Anne Clark

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I only have 'Our Darkness' which I played at an EBM type night the other week. It fitted in really well and the glowsticks brigade laaahveed it. Has anyone else heard anything else by her and is it any good?

― flowersdie (flowersdie), Friday, 30 July 2004 13:24 (twenty-one years ago)

Yes. Much of it is produced by the same Dave Clarke who produced Our Darkness and isn't that different, cool electro/house/industrial beats with her poetry on top. I have one pretty good record where one side is all Dave Clarke electro-beats and the other side is produced by Vini Reilly/Durutti Column, and is quite beautiful.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Friday, 30 July 2004 16:48 (twenty-one years ago)

Thankyou. Do you know what the album is called?

― flowersdie (flowersdie), Friday, 30 July 2004 17:38 (twenty-one years ago)

Boytronic's Blue Velvet uses virtually the same synth line and I've had a lot of success mixing the two. Just a tip.

― Xii (Xii), Friday, 30 July 2004 18:08 (twenty-one years ago)

first alb, The Sitting Room, is a beatless affair featuring Dominic Appleton. very 4AD. Second album, Changing Places, was co-produced half by David Harrow (not Dave Clarke) and half by Vini Reilly. obviously an LP of two halves, with Durruti Vini's being a fragile, lovely thing and Harrow bolstering Anne's wispy poems with proto-EBM beats. this one feat. the semi-hits "Sleeper in Metropolis" and "Wallies." the third album, Joined up Writing, again paired Anne with Harrow, also adding Virginia Astley on one track ("Weltschmerz," left off the Trilogy compilation of the three LPs, BTW). but my favorite Anne albums are The Law is an Anagram of Wealth, done with Andy Bell and Eyeless in Gaza's Martyn Bates and Peter Becker - reads strangely on paper but works brilliantly - and the album of Rilke poems she recorded with Bates, Just After Sunset, one of my fave albums evah.

― echoinggrove (echoinggrove), Friday, 30 July 2004 18:11 (twenty-one years ago)

Hardfloor did the most popular mix of "Our Darkness" (off Joined up Writing, (again) not Dave Clark. i don't believe DC had anything to do with Anne. and Astley co-wrote a second track on Joined up Writing, "Nothing at All."

― echoinggrove (echoinggrove), Friday, 30 July 2004 18:16 (twenty-one years ago)

sorry, always keep confusing those names. I really know nothing about Dave Clark, just meant David Harrow. I definatey don't know about a Hardfloor mix, I only have and play and have ever heard the original.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Friday, 30 July 2004 18:30 (twenty-one years ago)

no worries. with all the Daves and Davids and Clarks and Clarkes, it's bound to happen.

the remix 12" with Hardfloor and Total Eclipse may have come much later - '97? - dusting off Anne and David's sweet slab of post-Apoc disco for a whole new generation. the original mix (and remix) are oh so Harrow, he being one of the pushers who introduced Psychic TV to Thee Infinite Beat.

― echoinggrove (echoinggrove), Friday, 30 July 2004 18:35 (twenty-one years ago)

if it makes you feel better, i misspelled Durutti! d-:

― echoinggrove (echoinggrove), Friday, 30 July 2004 18:36 (twenty-one years ago)

Towards (And Beyond) Thee Infinate Beat helped me make the transition from "industrial" to "techno" but never made the David Harrow connection, but did the David Ball/Soft Cell/Grid connection, as well as the Fred Gianelli connection.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Friday, 30 July 2004 19:44 (twenty-one years ago)

And last year there was another Anne Clark revival of some sorts, with various German electro/techno productions (The Hardest Heart and Sleeper In Metropolis 3000).

― Siegbran (eofor), Saturday, 31 July 2004 11:31 (twenty-one years ago)

I really love that "Our Darkness" track.

― Ronan (Ronan), Saturday, 31 July 2004 14:06 (twenty-one years ago)

Never heard of this person before and now I'm terribly intrigued!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 31 July 2004 14:08 (twenty-one years ago)

I saw Felix da Housecat headline Centro-fly at the absolute height of "electroclash" and he played Our Darkness, which I'd never heard out. Then he licensed it for his "A Bugged Out Mix By" CD. (note: he also opened with Moby's Go and played Joe Jackson's Stepping Out!)

I first heard Our Darkness on one of those chicago bootlegs that also featured Liquid Liquid's Optimo and some accapellas, the same series that has another volume that features Pineapples and RIS's Love N Music.

Ned, you'll love Our Darkness, it's the ultimate industrial/goth/house/techno/club crossover track.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Saturday, 31 July 2004 15:52 (twenty-one years ago)

OH DARN IT SOUNDS SO AWFUL

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 31 July 2004 16:02 (twenty-one years ago)

but in a good way! (unless yr being sarcastic?)

very moody stuff.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Saturday, 31 July 2004 16:38 (twenty-one years ago)

unless yr being sarcastic?

