Clockwise Motion - Different Places

Clockwise Motion

Different Places
self-released; 2017

​4.0 out of 5

By Jamie Robash

I’m currently a little more than twice the age of each of the three members in the Welsh indie outfit Clockwise Motion. They’re all seventeen and I’m pushing forty.  However I’m like one of those Peter Pan types for better or worse so I completely identified with the trio’s debut Different Places. However oddly enough when I was their age I was into Britpop on a large scale.

Oasis, Blur, Pulp, The Stone Roses, et al lived in my CD cases alongside bands as diverse as Fugazi, Sonic Youth, Elvis Costello, David Bowie, The Replacements, Nirvana, R.E.M., Miles Davis and probably a lot of other stuff. Anyways the point is is that I was into a lot of different music and it all had a bearing on me and it still does. 

The very first notes of Different Places drew me back to these younger days. My friends were in bands and much of my free time was spent checking out local bands and shows where I grew up. But none of them as I recall had the same quality and flavor that Clockwise Motion exhibits on Different Places. 

The songs here are simple in scale; bass, guitar, drums, that sound lo-fi and garage-y but they are tight and crisp; they know their bounds and never try to be anything their not. On top of this the singer seems to be beyond her years.

​Her lyrics are often off the cuff genius like on the sad yet direct “Pieces” where she sings, “It kills me to say this I know that it’s stupid I want you to know if you leave I’ll be in pieces.” Later on the lounge-y “In Case of Emergency” she intones with a nonchalance of someone beyond her years. “It Never Ends” is a jam that solidifies all the particulars of Clockwise Motion meshing jam out rock riffs with straightforward lyrics.

Clockwise Motion is in the early stages of a great career. For as young a band as they are they have the particulars down. Different Places has a lot to offer to a variety of different listeners. It’s a rocking, emotional and insightful first offering from a band that is on track to go places.

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