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cLOUDDEAD: "i've been living in a record skipped filmstrip"

autopilot disengaged

19:55 / 27.11.01

...being the album described by the NME as "Perhaps the most all-enveloping, engrossing, perplexing, sublime listening experience you'll have all year" - and by Uncut(Hmm) thus: "Imagine listening to Kid A one minute, then Cypress Hill the next, then both at once. That good, and twice as peculiar."

...meaning 70+minutes of ambient sampledelic hip-hop that unfolds in realtime like a surrealist movie. this is an album that may well follow some unbelievably beautiful, blurry electronica with a lo-fi prank call - a fistful of samples with stream-of-consciousness poetry over what sounds like a videogame playing in another room. (catchy!)

i think this is a seriously great album. it's like DJShadow cast adrift on a big scary ocean. and - uh - hallucinating.

"Mom,
I've kept a razor under my tongue
since i was a small toddler with a tight belt.

i haven't been able to kiss a woman
with an open mouth, my friend,
cause i'm afraid that i'd split her lip-
is that sick?"

!?

[ 27-11-2001: Message edited by: autopilot disengaged ]

Ronald Thomas Clontle

23:05 / 27.11.01

I have that record. I think it's pretty boring, really. The music is pretty solid, but the MCs are awful. and it really does sound like Cypress Hill at times, which I don't think is ever a good thing.

Them and Cannibal Ox, I just think they're a lot more dull than revolutionary...

04:34 / 28.11.01

I hate the way that the press will throw a word like "revolutionary" at albums like this. Don't get me wrong: Can O was one of my favourite albums from this year. It just smacks of lazy journalism.

Flux: I agree with you on cLOUDDEAD's MCs.

No star here laces

05:29 / 28.11.01

Well in my new, more conciliatory, suit I'll say that there's a place for this stuff, just not in my record collection. Call me recidivist but I kinda think music, particularly hip hop is about being rhythmic and all this stop-starty stuff doesn't rock my loveboat.

Pin

11:27 / 28.11.01

The MC's tend to be poor, but sometimes get it right (the second half of apt.1 (1) is a case in point), but the best thing on the whole album is and all you can do is alugh (2), being just the D.J. being werid.

13:01 / 28.11.01

I've gotta put a good word in for cLOUDEAD -

when I first got the record, I agreed with what what Flux and Tyr - sorry, Lyra, say, and thought to myself 'must try not to go around buying god-awful records like this just cos they sound cool'.

But I got into the habit of sticking it on before going to sleep or early in the morning, just because it's the only thing I've been listening to recently that could possibly be described as 'calming' and - IT REALLY GETS BETTER THE MORE YOU LISTEN TO IT.

As hip-hop, it's rubbish, for the reasons outlined above, but take it as a load of freaky post-whatever experimental noise accompanied by two squeeky voiced guys reading bizarre, intriguing poetry and it suddenly becomes great.

It really drills itself into your brain after repeated listens - odd phrases and rythyms from it that I've never noticed consciously keep popping into my head, and I think 'where the hell did that come from? - oh yeah - the cloudead record!'

And I really do like the lyrics - some of them are wonderful, even if you can only really decipher half of them by reading them off the sleeve.

And I'm really beginning to like the fuzzy, stoned sound of the whole thing too - in a Beta-Band sort of way. In fact, I think it does 'Beta-Band' better than the Beta Band do..

[ 28-11-2001: Message edited by: Rizla Year Zero ]

Ronald Thomas Clontle

13:32 / 28.11.01

Have any of you heard Latyrx? They are fantastic, and I think they may be what a lot of you are looking for: Two excellent mcs and DJ Shadow producing/DJing all of the music. They're only record is currently only in print on vinyl and cassette, though... you can find some Latryx tracks on some compilations, like Xen Cuts and Solesides Greatest Bumps...

autopilot disengaged

15:57 / 28.11.01

latyrx/shadow and the whole solesides crew are fantastic - the reason i compare virtually every piece of noo music with shadow is 'cause he is absolutely the grrrreatest.

but not especially prolific. and it's been a little while since 'endtroducing'... (UNKLE kind of counts...but it's definitely a side project).

i do think the cLOUDDEAD emcees wander off too much into their own whimsy - but the thing i love about the album is, like Riz said - you put it on in the background, and it just kind of - happens... it's almost a performance piece. the various elements shouldn't work. it should be boring, irritating, pointless. but i don't think it is. and i'm not 100% sure why.

it's realtime ambient huh?-hop.

Ronald Thomas Clontle

20:18 / 28.11.01

quote:Originally posted by autopilot disengaged:

it's realtime ambient huh?-hop.

just the same as I am convinced that Knowledge + 1 works for Wizard, I'm starting to suspect that you are part of that SPIN/Village Voice/NY Times clique of music writers... sometimes the phrases you coin and the bands you chat up make me really wonder whether or not yr really Douglas Wolk or Joshua Clover in Barbelith drag...

DJ Shadow's released a few singles and soundtrack cuts here and there. I'm told he isn't planning on another full-length lp til he has it fully planned out and it is distinctly different from all his previous output. Quite the perfectionist, that DJ Shadow...

I guess that accounts for why nearly everything he's ever done has been perfect, eh? Right.

