What Else Can Be

Clinic “Rubber Bullets”

John Peel used to say that The Fall were “always different, always the same.” This basically comes down to the singular aesthetics of Mark E. Smith – no matter who else was in The Fall or what influences were exciting him at the moment, the result could only ever sound like Mark E. Smith. A lot of my favorite artists are like this, and that includes Clinic. Unlike The Fall, Clinic are remarkably stable – they’ve had the same lineup since the beginning of their recorded career, and the group barely changes up their instrumentation. But the approach is the same: Sounds, aesthetics, and whole chunks of other people’s music get fed through the Clinic template and it comes out sounding like nothing but Clinic. If you’re not paying attention, they never really change. If you are listening closely, it’s all in the details. But either way, Clinic sounds incredibly cool. If it’s not broke, don’t fix it, right?

“Rubber Bullets,” like most Clinic songs, gets a lot of its character from the sound of Ade Blackburn’s voice. Blackburn, like Smith, has a one-of-a-kind voice, but whereas Smith battered you with the full force of his highly defined sense of self at all times, Blackburn is more peculiar and enigmatic. He sounds like a trickster figure – impish, furtive, and somewhat perverse. “Rubber Bullets” has a creepy psychedelic carnival vibe, but whereas that would suggest a wide open space, it has the same claustrophobic feeling that pretty much any Clinic song would have. They somehow make the lead organ part sound sweaty, and the lead guitar sounds like how being leered at feels. It’s not quite sinister, but it’s not far off either.

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