If the first of three promotional MP3s being released in advance of Clark‘s forthcoming Body Riddle album provided a taste of what’s to come (the song, “Herr Bar,” is the first track on the album, due out October 2), the second such promo MP3, “Dead Shark Eyes,” is a taste of what Body Riddle is not. That’s because “Dead Shark Eyes” doesn’t appear on the album, or at least it doesn’t appear in the track listing for the album at bleep.com, the online music retailer owned by Warp, the label releasing Body Riddle.
What is “Dead Shark Eyes”? It’s five and a half minutes of elastic percussion with an ear for shifty beats (MP3), rarely sticking to a given segment long enough for it to settle into a groove, the sort of thing usually termed “IDM,” or “intelligent dance music.” The track takes a pause at the four-minute mark, from which it never quite returns; instead it ventures into an ever so slow fade, dissolving in plain view. For more info, visit throttleclark.com.
By the way, these scheduled MP3 releases are getting more common by the day. Not quite a podcast, they’re pre-announced special downloads of the limited-edition variety, along the lines of the dozen segments that constitute the radiogallery.org series (web-broadcast sound art, with a few more episodes due before the series concludes on September 18) and the Tate Modern’s tatetracks.org.uk (which features the response to modern art by various musicians, including Chemical Brothers on Jacob Epstein, Graham Coxon on Franz Klein, and Union of Thieves on Cy Twombly). The latter is due to begin online the first of October, after which new entries will appear monthly through April 2007. (The month preceding each track’s online release, it’ll be heard only at the Tate Modern in London on a pair of headphones “in front of the art that inspired it,” according to the museum. How’s that for limited edition?)
Oh, and the third and final Clark promo MP3 is due out (or is it “due up”?) on September 18. Set your calendars. In the meanwhile, read about the first Clark MP3 in a previous Disquiet.com downstream entry (here).