Goodness Gracious Meme

20:34 / 29.11.01

[off-topic-ish]

Auto: Cannibal Ox/Aesop Rock, who are in the same vein, are playing in Brighton in a couple of weeks, gis a call/PM if you fancy it..

autopilot disengaged

09:06 / 30.11.01

yeah: plums - i've got tickets. cool. let's do this.

Ronald Thomas Clontle

09:09 / 30.11.01

Autopilot: I finally got around to picking up the N.E.R.D. Lp, and it is A-Maz-Ing. I can't believe I put this off so long...

it's probably the newest-sounding, freshest record I've picked up since getting the Avey Tare & Panda Bear records (though they sound NOTHING like each other)...

autopilot disengaged

09:12 / 30.11.01

flux: yeah, i've heard some of N.E.R.D. - but haven't listened with anything other than peripheral attention. sounded pretty juicy...

...and i heard those avey tare tracks you recommended to nikon (previously Vit-C) - i like them a lot. only one listen as yet, but it almost made me think of bowie when he was interesting and fearless - skewed pop.

09:49 / 30.11.01

Some bastard better release that album in Australia soon -- after we finally got Skitz I'm still waiting on this one. (And yeah, I'm with the lovely Lyra on clouddead etc.)

Ronald Thomas Clontle

09:49 / 30.11.01

[QUOTE]Originally posted by autopilot disengaged:
flux: yeah, i've heard some of N.E.R.D.

oh. maybe it was Flyboy or Expressionless or Dupre...

...and i heard those avey tare tracks you recommended to nikon (previously Vit-C) - i like them a lot. only one listen as yet, but it almost made me think of bowie when he was interesting and fearless - skewed pop.

hm. I never really have heard any Bowie in them, but I've also never been a fan of Bowie. If there are specific songs they remind you of, tell me which ones they are...I'll do some Audiogalaxy research over the weekend.

I hear a lot of Can in Avey Tare/Panda Bear/Geologist, especially on the Danse Manatee LP... lots of bits bring to mind parts of Ege Bamyasi and Tago Mago in particular. Not to mention bits of Faust and early Sonic Youth and Amon Duul II and Hawkwind and John Cage and Spacemen 3 and the oddest Elephant Six stuff and Kid A/Amnesiac Radiohead and The Flaming Lips and the Sun City Girls and Jandek and Eno and Mercury Rev when they get weird and even on occasion a bit of The Smashing Pumpkins...and so much more. They are a really fascinating group...I'm excited to see what they do next, and what happens when more members of their collective start recording with them (they are officially known as The Animal Collective, and they don't have a real band name, just individual aliases...sometimes they perform as The Forest Children...)

[ 30-11-2001: Message edited by: Flux = Yr Fact-Checking Cuz ]

Regrettable Juvenilia

12:42 / 30.11.01

It may well have been me going on about N.E.R.D. - unfortunately, being the mad bastards that they are, they had the album recalled/deleted not long after it was released (meaning that there are only a limited number of copies out there), because apparently they want to re-record it with live instruments instead of sampling. Which is damn silly, and means the original version may not make it to Australia and other places at all. However, I can provide CD copies to those in need...

Ronald Thomas Clontle

13:20 / 30.11.01

yeah, I had to order mine on import from Amazon UK... I can't imagine the record being nearly as good without the electronic elements...but the songs are really strong, so who knows...they must have something in mind to pull something that drastic.

I'd be willing to burn copies for those in the US/Canada who can't find a copy of the original version.

12:30 / 01.12.01

Flux: I'm totally with you on Latyrx. "Lady Don't Tek No" has to be the all-time best going out to party tune - bassline from "The Message," it makes you want to dance the night away. The amazing thing about their stuff is Shadow only produces about a third of it - Lyrics Born is Shadow trained and has an groovy sound of his own. I reckon the three Quannum MCs may be the three most well rounded rappers I've heard. They can do practically anything: just check out Gift of Gab on "Burning Hot in Cali on a Saturday Night" and feel your jaw hit the floor. Omnipotent.

Ronald Thomas Clontle

13:10 / 01.12.01

Oh, "Lady Don't Tek No" has to be one of the best singles ever, it's beyond hip hop even, it's just a completely transcendental song. Seriously folks, it is worthy of such high praise.

I like how Lyrics Born is singing more and more...his rough throaty voice is wonderful...that song he sings on the Quannum LP is pure gold.

I think the pinnacle of Latyrx in terms of pure MC prowess is "8 Point Program" with the Herbalizer...

14:42 / 01.12.01

Yay! At last someone to talk about Latyrx with! (If only I could find a DS9 fanatic, I'll be away)

I reckon their best showcase is "Storm Warning" - they get to run through so many styles. My mate thought there were six MCs on the track, and it was just Lateef and Lyrics. I just love the way they enjoy weird esoteric stuff just as much as ass shaking anthems. The joy they feel in creating music is so obvious in everything they touch. MMMM: listening to them now.

autopilot disengaged

18:37 / 01.12.01

when me and driver used to deejay at our ill-fated mini-club nite, we'd play storm warning as a primer before we opened the doors. superlatives fail me...

04:13 / 11.06.02

*bump*

The Mush Records tour (including cLOUDDEAD) are coming to my town. Anyone recommend them as a live act?

11:54 / 11.06.02

Well .. it's guaranteed to be an interesting experience at the very least..