Clams Casino Mixtape 4
“Instrumental Mixtape 4,” has listeners fully submerged in a world of deep bass and hard drums so they lose track of time as the nebulous harmonies take them away. Mike Volpe under the name Clams Casino, released his newest mixtape June 24, opening with “Say Your Prayers,” a track that features piano and bells, but mostly drums.
Standard black vinyl version. Initial copies were pressed on transparent blue vinyl Originally released as an MP3 mixtape. Vinyl release does not list track titles on the sleeve or labels. Instrumental Mixtape 4 Sampler - EP Clams Casino Electronic 2017 Preview SONG TIME Say Your Prayers. 3:44 PREVIEW Wavey. 3:20 PREVIEW Time. Clams Casino has released Instrumental Mixtape 4, the next installment in his long running series which includes Vince Staples beats and a DJ Shadow remix. Facedgod, Chuck Inglish, Clams Casino, Cookin' Soul, SKYWLKR, SMKA, TaeBeast, Willie B, Digi+Phonics, TyreeBeats, Drake, Joell Ortiz, Tradmark Da Skydiver, Young.
“Say Your Prayers,” an original song, has a sound that echoes like a church choir while the drums pound noticeably. This is the traditional Clams Casino sound that fans have embraced from the past four mixtapes and the single album “32 Levels,” released last year.
The producer has become incredibly valuable to hip-hop artists such as A$AP Ferg, Danny Brown, and Vince Staples who all have instrumentals featured on this mixtape. These rappers are taking advantage of Clams Casino’s signature sound of enveloping beats, amorphous sounds, and hard hitting percussion, like A$AP Ferg’s feature, “Uncle.”
The mixtape begins to take a different turn with the other original instrumental, “Wavey,”. Clams Casino shows his experimental side by using a harsher, more distorted noise. While the song initially sounds familiar to his sound, it begins to take a different turn as the bass becomes overwhelming and breaks through the other instruments. Through hits like “Wavey” on this mixtape, Clams Casino is showing how he can change the way we think of hip-hop production.
This mixtape is a step above Clams Casino’s other work because of its polished finish and desire to experiment with new sounds and styles. Right after the experimental track “Wavey,” is his remix of DJ Shadow’s “Stem / Long Stem,” featuring spoken word and a lower focus on the drums.
Other tracks such as tracks “Worth It” and “Norf Norf” focus heavily on the drums and percussion. The former includes almost none of the enveloping sounds that Clams Casino is known for, while the latter does have a relatively smaller emphasis on the underlying bass.
The middle of the mixtape, starting from “Worth It,” to “Kali Yuga,” does leave the listener lacking some of the head bumping and consuming sounds that is expected with Clams Casino. “Leave With You,” an enjoyable listen, remedies this by including a simple melody and drum line. With no vocal samples, the listener is left to focus on the complicated drum lines, only to realize the melody has a simple, yet driving style.
The mixtape slows down again with the final three songs: the remix of Sia’s “Elastic Heart,” “Talk It,” and “Summertime.” All of these songs feature a slower moving finale to the mixtape, when compared to the hard-hitting “Norf Norf” and “Worth It.” The “Elastic Heart” remix particularly stands out as it sounds like a completely different song than Sia’s original, a testament to the skill that Clams Casino has at creating and remixing music. He is not just a producer who adds bass and drums, he is an artist who has perfected his sound and craft enough to be able to create it in any situation.
While these last three songs have a somber and slow sound, there is a hopefulness that comes up over the entrancingly deep bass. Clams Casino is not just another hip-hop producer, his sound is what has changed rap music to embrace the importance of what is underneath. As the last notes of “Instrumental Mixtape 4” slowly fade out into static and the listener is left to think in silence, we are reminded of the powerful emotion that Clams Casino can create.
“Instrumental Mixtape 4” was released for free through Clams Casino’s Twitter and website.
