Maybe it's just me but time seems to stop when you listen to certain bands. Bands like Clinker for example. They're from London apparently but sound like the spawn of the Strawberry Alarm Clock after a prolonged encounter with Gong touring the students' unions of this fine country way back in the early seventies.

Yes, it's a near horizontal hippy groove we have here. Peter Jordan sings - and intones (that's a sort of proto rap, by the way) - like a man viewing the world through a haze of sweet smelling smoke. Do not be deterred by that description though, as the songs themselves are melodic affairs that float around nicely inside your headphones. Except for "Snap Your Back" as that one has a lot of inbuilt hostility issues to work out.

Interesting and quirky in that curious way that only British bands can be

So, Clinker were great...Yes boss, I like Clinker. The current sound of the band is quite shoegaze and even a little baggy - the kind of thing you might have expected to hear in the early 90's on Creation - but I like a band with an inbuilt stubborness about how they go about things and I also like a band who play without any sense of time - who create their own (though I felt Say Goodbye was perhaps played a little too quickly).

... the main reason I was there were Clinker, who have been around for a while and have several albums you can download for free from there website www.clinker.org.uk. For this show they were performing as a duo of Pete and Tomoko, both of whom played guitar and sang and played various gadgets including drum machine and all sorts of backing noises

They opened with a wonderfully ramshackle version of Sunday Morning, with Petes vocals drifting away from the tune at times, but it's always cool to hear a good Velvet Underground cover.

The main highlights of the rest of the set, that was nicely spacey and at times a touch ravey rather than Psychey, were the version of The Line that sort of carried me off into some sort of dream where the tune was the background music for some Brit Gangster flick and the main characters are doing there Lines to it before we see the consequences of their actions and all the while the music is droning and beating its way into my brain it was nice.

The set came to a great close with a super version of the new limited edition single Hallucination Generation that let them get properly Ravey as they took us back to the Madchester summer of Love type hallucinogens and really got the place going and the crowd dancing and cheering and then just as they finished I looked through the window on the door by the side of the stage and I could see this bloke through it and he had a dog on his shoulder and the dog had on a rather natty red scarf!! Was I hallucinating or was this real I shook my head to try to figure out reality from Hallucination and realised yes he was real and also that Clinker had played a very cool set that would work very well with say they Came from The Stars or Eugene Machine..

The last album of London trio Clinker seems to be ambiguous at first sight. This work of Peter Jordan, Tomoko Matsumoto and Marcus Moir (he left Clinker after recording of this album but at the moment he is back again) can be viewed as their follow-up to "When I Grow Up I Want to Be A Space Cadet(2007)".

The first part on "Clinker" confirms their strong musical ambitions for chart desire
- the opening track "Sunnyside Up and Runny" is acid pop of something - more closely, it is something boisterous drifting between signal sounds and delicate chaos element. "Am I Good (Am I Evil)" could give a fillip to soft-indie fans, to keep up dancing and exalting life. It is the mixture of Keane and the tunes of the Charlatans throughout the second half of 1990s. "Bulletproof" seems to be felt into this era when Blur dumped their shoegaze ambitions off and began creating britpop with the goal to dislocate the mainstream music, on Foggy Albion at least. Demurely talking, the next track "Say Goodbye" may cause some embarrassment to people who like preferring the tougher stuff, yes, nevertheless, if you are able to push down your first impressions, you might think at the end, it was a very good ballad song by itself. Also, those late 4 minutes emphasize the breaking point on the album. However, all of what is following further is pure gold only. "What You Done" dig up the next but indirect connections with britpop. Peter Jordan's arrogant song style, space rock tunes and intrusive dance rhythms draw similarities with "Bon Chic Bon Genre" (1999) by Campaq Velocet which has been one of the first post-britpop albums. This fact don''t make me surprised, because Peter Jordan started as the sole embodiment of Clinker at the end of 90s, and a lot of songs represented on the recent LP are actually the new versions of old tracks. "Slimeball" will show a new perspective of their skills - the reverbed vocal lines, powerful guitar riffs and modern electro synths will create totally psychedelic chaos. "Overspill Equals Calamities" is one of the highlights in the first place - the restrained start gets developed into autotuned vowels and cosmic turbulences of synths. This is an excellent example of uncompromising pop, a way to demonstrate to an intriguing pop scheme by setting things proportionally up and mix the harmony and experimentation with each other. "High Times" is a kosmische musik in pure sense of this word - if you like Ash Ra (Temple), Walter Wegmller, Manuel Gttsching, Pyramid or Acid Mother Temple (or some of its recent incarnations), it certainly makes sense for you. "Star Hardcore Lady" makes a little change in direction by going to map the psychedelic noisy pop areas. If I couldn't know that the track "The Sun Is Out Today" was released at the end of last year, I might be supposing it is a style example of the folk underground scene of 1960s (a mechanical rhythm structure may uncover a kind of recentness on carefully listening!). This excellent album will be finished by "What You Done (Reflection)" - the another and more powerful version of the same titled track mentioned above.

Regardless of fact that in my review has been a lot of references toward different eras, and hereinbefores has been named a lot of influences as well, as final result the album is very uniquely sounding output. As has been said by one member of the Scottish indie-punkers The Girobabies, Clinker by Clinker was the best unsigned album of last year (2008)

More free music? So it would seem as the Bluesbunny downloaded another EP from London band Clinker. This time there are three tracks up for grabs to go with the rather fine cover art that Bluesbunny has come to expect from them.

