With the sort of whip line synths beloved of Miami Vice-era electronica, you would almost expect to find backwards-recorded snare drum trickery in this debut album ‘Wreck’ from Minneapolis three-piece Claps. Muscle memory of 80’s dance clubs pervades – or at least the strongest possible deja vu of that chill out portion of the night, with what can only be described as glacial beats. For the fullest effect, listen to ‘In My Dreams’ while you roll up the sleeves of your box-cut jacket and have a quick check in the mirror of your tip-bleached hair. You don’t even have to have been there, this record is the perfect vehicle for a bit of transferred emotional import.
It might be their first long player but Claps have been around long enough to have a couple of EPs prior to this. They used to be notable for a dogged insistence on analogue synths. Strange to relate, they were not alone in this, there was almost a mini-wave around a year ago. It’s possible to imagine them all, blowing the dust off their minimoogs. Claps remain almost pure to the ethos this time round, although they have now added live bass. The overall effect certainly gives a view of the world through a very particular and self imposed praxis. It’s fascinating in it’s way to hear the burbling electronic degradation of the individual notes in ‘Gone Grey’, and hear the contrast to the shiny bounce in ‘House’.
They build a pretty soundscape. Patrick Donohoe does duty on vocal, with exactly the right sort of lyrical content for this music, heavy with heart-ache, doing his part to add to add the sense of passing time “we once were fresh but now fall like leaves”.
Know what you’re getting into genre-wise, but that said, this repays the effort and can be recommended for further investigation
[Rating: 4]
