UK songwriter and producer Clarence Clarity is best known for his work behind the scenes of other artists. In particular, his creative partnership with Rina Sawayama put Clarity on the map as one of the most innovative pop producers in the game today. His own work falls somewhere near the left of the post-dubstep spectrum, in the same group chat as Hudson Mohawke but also lo–fi hip hop beats to study/relax to. Glitchy, scattered, a bit DIY, Clarity extrapolates from styles like bass’n’breaks, trap, futurebass, and wonky. But as far from the nu-metal-meets-The Neptunes-meets-Cheiron Studios sound of Sawayama as his own music seems, Clarity has always possessed an affinity for a good hook. Though acerbic or jarring, there’s always a pop sensibility hiding beneath all the grime and swagger. Quietly self released online, his latest album UNRECORDED HISTORY is no different, though it may be the most obscure we’ve heard Clarity to date.
UNRECORDED HISTORY happens from a distance. It’s a device Clarity chooses, the album notes saying simply: this album does not exist, you must be dreaming. Most songs sound like they’re playing underwater, a generously applied low-pass filter submerging the music so deep that only waves of bass and echo-like highs pass through. The Mary Rose and Coup D’état are awash with subtle water sounds, vague narrative clues that might suggest UNRECORDED HISTORY takes place at the bottom of an ocean of dreams, or nightmares. These songs, and the wryly titled Clarence Clarity sounds like the wrong prescription drugs, sound most like broody hip-hop, R&B, and trap, filtered by Clarity through layers of dense distortion and delay so that they come out almost post-punk. Millennial Dread is recognisable as swagger-on-stupid hype rap, but it comes out sounding like the work of an underground noise band or Perturbator. The excellently unhinged Trees That Sprout From Your Human Body turns drill into industrial goth by way of Nine Inch Nails. By applying the devices of these more alternative styles to hip-hop, Clarity arrives at another sort of genre play to add to his arsenal. His stylistic dexterity is impressive. Few other producers are able to code switch genres in the way Clarity does, while retaining the skeleton of what makes those genres attractive.
Download and stream UNRECORDED HISTORY here
Largely a concept record, UNRECORDED HISTORY is an intriguing but cerebral listen. It’s a bit of a mediation on the depths of depression and dissociation, and while sonically it breaks new ground for him, it’s still a very Clarence Clarity record. It reaches back for obscure mid-2000’s references, like the sort of bedroom produced dreampop and slowcore shoegaze of Sleep Party People, while maintaining a strong pop framework beneath all the fuzz. Clarity outside the lens of another artist continues to prove himself as a skilled sonic engineer, and while its roughness at times grows tiresome, UNRECORDED HISTORY is a testament of him as an indisputable visionary.
Listen to Trees That Sprout From Your Human Body from UNRECORDED HISTORY below.
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