CLIENT'S recent, eponymous debut album suggested something wicked was coming this way. Whether it was the lyrics' spooked, subversive seduction, the Residents-style anonymity of the two girls themselves or those heady Yorkshire accents that did it, the end results were intoxicating and at times a little overwhelming.
And "Here And Now" - though a little more commercially-minded in its' execution - proves that the album was no fluke and that these two clandestine characters could take this could take this icily sussed synth-pop all the way to TOTP and beyond.
Although it drips with less of the tantalising depravity displayed on the album, "Here And Now" is still a classy contender for a single. Over a steady, Moroder-esque pulse, they sing "what brought us to this, what brought us to life, what brought us to the here and now, this troubling time" like The Human League with whips and handcuffs shoved in their shoulder bags and add some resigned, chromatic piano to ram the point home. I hesitate to use the word 'nice' in conjunction with them, so let's settle for ' very effective.'
Besides, with the B-sides they're back to their usual ways. "Military Sex" finds them whispering "Fuck you!" over a tribal backdrop pockmarked with fuzzed guitar and ceremonial drums as well as the usual sequencers and is over far too soon, while "Can't See Me Now" could itself be a single if they worked harder at the lyrics. Tune-wise, it's one of those repetitive buggers that'll have you committing all kinds of sins because you can't get it ut of your head, which - with these scary, subliminal chancers - is no doubt the point anyway.
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There are also a host of remixes spread across the CD and 12" version, of which I'd probably plump for the epic disco-isms of the Cicada Mix and the spare, Kraftwerkian moves of the Moonbotica Mix, but really these are just a bonus and you won't be overly denied should you miss out on any particular one.
"Here and Now", though, suggests serious chart action is on the cards for Client. Good. Mainstream TV could do with taking mystery to bed for once.
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