Mick Clarke (Progressive Electronic, 1978)

This Mick Clarke is not to be confused with the Byrds drummer (Michael Clarke), the British blues rock guitarist (Mick Clarke), the Dave Clark Five, nor the sci-fi writer Arthur C. Clarke.

This youtube video is for Games (1978) and is the album which should be evaluated if the team chooses to (it's your life and your ears). I like it.



https://www.discogs.com/Mick-Clarke-Games/release/1667270

https://rateyourmusic.com/artist/mick_clarke_f1

I had expected to see him in PA for his 1978 album Games, but couldn't find it. It's of the Schulze Berlin School, Progressive Electronic ilk.

From discogs:

discogs wrote: A1     Spectro     17:22 B1     Walls Of The Night     8:35 B2     Time To Remember     2:34 B3     Time Is Now     3:15 Companies, etc. Recorded At – Spectro Arts Workshop Mixed At – Spectro Arts Workshop Credits Bass, Synthesizer [Roland Sh-3a Synthesizer, String Synthesizer, Ems Vcs 3, Synthi Aks, Roland Expander, Roland Sequencer] – Mick Clarke (4) Guitar – John Carrick (tracks: B1, B3) Producer – Mick Clarke (4) Recorded By, Mixed By – Mick Clarke (4)

He then went on to perform in various New Wave/ underground bands, and there have been some other releases, which are recent, Zusammen, A Wall of Stars, and the single "Playtime". See: https://www.discogs.com/artist/989637-Mick-Clarke-4

Those don't seem as interesting as the 1978 album from a Progressive Electronic music standpoint even if Games is not really innovative.

See: https://magicwaves.bandcamp.com/album/zusammen

magicwaves.bandcamp wrote: The first release on new Berlin-based label Per Musica Ad Astra is Mick Clarke’s ‘Zusammen!’ LP, the follow-up after many years to his debut solo release ‘Games’ on German label Blubberlips in 1979. A pioneer of UK electronic music, Mick was also in legendary synth-wave band Naked Lunch, and apart from producing music under a few different aliases over the years he also finds time to run the Flight Recorder label and is a regular programmer on Intergalactic FM, hosting both the Radio Oscillations and Magic Waves shows. The music here is very much in the spirit of the label’s kosmische/space Berlin-school agenda, both reflecting his earlier work and exploring new territory simultaneously. Lush orchestrations and beautiful synth pads contrast against hypnotic rhythms and delicate melodies, and while the label’s mission might be “electronic listening music” tracks like ‘Red Bird’ and ‘Mistral’ are surely DJ material too. The latter evokes a sound similar to vintage Basic Channel, while other parts of the album flow through sonic territories as diverse as Tangerine Dream and the Berlin school of ambient, Warp Records’ classic ‘Artificial Intelligence’ series, deep electro and even atmospheric Italo as well. The record comes in a beautiful sleeve with notes from the label, and comes free with a nice space insert!

That free space insert sounds tempting as I can always do with some more free space as most inserts take up space rather than give you free space. ;) I see that album described as Synth-pop, Electro, Nu-Disco.

Evaluate it if you like. I tried to search the forum as well to see if it's been suggested. It didn't come up, apologies if I missed it.

Edited by Logan - August 23 2019 at 21:16

Thanks for checking it out, Uwe. Would seem an easy yes to me too for Games.

Strangely, this is one I thought I suggested years ago, but sometimes I would delete my unanswered topics (social embarrassment), or perhaps I just never got around to it.

Yes, it is only his classic album, Games, that would qualify him and is the only one that I would ask the team to check out, not his recent stuff (I did try to say something along those lines in my opening post, but it's badly written, should have said "of no interest from a Prog perspective").

When I first discovered him some years ago and thought about suggesting him for PA, he had only put out that 70s album.   I had to research to even discover that he had come up with some newer stuff and had not planned to mention those when I was going to suggest him (because I didn't know).

This makes me think of an interesting case, whether if an artist put out a classic era album that fit our categories, and could have been added during most of the history of the site, then came out with music that would not get that persona included in the Archives much more recently, should that be taken into consideration whether an act should be included? I would think no. It's the classic material that counts more, and if said artist could have been included before, newer material should not discount that artist, so just because one came in a little late to evaluate, that should not prejudice the artist. Not that you are saying that it should. I expect we must have a number of cases in PA artists would put out a PA type Prog album, are added, then much later put out one that would not be relevant to PA.