ELECTRONICA
BY STEPHEN WORTHY
Clark
★★★★
Sus Dog
THROTTLE. CD/DL/LP
Unswerving electronic pacesetter produced by Thom Yorke; inspired by The Beach Boys.
As Chris Clark began prepping for Sus Dog, he settled on a loose theme – what if The Beach Boys necked some pills and made rave tunes? Compared to 2021’s beautifully rendered but apocalyptic Playground In A Lake, Clark’s tenth album is undoubtedly more playful. For the first time, Clark’s own voice dominates throughout. He gained confidence to use his brittle, yearning falsetto after reaching out to Thom Yorke for advice. Yorke ended up executive producing Sus Dog, adding vocals and bass to the distorted, lurching waltz of Medicine, one of the album’s more disquieting moments. By contrast, Town Crank is more of a saucer-eyed Brian Wilson moment, a blistering electro stomp that explodes with volcanic intensity. Clutch Pearlers adopts a similarly zesty approach, with Clark addressing suffocating social awkwardness – acommon lyrical theme here – to the syncopated thud of tuned mallets. Sus Dog is the sound of Clark finding his voice in more ways than one.