| It's been quite a while, but the forefathers of this new fangled whiny white boy avant hip-hop movement, Doseone, why? and odd nosdam all finally reconvene and resurrect their slumbering supergroup cLOUDDEAD. Hot on the heels of a cover story in British magazine The Wire, comes Ten, a record the band claims may just be their last. A bold statement from a band/collective that seem to release a record every week or so. The strange thing about cLOUDDEAD is that they showed up all fresh faced, white boys into hip-hop struggling to be taken seriously in the hip-hop world, but as they progress, and with each successive record, the hip-hop element becomes less and less an integral part of their sound. Which is a little disappointing, since instead of taking hip-hop and reinventing it as folks claim they are doing, they basically become more and more like a weird experimental electronic pop band that digs and borrows a little bit from hip-hop. Which on second thought is perfectly fine. In fact, it makes it easier to just enjoy cLOUDDEAD as a great band without all the are they hip-hop? are they not hip-hop? bullshit debates. So what does this record sound like, you ask? Well, the first track is definitely classic cLOUDDEAD, throbbing calliopes pulse over a shuffling hip-hop beat with loopy stream of consciousness lyrics delivered in whiny falsettos. But after that the hip-hop element is subsumed by grand Sgt. Peppery pop, glitchy ambient electronica, and skittery, electro pop with dreamy harmonies and warm ambient hum. The sound overall is closer to stuff like the Notwist or the Postal Service and all that poppy electronica, albeit with some of Doseone's bizarre nasal rapping tossed in here and there. This is just a really amazing and amazingly produced multi-layered pop record! So don't dive into this expecting to jam this in your boomin' system, but definitely dive in. - Aquarius |
1XLP/Out Of Print