Incredibly so.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 31 July 2004 16:41 (twenty-one years ago)

ok.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Saturday, 31 July 2004 16:44 (twenty-one years ago)

"Our Dakness" and "Sleeper In Metropolis" have been staples in New Wave/Goth/Alternative/Industrial/Electro/Dance clubs here in Montreal since the 80's. I don't think there was ever a time where they stopped playing them or when they eventually will. Timeless classics.

― Seb (Seb), Saturday, 31 July 2004 16:49 (twenty-one years ago)

when I said I'd never heard it out, that was mostly in the context that I was going out in. I've always assumed it's been a longtime classic on the Chicago House scene as well as the aforementioned New Wave/Goth etc scene, judging from it's appearence on that bootleg. I just hadn't heard anyone play it in NY. Now the few times I've played it people have gone crazy.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Saturday, 31 July 2004 16:58 (twenty-one years ago)

I've got a copy of Our Darkness (in its first incarnation it was a HUGE gay disco record and charted as such). Unfortunately it's in America and I'm not.

― suzy (suzy), Sunday, 1 August 2004 05:41 (twenty-one years ago)

i always found it odd how such an english accent was massive in europe yet she sold absoulutely zilch in the uk. even in ebm / goth circles, anne clark remained an enigma in her homeland.

dave harrow went on to put a bit of acid house into on u sound, did stuff for sabres and now makes jazzy drum n' bass (i think).

i wonder what happened to ms. clark?

― stirmonster, Sunday, 1 August 2004 13:51 (twenty-one years ago)

Are we talking about the same Anne Clark who did the album Pressure Points and Hopeless Causes? I remember really loving the song "This Be the Verse" for quite some time, but I don't have these any more.

― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Sunday, 1 August 2004 14:02 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't know what she's up to right now, but she did a track The Hardest Heart with German producers Blank & Jones a year or two ago, which was a big club hit and wasn't bad at all (esp the Suburban Mix and Corvin Dalek's remix).

― Siegbran (eofor), Sunday, 1 August 2004 14:14 (twenty-one years ago)

man, "Our Darkness" is such an ingeniously constructed track. draws from the skills Harrow honed at On-U and in his "ultrahouse" days. not to mention that it's "electroclash" 20+ years ahead of its time. no wonder Felix has been caning it.

a few more AC notes...

Gary Mundy(!) was the guitarist (and second "vocalist") on Anne's first album; as if his history with Skullflower/Broken Flag and with Breathless didn't already make his C.V. strange enough. does anyone know if the "Patrik Fitzgerald" credited with keys on the same album is indeed Patrick KoD? listened to The Sitting Room again; can't think of a good comparison. maybe mid-period CINdYTALK, some of Wim Mertens stuff, or the atmospheric interludes Ivo whipped up for TMC?

Astley/Clark's "Weltschmerz" sounds like a NWW/C93 effort, perhaps an outtake from In Menstrual Night. even the lyric sounds like something Tibet might have penned. very odd. Virginia continues to surprise.

Bates, Becker, Bell, Clark, and Harrow also appear to have teamed up for the earlier To Love and Be Loved. haven't heard this one yet, but it's on order. will report.

didn't Mouse on Mars take on one of Anne's tracks on Word Processing. IIRC, the remix roster was mostly LCD Teutonic techno fodder like Westbam, and MoM's cut really stood out.

― echoinggrove (echoinggrove), Sunday, 1 August 2004 14:40 (twenty-one years ago)

did i say "beatless" re: The Sitting Room? scratch that. forgot about the "Party Mix!" [sic] of the grim "Short Story" and the closer, "All We Have to Be Thankful For," which is like Scott's Soothing Sounds for Infants played by ... Nocturnal Emissions?!

― echoinggrove (echoinggrove), Sunday, 1 August 2004 14:50 (twenty-one years ago)

harrow was at on u AFTER he did 'our darkness' et al.

― stirmonster, Sunday, 1 August 2004 15:19 (twenty-one years ago)

i know. and i could have worded that better, but "skills Harrow (later) honed..." was what i intended to imply.

it is, however, Soothing Sounds for Baby.

― echoinggrove (echoinggrove), Sunday, 1 August 2004 15:26 (twenty-one years ago)

Gary Mundy? WTF? I was obsessed with that stuff in college, Broken Flag/Ramleh/Skullflower/Total and all associated uk noise weirdos. Neil Campbell, Simon Wickham-Smith and Richard Youngs, JFK etc. That just makes very little sense to me.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Sunday, 1 August 2004 16:33 (twenty-one years ago)

does anyone know if the "Patrik Fitzgerald" credited with keys on the same album is indeed Patrick KoD?