mvalenti@theeagleonline.com
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| Instrumentals | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Mixtape by | |||
| Released | March 7, 2011 | ||
| Recorded | 2009–2010 | ||
| Genre | |||
| Length | 42:12 | ||
| Label | Self-released | ||
| Producer | Clams Casino | ||
| Clams Casino chronology | |||
| |||
| Alternate cover | |||
Instrumentals is the debut mixtape of American record producer Clams Casino. It was self-released as a free digital download on March 7, 2011. It features instrumentals of tracks that he produced for various rappers, including some bonus songs. In July 2011,[1]Instrumentals was reissued by Type Records as a physical release.[2]
Music[edit]
Instrumentals consists of Clams Casino's reconstructions of backing tracks he originally produced for rappers such as Lil B and Soulja Boy.[3] An electronic mixtape,[4] it features illbient, glitchbeat, and chillwave styles.[3] Some of the mixtape explores a more traditional hip hop sound. Its second half touches on bouncy basslines ('She's Hot'), dubstep-influenced, low-endgrind ('Brainwash by London'), and vocal looping similar to the production of Kanye West ('Cold War').[1]Instrumentals appropriates Casino's previous hip hop beats into moody compositions, which are characterized by melodramatic drum crescendos and melancholic electronic sounds.[4]
Critical reception[edit]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Fact | 4.5/5[5] |
| MSN Music (Expert Witness) | A−[3] |
| Pitchfork | 8.2/10[4] |
| Resident Advisor | 4.0/5[1] |
| Sputnikmusic | 3.5/5[6] |
In a review for Resident Advisor, Andrew Ryce called Instrumentals 'a collection of aching, blown-out paeans to wonder, sadness and profound joy—music that any of the above could fall in love with.'[1]Pitchfork critic Brandon Soderberg said Casino's 'attention to hip-hop structure ... makes these beats so emotionally devastating.'[4] Rory Gibb from The Quietus felt that, without the rappers they were originally produced for, the instrumentals are 'revealed as intricate enough to stand alone in their own right', while sounding 'ephemeral and peculiarly of this moment, phantom aggregations of mood and sound that coalesce for brief periods of time before potentially disengaging at some undisclosed point in the future.'[2]Sputnikmusic's Conrad Tao felt that, although Instrumentals sounds occasionally conventional, Casino's approach to sampling is 'refreshingly abstract'. He went on to write that the mixtape basically serves as 'a hugely enticing teaser for what promises to be an illustrious career filled with sumptuous, bittersweet music.'[6] Writing for MSN Music, Robert Christgau said Casino's 'comfortably disquieting' sound 'will grow on you if you give it a chance. And because it's designed to back into your space, providing the chance won't feel all that time-consuming, preoccupied as you'll be with something more engrossing while said time passes.'[3]
Pitchfork placed Instrumentals at number 17 in its top-50 albums of 2011 list.[7] In 2014, the website also placed the album at 100 on its list of 'Best Albums of the Decade So Far.'[8] It ranked the song 'Motivation' number 30 on its list of the Top-100 Tracks of 2011.[9]Stereogum ranked the mixtape number 21 on its year-end top albums list.[10]Fact named it as one of the best instrumental hip hop mixtapes to come after the release of J Dilla's Donuts album.[11]
Track listing[edit]
Clams Casino Mixtape
| No. | Title | Artist originally made for[12] | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | 'Motivation' | Lil B | 4:28 |
| 2. | 'All I Need' | Soulja Boy | 3:44 |
| 3. | 'Real Shit from a Real Nigga' | Lil B | 2:56 |
| 4. | 'Realist Alive' | Lil B | 4:00 |
| 5. | 'Numb' | A$AP Rocky | 3:55 |
| 6. | 'What You Doin' | Lil B | 4:19 |
| 7. | 'The World Needs Change' | Soulja Boy | 2:25 |
| 8. | 'I'm Official' | Squadda B | 2:18 |
| 9. | 'Brainwash by London' | The Jealous Guys | 2:56 |
| 10. | 'Illest Alive' | Main Attrakionz | 4:09 |
| 11. | 'She's Hot' | Deezy D | 2:56 |
| 12. | 'Cold War' | Lil B | 2:50 |
| 13. | '13' | (bonus track) | 1:19 |
References[edit]
- ^ abcdRyce, Andrew (August 15, 2011). 'Clams Casino – Instrumentals'. Resident Advisor. Retrieved April 13, 2013.
- ^ abGibb, Rory (August 22, 2011). 'Clams Casino'. The Quietus. Retrieved April 13, 2013.
- ^ abcdChristgau, Robert (February 14, 2012). 'Skrillex/Clams Casino'. MSN Music. Archived from the original on September 14, 2013. Retrieved April 13, 2013.
- ^ abcdSoderberg, Brandon (April 8, 2011). 'Clams Casino: Instrumental Mixtape'. Pitchfork. Retrieved April 13, 2013.
- ^Lea, Tom (August 15, 2011). 'Clams Casino: Instrumentals'. Fact. London. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved April 13, 2013.
- ^ abTao, Conrad (May 21, 2011). 'Clams Casino – Instrumental Mixtape (album review)'. Sputnikmusic. Retrieved April 13, 2013.
- ^'Staff Lists: The Top-50 Albums of 2011'. Pitchfork. December 15, 2011. Retrieved January 8, 2012.
- ^'The 100 Best Albums of the Decade So Far (2010–2014)'. Pitchfork. August 19, 2014. Retrieved July 26, 2016.
- ^'The Top-100 Tracks of 2011'. Pitchfork. December 12, 2011. Retrieved January 9, 2012.
- ^'Stereogum's Top-50 Albums Of 2011'. Stereogum. December 5, 2011. Retrieved January 8, 2012.
- ^Piyevsky, Alex (May 25, 2015). 'Life After Dilla: 25 great post-Donuts instrumental hip-hop mixtapes'. Fact. Retrieved February 19, 2018.
- ^'Instrumental Mixtape by clammyclams'. SoundCloud. Retrieved February 19, 2018.
External links[edit]
- Instrumental Mixtape at Discogs (list of releases)