The Clientele first formed in the early 1990s in the backwoods of suburban Hampshire, playing together as kids at school remote from any kind of music scene, but hypnotized by the magical strangeness of Galaxie 500 and Felt and the psych pop of Love and the Zombies. During a pub conversation the band collectively voted that it was OK to be influenced by Surrealist poetry but not OK to have any shouting or blues guitar solos. From that moment on they put their stamp on a kind of eerie, distanced pure pop, stripped to its essentials and recorded quickly to 4 track analogue tape. These recordings were released as lovingly packaged 7" singles at the tail-end of the 90s, and compiled as the millennium ended into the debut album, 'Suburban Light', now hailed as one of the finest records of that decade.
From the faded pop art of 'Suburban Light' came a move into the fog with the 2nd LP, 'The Violet Hour', released in 2003. An attempt to create a deeper, more mysterious sound, it was an archetypal Clientele record: hypnotic, self-enclosed, meticulously creating its own world. The Clientele re-invented their music with Strange Geometry (2005) and God Save the Clientele (2007); Brian O'Shaughnessy (My Bloody Valentine, Primal Scream) and Mark Nevers produced (Lambchop), and El Records legend Louis Philippe provided typically gorgeous string arrangements. The sound was bigger, brighter, and clearer, MacLean's ringing, classically-influenced guitar style and James Hornsey's melodic bass combining to create a different kind of depth and atmosphere for the newly sparkling songs, which now came complete with crossover appeal; incongruously, one of them even featured in the Keanu Reeves / Sandra Bullock weepie, "The Lake House".
Released to rave reviews in the UK and the US, their final album 'Bonfires on the Heath' was in a sense a return to the Clientele's roots; the dreamlike suburban landscapes first encountered in the early singles, their trippy sense of menace stronger. Instantly identifiable the clientele sound like no one else - although they are cited as an influence by contemporary bands as diverse as the War on Drugs, Panda Bear and the Fleet Foxes.
The Clientele release 'Alone & Unreal: The Best Of The Clientele' on Pointy Records. The compilation album features tracks from each of their previous 5 albums plus one new song. Both the LP and CD versions also include a bonus download of 'lost' clientele album 'The Sound Of Young Basingstoke' a previously unreleased live session from an early incarnation of the band.
From the faded pop art of 'Suburban Light' came a move into the fog with the 2nd LP, 'The Violet Hour', released in 2003. An attempt to create a deeper, more mysterious sound, it was an archetypal Clientele record: hypnotic, self-enclosed, meticulously creating its own world. The Clientele re-invented their music with Strange Geometry (2005) and God Save the Clientele (2007); Brian O'Shaughnessy (My Bloody Valentine, Primal Scream) and Mark Nevers produced (Lambchop), and El Records legend Louis Philippe provided typically gorgeous string arrangements. The sound was bigger, brighter, and clearer, MacLean's ringing, classically-influenced guitar style and James Hornsey's melodic bass combining to create a different kind of depth and atmosphere for the newly sparkling songs, which now came complete with crossover appeal; incongruously, one of them even featured in the Keanu Reeves / Sandra Bullock weepie, "The Lake House".
Released to rave reviews in the UK and the US, their final album 'Bonfires on the Heath' was in a sense a return to the Clientele's roots; the dreamlike suburban landscapes first encountered in the early singles, their trippy sense of menace stronger. Instantly identifiable the clientele sound like no one else - although they are cited as an influence by contemporary bands as diverse as the War on Drugs, Panda Bear and the Fleet Foxes.
The Clientele release 'Alone & Unreal: The Best Of The Clientele' on Pointy Records. The compilation album features tracks from each of their previous 5 albums plus one new song. Both the LP and CD versions also include a bonus download of 'lost' clientele album 'The Sound Of Young Basingstoke' a previously unreleased live session from an early incarnation of the band.