Like nearly everything from Chad Clark and Beauty Pill, we've got here a work of art which operates on multiple levels. At its most basic level, "Instant Night" is a surprise new single from the band. On another, it's a grim warning about the fate that might await us if certain bastards win re-election. And yet on another, it's an elegant piece of chamber rock.
Built around Erin Nelson's vocals, "Instant Night" uses one ascending keyboard-figure against another seemingly downward-facing one. The weird effect is like you're climbing steps while someone is beating out time with each step you take, as if you're walking up to your doom, not down to it. There's a bridge that's beautiful and unsettling, with saxophonist Sarah Hughes using up the space here, and squawking all over the place, like that dream-horn-line that plays throughout "Pink Elephants on Parade". The warning from those horns grows, until the song's melody unfurls against a rippling keyboard motif.
Chad Clark has mastered the method of making music that juxtaposes elements, moods, feelings, even as said music seems entirely precise and methodical. The emotion in Clark's art rock is in the parts that clash, in the threads pursued and unraveled, and in the mix of electronic elements with 'real' instrumentation. "Instant Night" seems a step forward, even as the unnerving video from Ryan Nelson warns of many steps back.
Instant Night is out now via Northern Spy Records and the link below.
More details on Beauty Pill via the official Facebook page.
[Photo: Glenn Griffith, 2017]