Sentinel_REVISITED sees Clatterbox continue his investigation into darker electronic sounds. The warmer moments of the 90s are buried under biting arctic winds and bitter hail.
There are times I feel old. Morning. Noon. Night. But there are specific times with music, or with certain artists, where the passing of years is that bit more palpable. Clatterbox is one of those artists that reminds me of my years.
I started following David Kempston after his releases on Clear. I missed the label as I was, well, young when the releases first came out. Lack of a record store in the local town might also have helped. But as the internet slowly spread across Ireland I managed to gather Kempson’s quirky and warm blend of IDM and electro. But by the mid 90s the Briton had hung up his hardware honed sounds and it looked like retirement had set in. But it hadn’t, merely a semi-retirement. A dusting of releases came out. 2004 Clatterbox resurface. The whimsy of the past had been hardened, galvanized into a much colder style. The UK artist was reborn as an electro being, a style he’s been exploring for labels such as Frustrated Funk, TRUST and now Solar One Music.
Frosted and fast, “Sentinel” screams into being with speeding snares and brutal bends. Originally released in 2010 on Z-Bop, SOM are finally giving this fierce track the full vinyl treatment. “Vertical Slide” follows. Synth stabs course through thick columns of bass and haunting chords. BPMs drop but surge once again as “Time Delay” introduces the B-Side. Soaked snare answers squelching computer speak. Mechanical ferocity is maintained until the very end. Industrial rattles through “Lateral Thinking.” Stripped back, the track pulses with a blackened intent.
Sentinel_REVISITED sees Clatterbox continue his investigation into darker electronic sounds. The warmer moments of the 90s are buried under biting arctic winds and bitter hail. It seems that Kempston, like myself, has not mellowed with age. Sharpened machine music guaranteed to dissolve many the dance-floor.
Sentinel_REVISITED is available on Solar One Music.
