cLOUDDEAD Ten
Hip hop is dead: Long live hip hop. All the members of Oakland’s found noise collective, anticon, have often maintained that what they do is modern folk music that rather than rap. But cLOUDDEAD (featuring why?, Doseone and odd nosdam) was arguably the first of their projects that completely destroyed all evidence of their B-boy history. It was hard to see how they could possibly follow up the dizzying digital stew of soporific barber shop harmonies and synth washes of their 2001 eponymous release, but by anyone’s standards this album represents a quantum leap forward. Band associate Sole described this album as the digital folk ‘Pet Sounds’ and listening to ‘RifleEyes’ he might not be far wrong. Vinyl pop and crackles, compete with an accordion tune and guns shots, as Dose intones “A single long stemmed rose resting between two mountains”. The Stereophonics it certainly ain’t. New single ‘Dead Dogs Two’ brings to mind the sort of beautiful but twisted tune the Aphex Twin was capable of during his Richard D James phase and ‘The Teen Keen Skip’ features the best use of a children’s nursery rhyme and food blender on a record ever. If you are the sort of person who constantly bemoans the lack of great but experimental music then this is absolutely essential.
(reviewed by john doran)