A.R. Kane - New Clear Child [Limited Edition]

The 3rd and final album by dance and dream-pop pioneers A.R. Kane (a.k.a. half of M/A/R/R/S) sees Alex Ayuli & Rudy Tambala’s groundbreaking duo sign off with their most broadly appealing LP, issued at the time by David Byrne’s Luaka bop.

In 1994, not even a decade since their debut single, A.R. Kane bade the project farewell with ‘New Clear Child’, a 10-song suite that rounded off any rougher edges to their fortuitous sound, streamlined in step with prevailing ‘90s pop currents and a folksier lilt than previous. The naturally progressive, dare-to-differ energies that had prompted their template-resetting first album ’69’ (1986) and 1989 follow-up ‘“i”’ (both collected on the recent ‘A.R. Kive’ boxset), would be pared back into a smoother, cotton-weft sound on ‘New Clear Child’, with Alex Ayuli’s aching vocals dusting a selection of bucolic indie-dance-pop tunes blushing with gracefully rustic, blues-folksy string arrangements and drum machine programming that feels a bit left in the late ‘80s and lagging with prevailing trends in their own slipstream of interest. 

Best check the lounging ambient soul shape of ‘Honey Be (For Stella)',  the lilting bop ‘Cool as Moons’, the etheric sound design of ‘Snow White’s World’, the daydreamy shoegaze stroller ‘Pearl’, and an excellent swansong in the baroque synth sashay ‘Sea Like a Child’, and just remember them as a great, irrevocably inspirational band that never properly got their dues.

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