Black Joker
Outery Planetary Oasis
Continuing the ongoing and always timely reassessment of Spencer Clark's sprawling body of work throughout this century, Discrepant & Pacific City Sound Visions remaster and press into wax the second and, for the time being at least, last album under his Black Joker manifestation. Not completely removed from the highly percussive bounce and keyboard thrills of his Monopoly Star permutations - side by side on the aptly titled 'Star on "Nightlife on Horseback" split tape from 2009 -, Clark's travels as Black Joker feels more indebted to nighttime revelations, less buoyant and gleaming by design, as if mantled by the star patterned dark sky. A mirage of wooden block percussion, flute like keyboard hypnosis, intertwining synth melodies and tuned percussive cascades at the end of an expedition with no return address, the perpetual motion of the true wanderer.