"Relapse" is all riffs and robotic drumming just like a heavy metal band that have gotten a bit addicted to American period Depeche Mode. The guitars trip out on power chords whilst the vocals rattle about in reverb land. "Tyred" by contrast sound more like the Kinks would have sounded if they had lasted a bit longer. Certainly on the pop side of things, it reeks of life in the Big Smoke with some properly effective tub thumping drums and laconic vocals. "Sunday Morning" takes the Velvet Underground song and gives it the Slade treatment. Seventies pub rock goes all glam in this one. Respectful and different at the same time, it brings a smile to your face.

You know something? I'm getting to like this band. They always have a new trick up their sleeve. Wonder what they will do next?

Now there's a coincidence. There I was thinking about all those music festivals that happen during the summer and my mind wandered off into a history lesson on such matters. Woodstock, Altamont - all the big ones from the past came under the mental magnifying glass. Then I started humming a certain song but the thing was that it was not a blast from the past but from Clinker's new EP, "Let's Go Out and Get F*** ed".

It could have been the spaced out hippie vibe of "It's Too Late" (actually it was.) but I found myself temporarily transported to better, more hopeful times. Thinking about the title track, "Let's Go Out and Get F*** ed", it might well get itself mistaken for a stoner anthem but there is more to it than that. A commentary on apathy in society, perhaps? Choose drugs, not life - ". it's a natural thing to do". Yes to choice but no to responsibility and Clinker even manage to wrap that message up in a solid, hypnotic groove.

On this showing, Clinker present themselves like some sort of hybrid of George Harrison, The Loving Spoonful and The Stone Roses. They are a consistently interesting and intelligent band, however, and should be given plenty of credit for that. In fact, now that I reflect upon it, Clinker have a notable ability to adapt and change just a little bit with each release as if they are echoing, but not following, trends. When they finally get to where they are going musically - not far off, I would presume given the evidence - they will be more than a bit impressive.

Pizzo (The fee of protection) and Tung (Boltonian for getting hammered)?

Painted Red
A whimsical lead-in. Nice integration of many guitars and arped synth. Great vocal harmonies, a Spiritualized influence in this one. A nice spacious mix.
Tabla or hand percussion could work really well but is way down in the mix and obscured.
A great atmosphere, though I felt it could have been longer and more explorative.

I Know there's something
Unusal rhythmic combinations. The mix is quite busy with input from acoustic and heavily FX'ed electric guitar layers. The structure is open and inviting with a catchy chorus hook. An enjoyable number! From production aspect I'd drop or exchange some synth..FX'ed guitar to let things breath a little easier and develop dynamic texture.

The last page
A pleasing intro with a hint of retro fuzz guitar. The piece meanders pleasantly then goes thud in the middle with a huge modulated power chord. A good feel, perfectly perceived drums and complimentry soulful vocals.
I felt the production, particulary guitars could benefit spacially with less delay..verb in places for dynamic perception. Non-the-less, a well crafted number with fine structure maintaining interest throughout.

Today must be our day
Mantlepiece clock metronome is a nice touch juxtapose with nylon guitar on the intro.
A relax psychedelic feel woven from many guitars interleaved vocals. Sung vocals reminds again Spiritualized.

Transparency eyes
This track draws Radiohead with Vibrant perc textures and layered vocals. Even a bit of Ultra Vox synth with TAlkTalk mute trumpet/PPG voice for good measure.
I like the lyric concept.

Snap your back
Scary intro. Has all the trappings of ye olde Nirvana with a snarly pumpkin wah! An exciting number with energy bags

...Then it was time for Clinker once more, this time as the same 4 piece as last time, only this time the two backing singers are also playing piano and Saxophone. They were hampered by muddy as all hell sound and a soundman who was incapable of making all the vocals easily heard in the mix. They opened with Mire that did indeed sound like a mire of sound just waiting to burst out the minute Tomoko hit the right distrotion pedal and they transcended the sound mire they were in!! Painted Red sounded good but would have been much better if the vocal harmonies could have been heard, as they can on the latest Pizzo Tuung Ep (Available as a free download on www.clinker.org.uk) Then they went into the song I can't get out of my head The Line which is undoubtedly there catchiest song by far and even with this sound mix still sounded excellent I'm still trying no to cross that line they sing about... There were some great sax blasts on So We Say that had a good Terry Edwards feel to them as well as a good bit of vocal harmony that got lost in the mix as only Petes vocal could be clearly heard, Searching For A new World got many of us dancing as it went nicely insane a few times before they closed the set with the mashed to the max work out of Hallucination Generation that folded nicely into Searching for Hullucogens it was a good set that would have been better if the sound man got his act together.

Clinker came on and showed everybody that dodgy sound and poor staging are no barrier to brilliance, or rather the appearance of brilliance. You either have it or you don't. A bizarre electronic, sax, keys and double guitar combo, one-part hippy harmonies, three parts Pixies psychedelia and a touch of funk, they bounced enthusiastically through their set like they were doing something genuinely exciting. Their lead guitarist, Tomoko Matsumoto, is a tiny, unassuming-looking woman who suddenly exploded into a demon, becoming a force of nature with an obnoxious, occasionally painful sound and the will to make it regardless of traditional skills or whether this was Wembley or some toilet in North London. She oozed charisma. The whole thing was utterly compelling. Then they watched everyone else play. Heaven knows if there's an audience for this out there but they reminded me why I do this: it's the hope of seeing something new and genuinely exciting, to witness something unstoppable. It's what gets us out of the house, what makes us sit through the hype and the drivel in pubs that look like a granny's back room.