CLARA MOTO HOW WE LIVE IN EACH OTHER

Last month I probably should've written about Clara Moto's new EP, Joy Departed, but instead I just wrote about one of the songs from it called 'Disposable Darling'. This was essentially a slice of techno infused with pop sensibilities, kind of like sitting the Techno Viking down and dressing him up in more fashionable clothes (putting a T-shirt on, for starters) and teaching him about pop hooks and things. Something like that. Anyway, it was nice.

And again, there's something really nice from Clara Moto, the Berlin-dwelling Austrian: 'How We Live In Each Other'. This is one of the songs from her upcoming album called Blue Distance, out 4th November on InFiné records. It is named after a phrase used by Sylvia Plath in her poem 'Years'. Quite a beautiful poem don't you think? I wonder why she chose that particular phrase from that particular poem from that particular poet. Who knows, not I. Not I. But the meanings behind things, as fascinating as they are, do not get us listening to a song, do they? So please, click play below and get stuck into the all-encompassing 'How We Live In Each Other'.

It is a song of two halves, which is something I really like anyway so she's already got points for that. The first half is an unnerving wash of sound that summons an atmosphere that is dark and unnerving. Images of trees shaking in the wind, something suffocating at the same time, disturbing almost. Synth blips pulse in and out like something from the future. Rainstick sounds ebb and flow. A gusty set of wildly reverbing piano chords play their morose melody. It's really atmospheric. Maybe it's a reflection of the song's title, the suffocating nature of a too-close relationship or something. I'm sure there are other explanations.

And then the vocals come in, I think they are Clara's own, leading the charge of the pretty brutal beat that barges in belligerently with a big boom. Yeah it's aggressive and ballsy, like any good techno beat should be, but leaving aside genre-specificity it's safe to say that it's great. The punchy kick with its two-tone flavour, bouncy - almost reversed - in one instance and rumbling in another; the snare with its mighty slap-sound, like a punch sound effect from an old action movie. Going back to the vocals for a second, their melody is dark and almost eastern-sounding, they pierce in like something from the future, something foreboding. They drip with a kind of straight-talking trance-like vibe. How great are the things that Clara Moto is doing, right? Genre-bending. Is it techno is it this is it pop is it what. It's experimental techno pop probably or something like that.

Anyway, will probs write about some more of her songs before the album release. Keep an eye out yo.

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CLARA MOTO DISPOSABLE DARLING

Here today we have a nice versatile piece of techno from Clara Moto, an Austrian-born, Berlin-based producer. Now, my preconceptions of what "techno" was exactly were pretty much influenced by that line from that Eminem song: "Nobody listens to techno!" I just thought, "Well, I guess if nobody does, then I shouldn't either" - not that I actually ever stumbled across this misunderstood genre until much later in life. Somebody introduced it to me and I decided that it was actually not as bad as I thought it would be.

But aside from the rumbling intensity of "actual" techno, Clara Moto has created a track here that dips its feet in a lot of different sounds, resulting in a smart, well-composed and intuitively dynamic piece of music. If you don't believe me, then perhaps you should have a little listen to it. Just below here. Yep, that play button. Click it - yep - there you go.

Starting off with an lightly industrial-sounding set of percussion, all drenched in a steely variety of reverb - and my favourite being the subtle church bell/tubular bell noise - the kick soon makes its appearance, muffled and organic, more like a heartbeat than anything else. The smooth-smooth bass that joins later seems to meld with the kicks, giving it a wonderful dimension of low-layer sound. On the top layer, a ghostly xylophone flickers like an oil-lamp in fog, and an unintelligible (to me, anyway, perhaps it's in German or Austrian - idk) vocal sample floats in echoing treble like something otherworldly.

But yes. A really nice use of dynamic. Things get turned on and off, the vocal gets the spotlight, then just the bassline, then the kick and bass get a turn to shine. Ambience disappears as intensity takes its place. Everything is switched around and brought back in just at the right moments - precision stuff. Towards the end, in the last minute, I like how all but the strongest of noises begin to disappear - you can really get to hear that intricate percussion, sounding as if somebody is doing some very rhythmic and well-thought out DIY next-door. A very nice tune.

It comes from an EP, Joy Departed, out 26th August on the Franco-German label InFiné.

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