thedarkmarch - ‘midway’ Track Review
Cliff Fields has been putting up tracks on soundcloud for the past few years despite having only released one official tape, ‘Offshore’, back in January of 2015. I remember sitting down with him and jamming when he divulged that he has plenty of unreleased recordings sitting on his computer - all of them home produced. If you know Cliff, this isn’t surprising; the guy’s nose is usually buried in his sketchbook and when he isn’t working on illustrations, he is producing music in his free time.
As thedarkmarch, the instrumental aspects of his work is comprised of murky, densely layered field recordings, obscure samples, and chilly synths, that of which often provide a bed for which Cliff sings, raps, or does a combination of the two over. While tracks consists of layering, Field’s fondness for restraint, his subtlety, comes through in the minimalist production. His delivery, the vocals and lyrics are as honest as the production style; Field’s voice is to the front of the mix, as confrontational as it is vulnerable but it is this vulnerability that makes Field’s music so accessible, even at its most abrasive.
Midway is off of his demo tape ‘the lower case: a’.
Read my interview with thedarkmarch here.
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