June Record Club - cLOUDDEAD, "Ten"

I think I listened to “Dead Dogs Two” more than any other single song in 2004 but I don’t know if I’ve ever heard anything else by these guys (one of the quirks of the Limewire era, sometimes that shit was hard to find!) so I’m looking forward to checking this out

Is it hip-hop? Nah. Is it even "rap" as understood in 2004? Kind of, with severe caveats. It's the sound of being adrift in life (in my case, very late college and already working a 9-to-5) and feeling left out of the overall conversation, for reasons I'll elaborate.

I should preface that I prefer the first, self-titled album, but that one's different in that it's basically an ambient album with some vocals. Odd Nosdam is an incredible producer and, as far as I know, the one acolyte of Boards of Canada who's received the nod from those irritatingly reclusive Scottish brothers with a couple of remixes. 

This, the second, is relatively tighter and more about the rapping, I guess. So my friend who basically grew up in a bar in Athens, OH and was always absurdly protective of the Ohio Scene was all in to the New Sound coming from Cincinnati: Anticon.

...

Here's where I would say that the internal drama of Anticon meant anything, but it's always been Odd Nosdam. Nasal voice guy and the other guy are fine. It's all about the production, which, as the Quietus piece alludes, is at least in the conversation about rap going forward.  

The influence of Kool Keith mentioned in the Quietus article’s definitely audible. I don’t have much substantive comment on the influence but I feel he’s one of those guys whose influence has been lurking underneath this board’s favored artists since the forum’s inception, especially in some of the earlier record clubs.

pantsgoblin Sounds like I need to seek the first one out, though there’s still a lot of ambient in this one, a real expansiveness. There’s definitely a hint of glitchy, fuzzy noise—not in terms of any of the genres associated with those words, but more descriptively. On the one hand its early aughts origins are obvious, but on the other hand there’s a sense of scope and space that reaches beyond that and makes it feel newer. The lyrics help too, and these really are song-like—as Desert Dweller noted there’s the organ, and the samples are blended than collaged.

The rapping, though—I’m always here for some of those typical, slightly-bratty mid-aughts cadences but sometimes their voices…did anyone else sometimes get a bit of a Lonely Island feeling? The comparison entered my head in “Son of a Gun” and the lyrics of “Rifle Eyes” are a lot more graphic and poetic than “Incredible Thoughts” but…I’m just being a stupid dumb guy on this, right? I’ll blame The Quietus for setting up a comparison in my head with (previous record club entry) Madvillainy, too, that’s just unfair.

I listened to this via the bandcamp deluxe edition so I’d jotted down on the shape of the album and the resumption of previous themes before realizing I was listening to remixes attached to the ends. They’re good, though (Boards of Canada remix!) and the instrumentals are great, too. Now to go back with some stuff out of my system.



Odd Nosdam’s a familiar name to my, I know I’ve listened to some of his stuff, but I can’t totally pinpoint where—maybe it’s a name that’s on one of my long text files of things to listen to that I haven’t gotten around to yet? The only reference to him I can find in my files is in my notes for this… Looking through his wikipedia page I think I explored some of his stuff college (back in the Obama and very tail of the W. years) and forgot, maybe.

On a second deep listen didn’t feel the need to think so hard about the ambience and texture—got more into the flow and rhythm and could hear better its broad appeal and catchiness; I wouldn’t quite say there’s an “indie” appeal but hits in the same area (didn’t hear The Lonely Island this time because I wasn’t picking Part and atomizing, taking away context acan lead to some weird comparisons)