Clarence Clarity doesn't like to do things by halves. Three years later, completing the bilogy launched by his EP “Vanishing Act”, the thirty-nine-year-old Londoner releases a 37-minute concentrate of hyperpop, funk, rock, colored by a sound palette so saturated and decomposed that in comparison any head shot of Prince can be said to be moderate. If in 2015, for the debut “No Now”, the watchword was hypnagogic poptoday it is clear that the musician's horizon is (and perhaps always has been) decidedly hyper: the voice is filtered, distorted, the sound is oversaturated and very colourful; yet there is attention to harmony, to songwriting and retail which is a rarity for the genre. In the 10 tracks of the album, Clarence Clarity blends kaleidoscopic synth-funk, rock grit and soul interludes, with the careless ease of bedroom pop but a production mastery that stands comparison with the most progressive peaks of thernbcurrent /soul (KNOWER, mk.gee, Hiatus Kaiyote).
Each piece is a surprise, a showcase of sounds that play with nostalgia and modernity: “The Greatest Living Musician, Found Dead” is an adrenaline rush, capable of blending whistling eighties hard rock guitars, emo-pop vocal accents, and interruptions of alienators found sounds. Hints of an MTV-based adolescent diet mix confidently with the most transparent pop melodies and sudden about-faces: “What Year Is This?!?! JFC” and “Old King, The World Moved On” recall thernb hypercommercial of Backstreet Boys and *Nsync, combined however with scathing tones and a bite that transfigures the cliché. With “Allatonceness”, we go from a bubblegum-pop nursery rhyme to an explosive refrain, then throwing itself into a guitar solo that suddenly disappears into the fade out.
The compositional vein is bold, brazen, even “forbidden”. Take for example the ballad “Guinevere”, which closes the album on late-Eighties molasses: having built its languid atmosphere, made elegant by a passage of class on the minor fourth, it gradually slips into a liquid and surprising coda fueled by futuristic changes of tonality. In “To Be A Bat”, the contrast is subtle but disruptive: a funky guitar that fits between synthetic, dark and heavy bass lines. And in “Playing Our Parts,” Clarence throws a pass chiptune very nuanced spooky in the midst of exuberants hook from boybandwith falsettos that flirt gigs with the pop of Max Martin.
Hilarious, cheeky, crazy, but refined even in the most balancing choices, “Vanishing Act II: Ultimate Reality” is a contagious and galvanizing sound adventure, capable of stunning and entertaining with every new listen.
07/11/2024
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM
