{grate 3} Let’s have some of that Aphex acid! England’s
Chris Clark revives the now-obsolete I.D.M. (Intelligent Dance Music. Yes, it’s
pretentious.) moniker and spirit with a Justice-era crunch on his new foray
into jungle noise, Turning Dragon.

It’s obvious that Clark grew up
worshipping Richard D. James’ playfully disturbing techno catalogue, and has
proudly taken the torch now that James is too reclusive to release a proper
Aphex Twin record. But listeners beware: every beat, synth pad and chopped-up
vocal crackles with heavy distortion.

In the case of stunner epic “For Wolves Crew,” the harsh
assault works in Clark’s favor. The track greets us with
bubbling robo-bass and an innocuous click-clack, but slowly turns more sinister
as the sine waves languish, then attack without warning. On the other hand, the
speaker-busting tones fall flat on “Vionl,” which aurally rapes you for a few
minutes while overstaying its welcome through its endless static repetition.

Then there’s “Radiation Clutch,” an exercise in glitch
minimalism that invades your inner ear with frequencies expertly attuned to
cause bleeding, perfect for the closet masochist. Or sadist; play “BEG” in a
car full of friends and watch their heads explode long before the tranquil
second half.

What distinguishes Clark the most
from ’90s Aphex acid is his acute sense of pace and relative restraint. His
compositions are meticulous, to be sure, but they aren’t mathematical equations
built on towers of interlocking percussion like Drukqs or the Richard D. James album.
More than anything, Turning Dragon makes me excited to hear Clark
do introspective ambient work, hopefully playing up the downtime between tech
bombasts where he lets the eerie synths speak for themselves. For now, a happy
headache will suffice.