Top Ten Albums of 2006: #7 - "Body Riddle" by Clark

The last time I checked in on Clark was a couple of albums ago, when he was still early on in his recording career and still went by his full name, Chris Clark. Clarence Park sounded pretty much like any generic IDM release of the era. Body Riddle is an entirely different animal. While there are scattered appearances by analog instruments and sounds, the entire album is heavily processed. Throughout, the source audio has been processed and manipulated so heavily that when analog sounds make an appearance it's almost as if they've broken free of the track, popping right out of the sonic stew. But this isn't to say that there's a sterility to the music – the adjective that comes to mind again and again is "organic".

Clark is really in some singular territory on much of the album. Like some kind of musical explorer taming a primeval land all his own, he creates and builds on combinations of sounds that just quite haven't been heard before. Rather than the strict metronomic precision typical to most electronic compositions, these tracks are exotic and unpredictable, with an unrestrained messiness to them. Some have the feel of field recordings from some strange alien jungle, or the internal soundtrack of imaginary beasts.

To me, Body Riddle is a place – one filled with strange vistas and beautiful creatures. The duo of "Herr Bar" and "Frau Wav" give a sense of soaring through lush foreign landscapes. The single, "Ted" reminds me of nothing moreso than a huge dinosaur, drunken and lumbering through the swamplands. "Night Knuckles" sounds like a parade of cheerfully industrious insects, while "Vengence Drools" evokes visions of some kind of predatory beast on a late night mission of destruction. And "The Autumn Crush" is a twister touching down to raze the countryside for the apocalyptic grand finale.

Who could resist an album that makes one see such amazing things?