#424 Clams Casino - Instrumentals

Another one that's getting good buzz on the best of 2011 circuit.

Here we have some really creaky instrumental hip hop, so bent as to transcend the label, taking on a strange timelessness. The obvious point of reference is Endtroducing, and it has a similar nostalgic soul, but everything is warped and imprecise, sounding beyond analog, beyond vinyl, like a successful version of Sam Baker's Album (which I mostly hated). It's also much more interested in repetition and tone and slow evolution, eschewing any kind of soundtracking or half-glimpsed narrative. A lot more interested in repetition, in fact, annoyingly so oftentimes, unfortunately.

Perhaps most importantly though, this sounds more personal, for better or for worse like music being made by a producer, where the man behind it all shows through in many of the transitions and gestures, while Endtroducing (and to a lesser degree Deadringer) sounded plucked from the universe itself. The finest moments are those rough-hewn details that trigger unidentifiable nostalgia, a la The Books or Grasscut.

I can't decide if I like it yet. There's something disquieting about the approach to the loops, the murky reverb, the bent speeds, the wobbly LFO amplitude, but I'll confess I'm not unintrigued 3.5/5

You might like this if: you like experimental, creaky, curiously personal, curiously off-putting instrumental hip hop.