Wednesday, July 4, 2007

ARAB STRAP – THE CLEARING (CHEMIKAL UNDERGROUND)


ARAB STRAP – THE CLEARING (CHEMIKAL UNDERGROUND)

Not the most obvious of singles to come from their first album, the point I realised that this band was going to be big (indie style) was hearing this record play out loud and proud at the late Covent Garden Rough Trade shop.

Breaking the song down its excellence comes in its simplicity and the manner in which the strength of Moffat’s lyrics truly crash through. Sounding like a drunken telephone call to a rejecting lover or fancy, the suffocating extent of emotion displayed is emphasised and empowered by the crashing and distorting drum crashes of the background that motor the track resembling some kind of aching/pounding headache only serving to make a bad situation worse. Here was the rudest of awakenings.

With their emergence Arab Strap sounded rarely and genuinely unique, just like no other act I had ever heard before. So extremely and vividly Scottish the tone of proceedings gave it some kind of gritty working class authenticity coming from a part of the country that holds a magic kind of wrong mystery to outsiders looking up.

The single version of “The Clearing” comes with extra trimmings. The beats are louder accompanied by some kind of scream that is similar to a howling wolf. In the context of the album it probably would not have worked being too dressed up in comparison to the minimal tone of that collection but held aloft alone it is well padded. Featuring guest spots from Isobel Campbell and Chris Geddes of Belle And Sebastian extra keys and strings lend the song additional drive and depression as the description of the clearing remains sounding bleak and sexually distracting, emotionally devoid and potentially home to rabbits. As proceedings get extended and dragged out it just feels like bad sex and an ambient groan.

The other two remixes of the song on the release are an exploration into sequence subtly lapping on new drum beats and patterns, repositioning elements of the track giving the vocals more room to breathe.

It ends with another of Aidan’s under the duvet ditties where he appears to be whisper singing into a Dictaphone in an effort not to awake or arouse the neighbours or himself. These are valuable documents.

Special.

Thesaurus moment: droop.

Arab Strap
Arab Strap interview
Chemikal Underground

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