Clams Casino - Rainforest

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A1 - Natural
A2 - Treetop
A3 - Waterfalls
B1 - Drowning
B2 - Gorilla

Note: videos may not match the album...

5...according to our Clinton on Fri 24 Jun, 2011.

I don't claim to be as up with the scene as I used to be but I've enjoyed almost everything I've heard on the Tri Angle label over the past year or so. Phil tells me that this new one is by one of the hottest producers in the world right now (he's sat on the radiator), New Jersey native Michael Volpe, who has worked with Lil B and Soulja Boy. It's impressive stuff, if very typical of a lot of the overdriven chunky sounds emerging from American producers these days. Taking initial cues from Dilla/Madlib's lopsided rhythms, a smattering of prime time Prefuse 73 alongside your Washed Out and co hazy retro-beats. It's an ethereal otherworldly sound, all instrumental save for vocal samples it marries simmering electronic distortion with simple but heavy beats and heavily affected/vocodered voice twists. On the flip (or it could be the A side, who knows?) the opening gambit has a fine dancehall inspired vocal sample which is twisted in a way that recalls prime time Aphex Twin, 'Windowlicker' era, drooping down to simple bass. This is followed by a full on drum and string sample assault with heavy-as-winter-cold bass. Beats a little uninspired on this piece but it's the only criticism in a record of rare excellence throughout.

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Tri-Angle's most eagerly awaited release to date.

As the producer responsible for some of Lil B and Soulja Boy’s weirdest, most inventive beats, and following on from a critically acclaimed, self released mixtape of instrumentals collected from his work over the years with various forward thinking hip hop artists, Tri Angle is very excited to announce the release of ‘Rainforest’, the debut EP by Clams Casino.

The five songs that make up ‘Rainforest’ find Clams Casino (aka 23 year old New Jersey native, Michael Volpe) refining his ethereal, otherworldly sound, whilst taking it to a heavier and more intense extreme. What has set Clams Casino apart from most other hip hop producers is his skill in making records that sound just as good, if not better, instrumentally as they do with vocals, and if anyone needed it, ‘Rainforest’ represents the confirmation of this. It’s a record drenched in mysterious atmospherics, like a foggy memory of a far off exotic place, the details buried beneath the mist of distortion, but present nonetheless.

None of the songs on ‘Rainforest’ have ever been released before, and in contrast to most of his other productions these songs have always existed purely as instrumentals, free of any vocal presence. ‘Rainforest’ is an incredibly powerful release which signals the beginning of Clams Casino coming into his own and operating as an important artist in his own right.