Clark Announces New ‘Flame Rave’ EP On Warp

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‘Flame Rave’ continues the majestic explorations laid out on Clark’s critically acclaimed self titled album of November ’14. A hugely kaleidoscopic listening experience filled with warmth and subtle, unpredictable shifts in mood, ‘Clark’ saw the Warp producer attain a zenith in his output, chiseling his vision of techno into a boldly experimental yet memorable and melodic creation.

EP lead ‘Silver Sun’ has long been a key track in Clark’s ever popular live set, which exploded across the globe in 2014 encompassing swirls of psychedelia, fire-and-brimstone techno, and all manner of explosive experimentation with added visual complexity. ‘Silver Sun’ pits a continually developing minimal synth arpeggio against an unexpected break beat, combining influence of “weightless” instrumental-grime with jungle and rave.

Clark: “There’s a beatless version of this that’s about 10 minutes of modulating synths like in the intro, it’s such a weird hook because it works as an ultra peak moment rave tune but also as this early morning sleepyville sorta thing. I decided to release the ravey live show version”.

‘To Live And Die In Grantham’ is one of Clark’s toughest – and memorably titled – tracks of recent, with a similar feel to single ‘Superscope’, ably bookending the past year’s creative period.

“I’ve had that main grinding riff in this for ages, it’s a Roland synth going through a Venus bass amplifier – it actually blew the amp up. The first part of this track makes a club feel like a sauna, and then the oxygen comes back in the room for the second half, I wanted to make something almost unbearably violent and intense and then flood it with heartache and melody at the end.”

‘Springtime Linn’ and ‘Unfurla Cremated’ offers a glimpse through to an alternate dimension of ‘Clark’ where these tracks – strikingly so with ‘Unfurla Cremated’ – took very different paths to the final LP versions.

“There are about 40 versions of ‘Winter Linn’, it’s an agile little beast, but this is the best alternate version. It’s like the siamese twin of the first version, definitely more upbeat than the original, springtime feelings. Daffodils. And heavy boots.”

“Pooled from about 50 mins of jams around the Unfurla theme, ‘Cremated’ was the finale. I love a good powerdrone. I sometimes get bored of hearing pure analogue music, pure vintage synths, pure expensive equipment etc, it can feel a bit backward looking, a bit retro. I like to distil that texture and hear it in a more refined, modern context. That’s what this track is.”

Coinciding with the release of ‘Flame Rave’, the brand new live show debuts this March at Convergence (12/03) and Bloc Weekender (13/03), with visuals by Marshmallow Laser Feast complimenting Clark’s ever expanding sonics.

Tracklisting:
1. Silver Sun
2. To Live And Die In Grantham
3. Springtime Linn
4. Unfurla Cremated