| So what is this beast called cLOUDDEAD? Firstly, it's a collaboration between Doseone, why?, and odd nosdam. This self-titled CD is a compilation of the tracks from six ten-inches on the excellent label Mush. That much is certain, but everything else is a little hazy, including (as cliche as it is to say now) the genre they reside in. cLOUDDEAD is certainly not hip-hop in much of any conventional sense... Mush's website calls it "avant-hip-hop," which doesn't really answer the question. In 90% of the songs on this disc, hip-hop wouldn't be the first genre I would put cLOUDDEAD in. Vocals are rarely the centerpiece of any given song - they are de-emphasized and quickly spat out, comparable to a melodic, less-stoned Anti-Pop Consortium. At times, everything in a song is smudged to a wash or a blur, reduced to a mere thumbprint, with hazily sampled pads and strings dominating. Really spacious, nothing is hurried, over-orchestrated, or crammed, in, the tracks which work in this mode of thought fall somewhere in between Eno's On Land and the soundtrack to Bladerunner. The variety of sounds the trio brings into the mix might be comparable to illbient done right. Anything is fair game to sample: "JimmyBreeze (1)" is based around a prank phone call to an unsuspecting hick supposedly auditioning for a band, with bongo drums and chipmunk pitched up vocals. I know if you're anything like me, you've been waiting fifteen years to hear loops from the Goonies Nintendo game lifted and used as hooks (Am I the only one who had friends who taped music from their Nintendo to play on their walkman?). There's something wonderful and morose about this whole disc - if it had to be a color it would certainly be gray. Lyrics like "Mom, I've kept a razor under my tongue since I was a small toddler with a tight belt / I haven't been able to kiss a woman with an open mouth, my friend, cause I'm afraid that I'd split her lip, is that sick?" read more like poetry than prose, and have more substance than your usual hip-hop fare based around the ennui of the urban existence of the black male. I'm waiting for people to wake up to the Mush label - these guys found Aesop Rock and released his seminal and terminally dark album Float as well as more recently Pyramidi by Radioinactive, both near to god damn classic. - Electronic Music 411 |
3XLP/Out Of Print