Rating:
Genre:
Rap
Release Date: 12/19/2002
Culled from a series of limited 10" releases,
Clouddead's eponymous debut isn't so much a fully formed album as it is a well-executed exercise in seasick, proggist
psychedelia. With background textures that rival
Boards of Canada in pastoral, tree-lined opacity and an obvious predilection for boggy atmospherics,
Clouddead handily distances themselves from the rest of their
hip-hop brethren. Indeed, this is something more considered and sinister -- less about wayward braggadocio than it is about keeping your doors deadbolted at all hours of the night. Even their less-is-more approach to vocalism eventually starts playing tricks on your mind; when lyricists
Dose and
Why? emerge, it's usually to puncture the pleasant fog of some dulcet, wavering sample. The whole album reads like that; the sonic equivalent of your first legitimate drug trip as narrated by two jittery but triumphant kids who can't bear to keep their choice hiding place a secret any longer. While it's perhaps a tad overlong,
Clouddead doesn't suffer from any shortage of great ideas. It's menacing, it's enthralling, and it's one of few modern-day records (
hip-hop or otherwise) that honestly doesn't sound like anything -- or anyone -- else.
~Mark Pytlik, All Music Guide
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