★★★★★
Clarence Park is the debut album from Chris Clark, a student from Bristol whose music teacher told him that if he ever bought a drum machine he would give up all hope in the development of Chris' talent and music ability. Chris promptly bought one just to spite him. Most people would think Chris' music is influenced by ravey techno, jungle, computer games and more abstract electronics. He thinks his music sounds like Prince and he doesn't really care what other people think. Well, maybe a bit...
- www.forcedexposure.com
2010-08-27
★★★★★
Chris Clark sprang forth in 2001, with feisty, sparks flying techno rebelling against moments of dreamy, eerie sweet tunefulness on his mini-LP debut, Clarence Park. One thing was clear: there were two Chris Clarks at battle, with no clear winner emerging. The two sides of Chris Clark have duked it out over a couple of years, while the name Chris Clark spread like wildfire among the Warp faithful, creating a devoted worldwide audience...
- www.forcedexposure.com
2010-08-27
★★★★★
Clark fits neatly—too neatly, perhaps—onto the Warp roster of electronic mavens. While his earlier records flirted with the avant-acid perpetuated by the label, Empty The Bones Of You is rooted solidly in Warp's creepy quasi-ambient department. As such, there's plenty here that'll appeal to fans of Boards Of Canada and of The Aphex Twin's more peaceable moments. The discreet melodies, the muddy off-kilter beats and the generally disconcerting air are beautifully realised...
- www.uncut.co.uk
2010-06-19
★★★★★
While the opening song, "Pleen 1930s," comes and goes as ephemerally as a dream, track two, "The Dogs," announces the beginning of Clarence Park, Chris Clark's (he's going by "Clark" alone these days) debut album on Warp Records. "The Dogs" is made up of clicks, grunts, and hectored hip-hop syncopations so brazenly present that one is reminded of a new and advanced version of ice hockey...
- www.nudeasthenews.com
2009-07-28
★★★★★
These are interesting times for electronic music. From a technical viewpoint, the genre has reached a plateau, with even Autechre no longer finding it as easy to push their sound into even more obscure shapes. Squarepusher has settled into a unique, yet horribly average, sound, Boards of Canada's 'relaxed' release schedule means we probably won't see another album for at least another year, and Aphex Twin seems unwilling (or perhaps incapable?) of releasing anything worthwhile...
- www.noripcord.com
2009-07-21
★★★★★
Nice moniker. A bit more catchy than 'David Smith', which is his real name. Actually, that's a lie, but how good would it be if it were true? The Gavel opens up the proceedings, with a Squarepusher-lite acid fit, before opening up into one of the most vital things to come from the Warp stable for a while...
- www.noripcord.com
2009-07-21
★★★★★
It seems appropriate to start at the end of Chris Clark's sophomore effort, Empty the Bones of You -- after all, his work is primarily a mish-mash of found sounds and grizzled electronics, perplexingly assembled together into a relatively coherent whole with little respect for traditional musical form. Cold electronic winds blow over "Betty," the album's closer, as horns and tones and strings bleed together into an astoundingly dense wash of sound...
- www.prefixmag.com
2009-06-08
★★★★★
The crisp, rolling digital beats and beautiful melodies of Chris Clark's Ceramics is the Bomb EP -- a teaser for his second Warp full-length Empty the Bones of You -- may be nothing new, but that takes hardly anything away from the lovely, often exciting music he's crafted here. One of the first reference points to jump to mind is a much softer and rounder Aphex Twin circa the Richard D. James Album...
- www.stylusmagazine.com
2009-06-08
★★★★★
It seems that you can tell a lot from album cover art. When looking at the Warp Records output it doesn't take a genius to figure out that Boards of Canada, judged solely by their cover art, are going to be some form of ambience. On the Come To Daddy EP Aphex Twin successfully warns us that the title track will be hardcore influenced. Plaid's release Rest Proof Clockwork there is a graffiti filled backdrop that echoes the b-boy influenced breaks of the record...
- www.stylusmagazine.com
2009-06-08