‘Funf’ collates ten years’ worth of the Liverpool band’s ‘B-sides and rarities’ into something of a diverse collection. Clinic recycle the clichés of their musical ancestors, twisting them into a new style instantly recognisable as their own. Tracks such as Nicht and Magic Boots (both clocking in at well under two minutes) are straight from the punk/garage-rock cauldron, stripping down to three power-chords and a dirty, antique production sound; Lee Shan and Golden Rectangle, with vintage organs amid acid-tinged swirls of reverb, give more than just a nod towards ‘60s psych-rock. Clinic’s unabashed appropriation of these and other conventions never seems derivative however, as the Dali-esque vocals of Ade Blackburn add an entirely modern dimension to the songs, his lyrics rarely shifting into the decipherable; even then they are characteristically bizarre and dreamlike: ‘Penny pinch and penny chews/Ooh, its Christmas’ – naturally.
Clinic inhabit some sort of musical no-man’s-land, and this short blast of a record shows the ease with which they straddle the vintage and the ultra-modern. Although there are frequent moments here that sound like they could be from several decades ago, they are set against moments that sound entirely alien, as in the slow and brooding Christmas mentioned above.
For a B-sides and rarities record (lit: ‘songs we don’t know what to do with’) Funf is modest in length, at less than 30 minutes, and as such doesn’t become the self-indulgent fans-only release it so easily could have. It’s been pared down to an eclectic and contrasting twelve tracks, but that said, is probably still a little too schizophrenic for most newcomers to enjoy immediately. The three instrumental tracks do little apart from emphasise the importance of Blackburn’s vocals; but outside of these the collection is consistently interesting, becoming most exciting when the band reaches a balance between their experimentalism and their pop sensibilities.
John Maloney
Out 18th June
