A raw (untrained) and unpredictable artist, recently made the subject of The South Bank Show, Benjamin Clementine's I Tell A Fly follows his debut album At Least For Now, which was awarded the Mercury Prize in 2015. From busking on the streets of Paris just a few years ago, to forthcoming shows at the Brixton Academy and New York's Carnegie Hall, this "alien of extraordinary abilities" is just that. He is, by his own reckoning, an alien, and that loose idea was a starting point for the album. Part play, part musical theatre, part narrative, and part poetic-documentary, I Tell A Fly explores the concepts of being a migrant, an alien, a stranger, and a refugee, and many of the thoughts within have been informed by his reading of British psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott, who wrote extensively about bullying in the home and the comparative psychological experiences of those displaced by war.

Compared to the inward, how-did-I get-here At Least For Now, this work is outward looking; to a big world, forever being an 'alien', and looking for ways to deal with that. Via his own back story – one who was bullied, was brought up by a strict Christian family, who devoured literature and classical music as a teen, who was viewed differently, and who is the son of Ghanaian migrants, Clementine transposes his thoughts to this wider world. He refuses to be overly serious, via his sometimes playful musicality, and the dark humour dotted throughout, influenced by many French writers who he explored whilst living in Paris.

On the surface, key track 'Phantom Of Aleppoville' is about the plight of Syrians in Aleppoville, and the fact they are being bullied, albeit in a war-torn environment not of their own making. It's really just a metaphor for universal bullying, and Clementine's own experiences. Bullying is not just overt, it's hidden and deeply psychological, hence the use of the word 'phantom'. Then he'll sing, in that actorly way of his, "For me the difference between love and hate / Weighs the same difference between risotto and rice pudding", employing an uncanny ability to sing out of sync with what he may be doing on the piano. Musically, it's even more extraordinary, with a track that for the first couple of minutes is a harpsichord-led, jazz groove instrumental, before extravagantly theatrical voices intermingle with a marching drum and Clementine's plead of "leave me", his tenor trailing off as his expressive piano playing comes in alone for an extended period. It's only after two-thirds that we finally get to the nub of the song, lyrically speaking, as the band comes in again, for a more languid, yet intricate finale. As a single from the album, it's perhaps the most unlikely 'pop' offering you'll hear all year.

There’s loads more unorthodox songs to get your teeth into; from the quiet-loud, fast and slow Sparks aesthetics of opening track ‘Farewell Sonata’, which also features a new found fondness for electronics, to the heightened, and a little warped, theatricality of ‘Better Sorry Than Asafe’ which, within its arrangement, you can find half a dozen songs. The harpsichord, allied to the piano, is a prominent feature of the album, particularly in the arpeggiated playing on the dark and nursery rhyme-like ‘Paris Cor Blimey’, a rather oblique song about both recent terrorist events, and an Englishman writer in Paris (Clementine), that is musically also oblique towards the end, with what comes across as a tagged-on trip-hop jazz ending. While, the appropriately titled ‘One Awkward Fish’ is a close-to-the-edge mess of manic jazz-hop drums, racing bass, harpsichord, massed choral voices, and a vaguely drunken sounding lead vocal, the song slowing down, and speeding up at various points. It’s hardly groove-able, let alone one that much sense can be made of.

Elsewhere, it’s somewhat of a relief that Clementine is perfectly able to be relatively orthodox, such as on ’God Save the Jungle’, an obvious play on our national anthem, and a reference to the refugees of Calais. Franco-cabaret-pop in sound, it gently glides on the rhythmic backbone of drums and bass, without the need for much in the way of embellishment, bar the odd electronic flourish, and the massed male chanting vocals in the background. Meanwhile, ‘Jupiter’ is almost nu-soul-pop in detailing the eye-catching incident that informed his visa application to the USA, describing him as ‘an alien with extraordinary abilities’, while ‘Ode From Joyce’ is barely two minutes long; deep trip-hop bass, swirling synths, and dope beats for the first 90 seconds or so, before a perplexing last half minute is devoted almost entirely to largely indecipherable background voices, and Clementine’s own lead. It’s strange, and discomfiting, as are some aspects of the material throughout. Clementine, however, manages to juggle his apparent need to go off on seemingly unrelated tangents, and heated moments of controlled outbursts, with the more fluid ‘By The Ports of Europe’. Yes, it’s still theatrical, but it’s underpinned by an unfussy bass-heavy groove, and a strong melody. The stunningly beautiful ‘Quintessence’ is just flowing piano, his voice at its most fragile, yet full of expression in tackling his desire to give and to love, whilst talking about what makes us evil, and to want to go to war.

Largely eschewing traditional structures, I Tell A Fly is impressively rich, unpredictable, and highly eclectic in its range of genres and moods. Yet, dynamically the palette is spacious and breathing. Although some of the arrangements are nonsensical – and indeed a little jarring – in the traditional sense, it’s never too cacophonous or dense for any length of time. Self-produced, this album is an ambitious and idiosyncratic work that will certainly fail to register with many but, within its thoughtful musicality and lyricism, there is a deeply intelligent mind at work, and one that is as empathetic as it is angry and bewildered. It’s also hopeful, and ready for the inevitable confrontations of mind and body, as he sings on the albums slightly bonkers closer ’Ave Dreamer’, “Barbarians are coming! / Dreamers stay strong!"

Jeff Hemmings

Website: benjaminclementine.com
Facebook: facebook.com/benjaminclementine
Twitter: twitter.com/MrBClementine

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