There's no one making quite such elegant music as Chad Clark. And, as beautiful as the music of Beauty Pill frequently is, Clark is intent on never taking the easy path. Things get too cozy, and he up-ends the whole thing and sends the melody in an unexpected direction, or uses an effect or studio device to add a discordant layer to the aural loveliness. This isn't difficult stuff, like Merzbow is difficult. No, it's easy to sink into. But there's meaning here that reveals itself on subsequent listens, little secrets that are discovered by an attentive listener. And Chad Clark is an attentive listener. And that's why he's such a good musician and producer of music.
That intellectual vigor is paired with Chad's unabashed romanticism. He's a believer in the craft. He labors long over this material, and it sounds that way. Even on the earliest recordings of his band, collected here on Blue Period, out today via Ernest Jenning Record Co., Clark was defying the conventional wisdom of what the original label (Dischord) was all about, and adding a marked beauty to a post-punk frequently consumed with mathematical precision, or a geeky love of noise for its own sake. Beauty Pill sounded more like Van Dyke Parks than Q and Not U. And by just doing that, existing that way, BP were perpetuating a bold punk ideal; DIY for this lot meant making something intricately arranged and placed in its own genre.
"Lifeguard in Wintertime", from 2004's The Unsustainable Lifestyle, uses Rachel Burke's vocals to center a heaviness (like in the more conventional "Such Large Portions!" from the same record) that's intent on edging in on the heart of the tune, while "Copyists", from 2003's You Are Right To Be Afraid, does Radiohead better than Radiohead does Radiohead. Clark's not intersted in studio fuckery, as much as he's intent on making a mood linger in the head here, using whatever tool he needs to use. Rachel Burke's voice here, a foreshadow of Erin Nelson's on more recent Beauty Pill offerings, lures and entices. The music is uncluttered, progressing over its path like movements in a string quartet. This is smart music not just for smart people, but smart music for anyone with the time to sit down and put on some headphones. I mean, yeah, Chad's the king of headphone records, not any other way to phrase that. And it's a compliment, of course.
Of the rarities collected here, a Hendrix cover is sure to please in its own harsh way, while "Fugue State Companion" marries a rhythmic punch that's late period Fugazi, even as the sway of the tune, and Chad's vocals, carry this into its own weird space. Little sounds like this, frankly, and I'm not going to try to pin it down into a genre, or use a bunch of shitty descriptors like a SPIN reviewer in 1992. I love this stuff because I can hear ideas being generated, refined, and performed in whatever fashion Chad Clark's determined works best. That that produces something so beautiful is a happy accident of a process that's assurdedly more rigorous in the studio. Clark's dilligence makes this material lovely in a rare way, and compelling in an immediate fashion.
Blue Period by Beauty Pill is out now via Ernest Jenning Record Co..
[Photo: me, 2017, Black Cat, D.C.]