This is the fourth album from Liverpool trend-shunners CLINIC, who’ve been doing their twisted and deeply disturbing thing for a decade now.
The band’s passion for deep and hypnotic grooves continues. Twanging blues distortion sets the scene - the garbled and urgent vocals of ‘Family’ gradually give way to the ethereal melted chanting and church bells of ‘Animal/Human’, complete with indigenous tribal percussion and, wait for it – wah pedal guitar. It all comes to a looping climax in the time it takes to boil an egg, and off we go through the windswept and interesting (and extremely diverse) journey of this impressive record.
It’s nice cop/nasty cop for much of the interrogation. ‘Tusk’ is a rollercoaster heavy metal freight train at full-pelt, one that really sounds like it would slice your limbs and spill your brains beneath its wheels. By marvellous contrast, the blues harp shimmers on a half-stepping beat during ‘Paradise’, giving the old ticker some much needed time to recover.
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Not for long however. More insane mutterings preside over the unstable and bass-heavy ‘If You Could Read Your Mind’, with a diminishing guitar hook doing its evil work deep in the mix.
We hear the sound of demons whispering the album’s title, one song before the title track’s finale. Bongos and harmonica create an echoing pulse before the bass and guitar set about some demented interpretative Bond Theme reworking, all burping breaking glass melancholia. Very strange. Also sturdily built along a plethora of hip-shaking yet dark and deep-seated melodies. This one’s a winner!
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