a doubt Clark’s very own sound, and more importantly, it is profoundly good. Yes, from the very first listen, I knew that this would be an album I would be coming back to over and over again, at different times of the day, in different moods of the year. And knowing that I could always rely on Clark to provide my soundtrack, is exactly what makes Iradelphic so great. For his sixth full length release on Warp Records, Clark is joined by Martina Topley-Bird (known for working with Massive Attack and Tricky) who contributed her vocals and even composed a piece. On one of the tracks, “Open”, I believe Clark is even singing himself. In unison with Topley-Bird, over post-trip-hoppy beats and synth arpeggios reminiscent of hypnotic patterns from Boards of Canada, the duo repeat over and over “…ebb and flow of a thousand lonely outlines.” Perhaps music has the right to children after all. But as the guitar and the 60s bossa motifs develop of the following track, “Secret”, the journey takes a turn on a less traveled road, with Clark as your trusted guide. Here are the bass drops, the synth growls and the entangled beats, that force the musical tourist to return to this landscape for another longer stay. On “Black Stone” Clark opens up with a beautiful piano progression that easily contends with some of my favorite solo-piano modern classical pieces. Then, switching gears, he dives into a three-part “The Pining”, which begins with lo-fi pads, moves into guitar strums, and then acoustic broken beats that juggle the rhythms and constantly mutating melodies until they all come together in one unbelievable opus. This particular sequencing reminds me of the good ol’ Orbital days when the beginning of the track only gave you a glimpse of the entire picture until it all slowly evolved and developed into one major masterpiece. And yes, I’m calling Clark’s Iradelphic exactly just that. Definitely one of the best albums of the year so far! Highly recommended if you like Bibio, Plaid, The Black Dog, Arovane, Daedelus and Four Tet.

however, tracks 4, 7, 8 and 12 ruined the album from me. Those songs are aimless and slow down an otherwise great album; it seems like clark is regressing a bit on this release. However, the rest of the album is all really good. Hardly any of these songs are actually in 4/4 time which really adds to the album's folksier feel.

chris clark is great. every album. its good to hear music that not just pop or club mainstream. give it a listen.

I think when one has spent a decade perfecting a certain sound it is hard on people when it gets switched up. I know the disappointment many felt when Bibio switched from mush to warp with Ambivalence Ave. I happened to think Ambivalence is a masterpiece however. This doesn't succeed in the same way Bibio did but that isn't so the much the issue. I think there are some great moments on this album, I especially like The Pining 1-3, but I give artists the credit and room to expand themselves even if it takes them away from the things I particularly liked about their work. One can only go on so long making the same kind of music. So here is to trying and not quite making it and hoping that the next time around he succeeds more.

While I do like this album, I feel like there are only about 3 or 4 tracks on it with real substance. I'm saying that in between songs like Open, or Com Touch, I find myself waiting for the next one to start instead of seizing the moment of the track. I Listen to a lot of intrumentals and while these are pretty, I'm almost in Denial that Clark can make something this boring. I give HALF this ablbum a 4, But I cannot score the whole album as high as I feel like I only got half an album. I love Clark, Totems Flare was amazing, but this is only pretty good.

Clark's new sound is less beat heavy and more melodic than that of his previous releases, but the attention to textures and sound design is still there. It sounds a bit likes he's been working with Bibio. It's a solid release. Check it out!

I like much of Clark's work, but this album is a huge disappointment. It veers off quite far from his edgy, sometimes difficult, beat laden work. He seems to be trying to work on pure song writing and it doesn't come out well. I bought it right away without checking reviews and I regret it.