CLINIC - FUNF (DOMINO)
Many years ago I got really drunk after a Clinic show in Colchester and I wound up riding my friend’s post bike into the side of the Clinic tour transit. The sound that I made at the moment of collision was probably “funf!” Upon impact (which I swore to bystanders I was capable of avoiding) the Clinic players jumped out of the van and surrounded me. To this day I thank them for enquiring about my wellbeing rather than slapping me silly, a response I realistically deserved. Their reaction of “he’s just pissed” I feel was a lesson for us all.
With that in mind, this collection of b-sides and rarities is the kind of listen you employ on a day where you are feeling grateful and clement. Clinic have always been one of those near mainstream teasing weirdo bands like the Super Furry Animals that have managed to juggle a brilliant balance between Radio One airplay and maintain enough credibility to play All Tomorrow Parties.
This compilation is most definitely Clinic; skewered guitars cut though sheets of sound as the mostly instrumental fanfare appears to be a modern take on an era bygone in a seedy and investigative manner. I think the key to Clinic’s appeal has always been to make retro sound modern by bringing much vitality to their methods.
Considering this is a batch of odds and sods (technically off cuts) it is a tidy and compact little record with a hell of a lot to be taken from it ranging from the glam stomper “Magic Boots” to the playful US hardcore sounding “Nicht” through to “The Castle” which is the track that best represents the “sound” of Clinic with it’s song built a industrial generator-esqe noise and a heavy Hammond organ that sounds stolen from a cathedral.
Smartly the album closes with an apt finale in the form of “Golden Rectangle”, seemingly a Parisian surf song similar to Faith No More’s version of the Midnight Cowboy theme, there is true orchestration in Clinic’s music.
Many years ago I got really drunk after a Clinic show in Colchester and I wound up riding my friend’s post bike into the side of the Clinic tour transit. The sound that I made at the moment of collision was probably “funf!” Upon impact (which I swore to bystanders I was capable of avoiding) the Clinic players jumped out of the van and surrounded me. To this day I thank them for enquiring about my wellbeing rather than slapping me silly, a response I realistically deserved. Their reaction of “he’s just pissed” I feel was a lesson for us all.
With that in mind, this collection of b-sides and rarities is the kind of listen you employ on a day where you are feeling grateful and clement. Clinic have always been one of those near mainstream teasing weirdo bands like the Super Furry Animals that have managed to juggle a brilliant balance between Radio One airplay and maintain enough credibility to play All Tomorrow Parties.
This compilation is most definitely Clinic; skewered guitars cut though sheets of sound as the mostly instrumental fanfare appears to be a modern take on an era bygone in a seedy and investigative manner. I think the key to Clinic’s appeal has always been to make retro sound modern by bringing much vitality to their methods.
Considering this is a batch of odds and sods (technically off cuts) it is a tidy and compact little record with a hell of a lot to be taken from it ranging from the glam stomper “Magic Boots” to the playful US hardcore sounding “Nicht” through to “The Castle” which is the track that best represents the “sound” of Clinic with it’s song built a industrial generator-esqe noise and a heavy Hammond organ that sounds stolen from a cathedral.
Smartly the album closes with an apt finale in the form of “Golden Rectangle”, seemingly a Parisian surf song similar to Faith No More’s version of the Midnight Cowboy theme, there is true orchestration in Clinic’s music.
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