Don’t Look Into It

Clarence Clarity is anything but what his name would suggest, as he champions a decidedly fuzzy slot on the musical spectrum- one where weary schizoid acid enthusiasts might happen upon for a rest, away from the dry-cut melodrama of the ordinary.  In his EP, Who Am Eye?, Clarity weaves, contorts and abrades the electronic precedent that so many before him have stuck to; supplanting a curious new approach to the genre in his wake.

Eye’s greatest allure is its ability to inspire near cosmic uncertainty despite containing little depth. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing for Clarity, as his work becomes even more appreciable when understood by the intricacy of its ruse. The EP’s tongue-in-cheekiness playfully toys with people’s inherent ability to overestimate and analyze artistic meaning. The technicality of his songs (“Off My Grid”) dazzle and distract from the fact that they bear little meat, as they are in reality better seen as quirky party tunes that would be fun to dance to now and then.

In a general sense, Who Am Eye? might best be considered as a work that stands on two legs from Clarity, and two legs from Prince and his derivatives. While the EP intrigues with intermittent doses of creative potential, Eye is never fully independent from the overarching reach of Clarity’s blaring influences. Identifying all of his various inspirations could easily be made into a game, by hosting an Eye listening party to see who can draft the most accurate list of the EP’s omnipresent contributors; Prince, Sly, and Flying Lotus would be front runners, followed by P-Funk and an assemblage of any number of gritty 90’s electronic producers who maintained a hallowed nook in the musical underground. Perhaps with time Clarity will be able to stand with the full support of his own distinction, but for now it seems clear that the young artist still has to figure out who he is.