 |
MH-206 cLOUDDEAD - cLOUDDEAD  "It's all the same shit but they call it cLOUDDEAD." cLOUDDEAD is the avant-hip-hop grouping of Doseone, why?, and odd nosdam. Fusing abstract beats, ambient pads, and interweaving vocals, cLOUDDEAD has created a release that owes as much to the Beatles as it does to hip-hop. Like Doseone and why?'s Greenthink project, cLOUDDEAD renounces the traditional hip-hop song format in favor of music made in movements. Six such movements were created to be released as a limited edition ten-inch series. Each release features a guest (Illogic, Dj Signify, Sole, the Wolf Bros., Mr. Dibbs, and The Bay Area Animals) and focuses on a specific theme. All six are combined to create a full-length that nullifies any preconception of style and raises the artistic bar for future Mush releases. |
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Reviews Summary |
| Genius. - Mixmag / Utterly Essential - NME / Enthralling - All Music Guide / Startlingly Original - Wax / Certainly Beautiful And Strange - Rock Sound / Fascinating And Addictive - Esquire / A Landmark Album - Seven / A never less than intriguing debut - Q / Unequivocally the finest space-rock-rap album of 2001 - Mojo |
| Yes, it is a lower case 'c' followed by all block capitals. Yes their names are really Doseone, why? and odd nosdam and yes they are purveyors of one of the most eclectic brands of hip-hop to be packaged and put out under the one banner in recent times. These boys are based in California's Oakland, also home to the Anticon collective, of which they are also members. All three members worked together in various outfits before coming together to form the typographically unusual cLOUDDEAD. This collection of low-fi hip-hop and abstract flavours is a musical chameleon flitting from one style to another. Just when you think you know what they're at, they shift gears and plough headlong into another catalogue of influences. To say it's hard to describe or categorise is understating the depth and range of cLOUDDEAD; it owes as much to hip-hop as it does to UK experimental electronica. Shades of different vocals bring to mind everyone from They Might Be Giants to the Dead Kennedys in one breath to Tortoise and Slint in another. The album contains twelve tracks, grouped together in pairs by name with only (1) and (2) after each version to differentiate it. The backroom claustrophobia of "and all you can do is laugh (1)" filters into the airy atmospherics of "and all you can do is laugh (2)." "apt. A (1)" sounds like a space-age lunar anthem. If the words hip and hop threaded together fill you with dread, or you've sworn off the genre for reasons of lyrical ineptness, you may be forced to revise your opinion after hearing this album. It's unique cadence and understated broodiness is effortlessly beautiful and darkly evocative. Veering between experimental, post-rock hip-hop and limpid abstract beats, there are constant surprises in here. American prairie landscape music mutates into the ruminations of urban hip-hop to create a unique sound (and a cool name). - RTE |
3XLP/Out Of Print