NEW ALBUMS
CLINIC
Fantasy Island DOMINO
8/10
Contorted space-pop on Liverpool quartet’s playful ninth
2019’s Wheeltappers And Shunters saw Clinic reach back into ’70s TV culture for base material. Here they execute an about-face, fizzing into the future as the post-punk generation might have imagined it, armed with analogue synths, echoey drums and “electronic acid bass machine”. The retrofuturist fun peaks with the bopping space-disco of the title track and the irresistible “Refractions (In The Rain)”, while loungey sax and self-help guides to meditation smooth “On The Other Side…”’s journey to the stars. A welcome and unexpected cover of “I Can’t Stand The Rain” is less Ann Peebles, more Suicide.