- ClekClekBoom has come a long way in the past four years, and so has the meaning of its self-coined descriptor, "Paris Club Music." Compilations under the name have charted this transition, from 2013's Vol. 1, whose post-dubstep hybrids were sounding dated, to the straighter, softer house of Vol. 2. This shift closely mirrored that of the wider scene, but with Vol. 3, the French collective reminds us that they're more than imitators.
The tone for this subtle, rewarding comp is set by the opener, a collaboration from label heads French Fries & Bambounou. "Mizu Ni Idou Suru"'s snub kicks and sleepy chords are a far cry from the pair's boisterous beginnings. They're also artfully deployed, as demonstrated by the one dazzling chord-flash 90 seconds from the track's end—it's about as low-key a climax as you can get away with in a club tune. The rest of the record is equally nocturnal, and does just as much with just as little. The tracks come from a broad cast of ClekClekBoom regulars, but each has found their way to a remarkably unified sound—from Aleqs Notal's mysterious "Ceos Vision" to NSDOS's "Créteil Soleil," whose drone sounds like the ground hum of a loose jack lead on the ocean floor.
The risk with such subtlety, of course, is that it can tip into blandness. Only Aethority's "Vertigo," so darkly hued that it's hardly there, falls into this trap. It's easily counterbalanced by the standouts: "Onibaba" by Jean Nipon, whose fuzzy strings offer a smudge of deep house opulence; Manaré's "Inorganic," where lighter percussion hits are arranged with painterly care. Coni tops them both with "Ceremony," a fathoms deep house track whose single bass note tolls ominously on each bar. Snatches of chords and speech ring out occasionally, but they're brief glimmers in the darkness. Few beyond DJ Qu have plumbed these depths so effectively.
TracklistA1 French Fries & Bambounou - Mizu Ni Idou Suru
A2 Aleqs Notal - Ceos Vision
B1 Coni - Ceremony
B2 Jean Nipon - Onibaba
C1 NSDOS - Créteil Soleil
C2 Aethority - Vertigo
D1 Manaré - Inorganic