Different guy.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 1 August 2004 16:45 (twenty-one years ago)

well, i would have said "surely it's a different Gary Mundy," but the selfsame U.K. noisenik has been a member of Breathless since 1998's Blue Moon/Moonstone, imbuing that band with a distinctly druggy feedback-smeared aura. and since Dominic Appleton has been in Anne's inner circle since the beginning, it's gotta be same guy.

― echoinggrove (echoinggrove), Sunday, 1 August 2004 20:55 (twenty-one years ago)

Is it just me misconnecting, or does anyone else remember Smash Hits, of all publications, making one of her singles SOTF?

― OleM (OleM), Sunday, 1 August 2004 21:19 (twenty-one years ago)

Our Darkness was a real fun dance track...Sleeper In Metropolis was the other good track, too, I think. I bought an album of hers once, though and it wasn't exactly filled with other stuff to match those. I sold it.

Sorry I don't have time to read these threads in their entirety right now. :(

― Bimble (bimble), Sunday, 1 August 2004 21:35 (twenty-one years ago)

Yep, Smash Hits gave her a single (of the fortnight!) in about 1984.

― flowersdie (flowersdie), Monday, 2 August 2004 08:55 (twenty-one years ago)

And I think it was probably for Our Darkness. It really is one of those records that should come with super-8 A-bomb footage for your club night of DOOM.

If I were an electroclash retro-miner I'd grab Fetish by Vicious Pink too.

― suzy (suzy), Monday, 2 August 2004 11:38 (twenty-one years ago)

hah, just picked that up for a buck. Been debating the merits of Fashion as well.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Monday, 2 August 2004 14:47 (twenty-one years ago)

I love early Fashion - when they had the incredibly tall singer with the deep voice. It was all downhill after the first album "Product Perfect".
The first single "Steady Eddie Steady"/"Killing Time" is killer.

― Bimble (bimble), Monday, 2 August 2004 21:23 (twenty-one years ago)

two years pass...

Never heard of this person before and now I'm terribly intrigued!

-- Ned Raggett (ne...), July 31st, 2004.

Well that took me long enough (even though so far it's only "The Hardest Heart" with Blank and Jones). I'm kinda irritated she seems to have been...well, not written out of history, but I seriously think this is one of the few places on the Web where there's any discussion or knowledge of her work at all.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 7 January 2007 03:12 (nineteen years ago)

Me: Is it just me misconnecting, or does anyone else remember Smash Hits, of all publications, making one of her singles SOTF?

flowersdie: Yep, Smash Hits gave her a single (of the fortnight!) in about 1984.

suzy: And I think it was probably for Our Darkness.

Having pondered this for 1.5 years, I actually think it was for "Hope Road"!

― The Vintner's Lipogram (OleM), Sunday, 7 January 2007 03:23 (nineteen years ago)

Oh my god I would love to hear Our Darkness right now.

― Good Warlock of the West (Bimble...), Sunday, 7 January 2007 03:51 (nineteen years ago)

The track Leaving from Hopeless Cases is like the Streets (when emotional), but earlier and different. It´s almost scary.

― jon person (jon person), Sunday, 7 January 2007 03:54 (nineteen years ago)

three years pass...

attn virginia astley fans, this song is dope

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M20-K8n7YVA

― teresa banks (r1o natsume), Sunday, 21 March 2010 17:43 (sixteen years ago)

shit i just saw moodymann tonight and he played "our darkness". what a world

― teresa banks (r1o natsume), Monday, 22 March 2010 05:37 (sixteen years ago)

very much enjoying the knowledge that hath been dropped upon this thread

― teresa banks (r1o natsume), Monday, 22 March 2010 05:38 (sixteen years ago)

so what else should i be checking out from david harrow?

― teresa banks (r1o natsume), Tuesday, 23 March 2010 23:42 (sixteen years ago)

ten months pass...

Is there a compilation of her best work? If not, seems like something for Dan's Acute Records!

― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Wednesday, 9 February 2011 03:57 (fifteen years ago)

david harrow had a solo album I have somewhere, the sound is much the same as on his production on Anne Clark, yet more Male?

― JacobSanders, Wednesday, 9 February 2011 06:20 (fifteen years ago)

one year passes...

I've just mentioned this on the House & Techno thread. Anne Clark teams up with japanese house producer on "Between Shadow and Lights".

― mmmm, Saturday, 26 January 2013 12:00 (thirteen years ago)

Benny Benassi used the "Our Darkness" synth line for his song "Love Is Gonna Save Us" in 2004.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6gpSUjoVO8

― LeRooLeRoo, Sunday, 27 January 2013 18:50 (thirteen years ago)

seven years pass...

tour delayed, cancer :( - https://www.anneclarkofficial.com/

― StanM, Sunday, 2 August 2020 16:53 (five years ago)

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