Customer Reviews

Stick Music

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Clogs continue the trajectory from their immediately-accessible first effort, to the slightly darker & more mysterious second (ably reviewed by user "cosmokane31") and now their third is even more challenging.

Atonal, arhythmic and often alien-sounding, the music here shares more perhaps with Third Ear Band and late Stravinsky than Penguin Cafe Orchestra. The usual plethora of instrumental sounds and moods keeps the disc intriguing throughout, but gone are the touches of humour which played so well in the first. Clogs still reside in the narrow boundary between popular and contemporary classical music, and still provide a rewarding listening experience. In fact, it's good that they are challenging themselves to come up with something new and totally their own.

I've been following this group since they started and this is their best yet. The earlier records were interesting and very different then the post-rock groups they were compared to...more like classical music. But this record really takes things to a new level. It sounds like all of their varying influences are coming together and this is a group really learning what they want to do with sound.

This is a record full of atmosphere and beauty, dark shadows, flickers of light and wind both ethereal and haunting. Blending classical and eastern European folk influences Clogs are like a hidden treasure waiting to be discovered, shelved upon a dusty old shelf forgotten by time and place. This album in particular has an 'otherness' to it, that intangible quality that completely creates its own universe, pictures and emotions. Stunningly evocative music for those who don't need a photograph to see real beauty.