Claro Intelecto - Metanarrative
[Modern Love]

With British Summer Time due to drop any second, it seems fitting that Mark Stewart has delved one hour deeper into his nocturnal electronic cauldron for the second Claro Intelecto LP. Recently upgraded from Ai Records to the Modern Love imprint, Stewart is now rubbing shoulders with some serious deep house heavyweights, which perhaps could explain the forty-eight months he's spent assembling his latest full-length. 'Metanarrative' finds him taking a quantum leap forwards, fleshing out his signature textures like endoskeletons in the Terminator factory and once again scooping for the darkest neurons of the brain. Early offering 'Harsh Reality' is easily one of the most emotional tracks he's ever committed to tape -- house for the heartbroken clubber -- while the dub gongs of 'Gone To The Dogs' announce a bassline so heavy it could resurrect Leftfield. If you're looking for music to send to your phone, make sure your handset's got speaker insurance.

At a frugal forty minutes, Stewart can't afford to put a foot wrong with this record, so it's a treat to see that the eight tracks he's nominated for inclusion are as carefully crafted as the Watts Towers. It's not all even steel, though, and the Claro Intelecto Show can go 'out there' with the best of them, turning in some bizarre auditory pig iron. 'Nodrex' lets things slither across digital snailshells, apparently unphased by the knuckled question marks oozing through the woofers, and 'Operation' runs blindly across a sonic quagmire, farty pads kicking up an air of menace. Stewart doesn't stray too far from his brief, however, and is clearly most comfortable with electro so intricate and soft that Salvador Dali could tell the time on it - beats like Hokey Pokey, synths as cold as zips. Maybe one day the law of diminishing returns will kick in and there'll be a duff Claro Intelecto record, but based on current trends, that seems about as likely as Lily Allen being offered the Parky slot.

Metanarrative Track Listing:

1. Operation
2. Harsh Reality
3. Innocence
4. Before My Eyes
5. Gone To The Dogs
6. Nodrex
7. Dependant
8. Beautiful Death