Campbell, Mallinder, Benge – ‘Clinker‘ Turquoise Vinyl Mini-LP

This is a collaborative project by Julie Campbell (aka LoneLady), Stephen Mallinder (Wrangler, Cabaret Voltaire) and Benge (Wrangler, John Foxx). Titled Clinker, the first 800 copies of the album have been pressed in turquoise vinyl.

Review from Electronic Sound:
Clinker is another permutation of soundfuckers with Benge at the controls. He creates lithe but rough sculptures with his machines, Stephen Mallinder is in fine disrupted, distorted voice (and playing bass), Julie Campbell, aka Lonelady, supplies blasts of hacked post-punk guitar and textures. It works because, like 1970s Cabaret Voltaire, it makes a feature of its limitations: the hiss of the signal paths of Benge’s vintage synths, scrapes of plectrum on steel as Campbell’s agitated fingers worrying at the strings, looking for that moment of inspiration and fire.

‘Camouflage’ is all nervous energy from its opening guitar spurts and the instantly recognisable white noise whoosh referencing John Foxx’s ‘Metamatic’ era, and echoes of ‘Sensoria’ in Mal’s spat vocal.

In ‘Signification’, the crazy machinery pumps away as blocks of fiery texture burn across the sound field, the guitar somewhere between Keith Levene’s more exotic contributions to P.I.L. And Andy Gill serating for Gang Of Four.  And it takes glorious flight on ‘Dereliction Magical’ with a proper guitar hook and Campbell’s vocals. What a corker.

Mark Roland

'The project began a couple of years ago,' explains Julie. 'Benge had these great sketches that were beats and synth patterns, so those were the starting point. I really went to town adding lots of guitar layers and experimenting with different sounds. On some tracks the guitar is deft and rhythmic, as if mimicking sequencer patterns. On others it's a deconstructed noise-based approach - scratching strings, making fitful, heavy chunks, howls and scrapings of noise and texture.'

Due to competing solo commitments for all 3 members the tracks disappeared into hard drive exile for a couple of years. Julie continues: 'Last year we revisited the mixes and Stephen added his trademark mysterious and menacing vocals. Now we find ourselves with a finished piece of work. I thought of the name Clinker as I love its meaning: "stony residue from burnt coal". This seemed liked an apt description of both industrial and creative processes, and a nice nod to the industrial North of England.'

Stand-out tracks include Camouflage and Condition Collapsing. 'I'd forgotten how liberating it is to play bass guitar on something,' enthuses Mal. 'It compliments Julie's beautifully angular guitar, and Benge and me ripping up live percussion onto the sound of machines... As a collection of tracks these benefited from a lengthy gestation, as they follow no particular trend and were allowed to twist and turn to develop a life of their own. After successive cycles we suddenly drew it all together so the tracks have a sense of completion and identity.'

'The real fun for me was during the mixing process when Mal and I looked at each other as the rawness of the tracks hit us on the big studio monitors,' adds Benge. 'We knew we had something untameable, and wanted to preserve that feeling of edgy rawness in the mixes.'

The cover image is by Julie, with overall design by Twilight. Vinyl edition includes digital copy (MP3).