If C. R. Stecyk, III once contributed the Dogtown legend by sanctifying the now concrete-cast ‘Skate and destroy‘ phrase in his famous article for Thrasher magazine, Glaswegian talent Thomas Lea Clarke aka Mr TC opted for aquatic obliteration with his second instalment for JD Twitch’s Optimo Music. Or is it pure desert storm psychedelia, raking up ouroboros-like stoner riffs and pan-seared live percussions ready to set the dying sky ablaze?
"Mr TC opted for aquatic obliteration with his second instalment for JD Twitch's Optimo Music. Or is it pure desert storm psychedelia, raking up ouroboros-like stoner riffs and pan-seared live percussions ready to set the dying sky ablaze?"
Air is sultry, snakes are biting and the sun is frying. The title-track opens the path to a relentless voodoo trip with a fierce rolling of shamanic drums and electrified strings as it progressively succumbs to a brutal onslaught of giddy 303 belches. The tone is set and it’s pure brain-melting material to say the least: an effervescent scaping of layers intersecting and repeating over and over, each bar aggregating like another bead to the chaplet of this never-ending vertigo.
‘Teeth‘ picks up where ‘Surf & Destroy‘ left off, offering a slightly more scopious and cloudless perspective on Mr TC’s abrasive melodies and complex drum-skein. Extending the gamut of his palette to more astutely dispensed phrasings and horizontal beefing-up, the tension is constant through these twitching swells and nodes.
‘Brother’s Bed‘ doesn’t stray too far from the previous in terms of groove and forward-moving appetite, but sets a more blatantly electronic and kosmische-infused build-up: arpeggiated synth spindrift and bouncy bass outbreaks interweave nervously, holding the fire within before plainly unleashing the track’s transcendental fragrance in a more “classic” club frame.
Last but not least, ‘Mobiliser‘ engulfs you in a malevolent, druggy kraut spire, all doped on spooky unintelligible vocals, clanky keys and an abysmal drone wheeze that achieves absorbing you into its bewitching danse macabre. The slow pulse is no short of mesmeric, working its murky magic perfectly. With ‘Surf & Destroy‘ Mr TC shows the maturity felt behind his debut release was certainly no mirage, cementing his position as one of Glasgow’s key figures for the years to come.
Surf & Destroy EP is released via Optimo Music on July 8th, pre-order a vinyl copy from Juno.
TRACKLIST
A1. Surf & Destroy
A2. Teeth feat. Merlin Nova
B1. Brother’s Bed
B2. Mobiliser
Discover more about Mr TC and Optimo Music on Inverted Audio.