New Clang is the second album by Clive Langer's New Clang Group and is apparently the first album he has recorded sober in over 50 years, this legendary producer has kicked the sauce and got the group back together, so that Deaf School compadre Rev. Max Ripple is joined in the Clang Group by Gregg Braden and new boy Jamie Reynolds. The album gives production credit to whoever was present!
The album opens with no clanging on I Know Me instead this is indie power pop with an interesting twist or two, they run run run from all sorts of things, fuzzy guitars /run through this as they try to turn tea into whisky once more.
Page 1 of one of those books that's been on the to read pile for a while, another biography you keep meaning to read, the urgent guitars driving you to delve into that life finally, seeing what's revealed other than some classic rock sophistication.
Lo-Hi is sort of slower more ruminative asking questions about ownership with a gospel rock feel and a glorious Mott style guitar solo fade out.
14th Floor a slow reflection of memories of staying in a crumbling edifice, carefully chosen images of that student flat, planning out a life where Ruth could truly be Stranger than Richard in that Stepney tower block.
Bulldozer is crashing through our lives, erasing the places and buildings we loved to spend time in, distressed rock rumbling, stuttering at the breakdown of what was the playground of our lives.
Southend on an away day what will they get up to, go hang out at Peter Pan's Playground scoring drugs, and having fun, or is this about being in the Kursaal with that organ swirling near the wall of death, he makes an odd claim to have got the train from Paddington, they stopped running to Southend from there in about 1895, sorry I haven't checked the precise date.
Grey To Blue things are looking up, the sun might even come out, searching soaring guitar, however forlorn Clive might sound, he's still looking for that blue to shine through the decaying world we are currently in.
It's Wild Out There ain't it just, like some long-lost Mott the Hopple mini rock operetta this shifts and moves through the collapsing world that still seems almost perfect in some ways.
Wrong House don't go in there, it's got anti Feng Shui, it's not good for your health, this place will bring you down and Bruce won't save you this time. Siren-like organ and guitars straining at the horror of the place.
Addiction is a song of a life well lived and all the things he was Addicted to, some of the things those addictions drove him too. The madness of it all, coming through the other side decades later thankfully. This isn't preaching, just remembering.
The album closes with a short sharp jolt of Alcohol that you can down as swiftly as Ray Davies could a shot of his favourite tipple.
Find Out More at https://linktr.ee/newclang https://newclang.bandcamp.com/album/new-clang
