When Chris Clark sent his album in to the Warp offices it generated some interest. In fact, everyone there got excited about it, and if that kind of unanimous praise only says one thing about "Body Riddle", it's this (and there's no hidden message); everyone at one of the World's foremost labels for glitchy, abstract electronic music loved this album. If you're a glitch fan that means everything, because when it comes to having an ear for this sort of thing, no one hears it more clearly than Warp.

1. Herr Bar
2. Frau Wav
3. Springtime Epigram
4. Herzog
5. Ted
6. Roulette Thrift Run
7. Vengeance Drools
8. Dew On The Mouth
9. Matthew Unburdened
10. Night Knuckles
11. The Autumnal Crush

Chris Clark, who practices his art under the name of Clark, combines conventional rock-styled drums with laptop magic, breaking and bending each sound, phrase and pattern into an exact science of sound. You can hear it clearly in the opening track "Herr Bar". Its chunky beats are contrasted by lightly floating piano-like keys and meandering synth pads. As the song develops, its beats become more and more distrorted and ever heavier, up until the climax which builds into a deafening barrage of distorted beats, that subside abruptly about a minute from the end of the track. Softly played ambient keys drift along until the end and sound more like an interim than an extension of the song itself.

Sometimes the beats aren't as organized, in fact they can sound a little more inspired by jazz playing, as in "Frau Wav". Throughout the album, the synth sounds follow a path that's well worn in glitch music and are certain to inspire memories of work by Gescom, Arovane, Boards of Canada, and an almost limitless host of others.

In "Herzog" we find the beats organize themselves once again, led by nicely avant, analog synth keys. It's a fresh twist from the sound that's existed in the previous songs, but remains familiar at the same time. The keys are played with such an intense rhythm that I keep waiting for some impossibly rich and bassy drums to kick in, but they don't. Instead, a pattern for Clark is revealed when the last minute or so breaks down into passive ambience.

Those impossibe drums I'd hoped for in "Herzog" (and am actually thankful I was denied) make their way into the next amazing track "Ted". If there were a way to experience this song intravenously, I'd have to do it. The gait of the rhythm borrows from hip-hop but there's really no similarity. Once again, Clark's pattern of breaking things down to ambience at the end seems to be repeating itself. This time however, he switches it up with some crazy drums.

"Roulette Thrift Run" keeps the tempo moving with a slightly (ever so slightly) drum n' bass inspired rhythmic sound. Some sampled vocal pieces add a nice richness to the sound of this one, and in concert with its unique percussive style, makes it somewhat different than the tracks experienced up until now. It's a heavy track, but nicely done for sure.

The next track "Vengeance Drools" makes no secret about its hip-hop rhythmic influence. This pulls straight out of the breakbeat bag for its foundation. Sure to resonate with fans of Ghostly (Dabrye, Lusine) and The Agriculture (DJ Olive, Nnnj). Some subtle tambourine and utterly perfect use of distrortion effects absolutely floors the rhythm in this one...brief, but amazing.

"Dew On The Mouth" offers a moments rest with a little ambience, but you'll be back into it once distorted breaks of "Matthew Unburdened" kick in. Its a slow moving song though, so you won't find yourself running out of breath on this one. After this it's a mix of ambience and deafening distortion with "Night Knuckles" and "The Autumnal Crush".

If you're a fan of Warp already, you know their integrity comes first. Clark proves it. They wouldn't say this album is the sh*t if it wasn't and it is. Among the collection of glitch oriented albums I've heard recently, Body Riddle definitely rises to the top.

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