Name: Wheeltappers and Shunters
Brand: Clinic

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Catalogue number

WIGCD424

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Colour

Colour details

Discogs ID

Format multiplier

Download code

Download code: No

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Extended format

Extended format: No

Format detail

Format Music GB

Limited edition

Release date

2019-05-10

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Supplier GB

PIAS

Tax rate GB

UPC / Barcode

0887828042425

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Total Cap

1 / CD / Extended format: No / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No

WIGLP424

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Black

180 Gram Vinyl.

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Standard:20

0887828042418

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1 / Extended format: No / LP / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No / black

Artist

Clinic

Genre GB

Alternative / Modern

Label GB

Domino

Formed in 1997 after the demise of Pure Morning, Clinic quickly gained recognition with their debut single 'IPC Subeditors Dictate Our Youth' making BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel's end-of-year Festive Fifty. Their debut album 'Internal Wrangler' featured the track 'Second Line', which caught attention as it was used in a Levi's jeans TV ad. The band made an appearance on The David Letterman Show in the US with their sophomore album's hit song 'Walking With Thee'. Notably, their track 'Come Into Our Room' from the same album was featured in episodes of both US shows CSI and The O.C., while 'If You Could Read Your Mind' from their fourth album appeared in the film 'Hallam Foe'.

Clinic is known for their unique stage presence, often performing live wearing medical scrubs and surgical masks that hide their faces.

The band consists of Jonathan Hartley, Ade Blackburn, Brian Campbell & Carl Turner. They have been compared to artists such as Liars, Electrelane, Crystal Stilts, and The Beta Band among others.

Domino is an independent label founded in Putney, South West London by *a694357* and his partner Jacqui Rice in 1993. The label initially focused on American acts such as *Sebadoh*, *Pavement* or *Royal Trux* before signing British acts in the late '90s.

The label operates a US division, located in Brooklyn, which output was initially identified by its own catalogue number schemes, DOMUS then DNO (used until 2013), when the releases handled by the UK headquarters are identified by WIG (albums) and RUG (singles and EPs) catalogue numbers.

The company operating the label, *Warp Records*, diversified, establishing a publishing arm and a series of labels (*Double Six Recordings*, *Weird World Record Co.*, *Rephlex*, ...).

After a seven year break, Clinic, Liverpool’s cherished post-punk pop experimentalists return with album number eight. The unusual name is taken from the long-forgotten 1970s ITV variety show The Wheeltappers and Shunters Social Club, compered by Bernard Manning, which recreated the smoky, boozy atmosphere of Northern working men's clubs for a sofa-bound audience.

The album was recorded last year in founding band member Hartley's Liverpool studio, before they brought in Dilip Harris (King Krule, Sons Of Kemet, Mount Kimbie) to mix it. Fun, sure, but this is Clinic – their brand of fun oozes with menace. The Great Britain that Clinic are evoking is not that ancient, bucolic past of village green cricket, half a mild and hanky-waving Morris Dancers that many seem so determined that the country should return to, but a rather more sleazy past. Clinic’s reverie is for a time when Blackpool was the pleasure capital of the kingdom and the public was kept entertained by travelling circuses and the dirty glamour of the funfair; tacky end of the pier merriment and enforced fun at Butlins; when bell-ringing town criers bellowed their nonsensical broadsides into the ether. 

For most bands about to enter their third decade as an entity the well would be running dry, but eight albums in and Clinic still retain the ability to surprise. Clocking in at just over 28 minutes, Wheeltappers and Shunters is an absolute blast, rich in detail and sonic intrigue, those precious minutes stuffed with ideas.