A very interesting release indeed.  Click Click are (finally!) back on the scene with a new full length, Shadowblack.  Their current sound is nowhere near what they use to produce, but rather it’s a dub / drum ‘n’ bass / trip-hop extravaganza.  Now signed to Off Beat, Click Click once again spread their musical wings and fly away from their eighties roots and land smack dab in the middle of the nineties.  More Samples Than a Clinic starts things off with tumultuous beats that wraps themselves around a trip-hop spine.  Deep, suspenseful orchestral movements pulse through this track, making it sounds as if it were intended to be the soundtrack for a modern day Hitchcock thriller.  At a certain point the beats begin to deconstruct and a hollow guitar sound rolls along in the background.  As the track progresses further, experimental noises flow in and out, followed by another beat change which takes the percussion down a notch and into the dub territory.  The track rebuilds itself and fades away, leaving only a muffled bass kick and a high pitched, repeating note.  It takes awhile to build, but once it does Parabellum shows all the signs of being the obvious choice for a single.  Smothered vocals weave between the pummeling percussion and dirty rhythms.  Other sounds, such as atmospheric sequences, ethereal voices, and whistling synth lines, drift through this piece, giving it robust feeling.  The drum ‘n’ bass elements within the title track are juxtaposed against the whirling, distant vocals and ghostly sequences.  Loss of Breath is a slower piece that rotates around a stretched out trip-hop beat and creepy samples.  A mixture of military styled beats and trip-hop give Memento Mori its force.  Also thrown in are serene vocals and an occasional, cascading sequence.  This is a rather minimalistic piece, but it goes through enough changes to keep my interest.  Hephaestos is another drum ‘n’ bass drive track, but this time around the sequences are more atmospheric and spacey.  As in most of the tracks, there are several break-downs in which the beat changes-up and after which new sounds are introduced.  Meandering in the experimental genre, Hopi is a slow piece with a looped (violin?), gritty samples, and a steady beat.  For the most part Stencilhead remains in the experimental genre, but Click Click do manage to intertwine a rugged beat that instantly reminded me of the old World Destruction song by Time Zone.  Sequences that sound like whale calls are layered upon the beat, giving this piece a mystical quality.  final piee, Do You Get What I Want, expands on the experimental sound and carries it into the more noise orientated region.  There is still a rough beat and a pulsating rhythm, but all of the other musical elements seem to be straight out of electronic noise.  I am quite impressed with Click Click’s new sound. Shadowblack is one of the rare cases in which I approve of a bands massive change in musical direction.  This should appeal to fans of all sorts, from noisy electro to experimental to dub to tech-electro to drum ‘n’ bass to tortured trip-hop and beyond.
 

OFF BEAT RECORDS

Horster Strasse 27

45897 Gelsenkirchen-Buer

Germany

e-mail: offbeat@t-online.de

OFF BEAT homepage:

http://www.offbeatassault.com
 
Click Click is:
Adrian & Derek E. Smith