The Clientele. London band built around Alasdair MacLean on vocals and guitar, James Hornsey on bass and Mark Keen on drums, formed in 1991 after MacLean and Hornsey met growing up in Hampshire. Hushed, reverb-soaked English guitar pop: Velvet Underground languor crossed with a very English melancholy, the kind of record that sounds like dusk. 'Reflections After Jane' is off Suburban Light (2000), a compilation of early singles that became their breakthrough and is still the entry point. MacLean and Hornsey's friendship started at school when MacLean spotted the word 'Felt' written on Hornsey's pencil case. That's the Lawrence-led cult band, and that shared reference started the whole thing. After an indefinite hiatus announced in 2011 they came back in 2014, and put out their seventh album, I Am Not There Anymore, in 2023.
From the notes for EKHO Sonic Chill #8 · fact-checked Oct 4, 2026.
The records
Where I played them
