Clams Casino Hip Hop

Although Clams Casino's excellent Instrumental Mixtape first appeared in spring of this year as a free-to-circulate zip file, its swanky coloured vinyl reissue on Type screams out for more attention. Not that it was exactly lacking for love when it first emerged: sizeable proportions of the (admittedly pretty niche) music-loving internet were quick to heap praise on Clams' translucent hip-hop instrumentals, and subsequent online mixes and a 12' on Tri Angle have swiftly snared him a growing audience. But what's been interesting is how its release immediately made his instrumentals themselves the focal point of attention. Where beforehand they served largely as anonymous, wispy backing tracks for the likes of 'BasedGod' Lil B (including the stunning, not-included-here 'I'm God'), Main Attrakionz and Soulja Boy, outside of a vocal context they were revealed as intricate enough to stand alone in their own right.

1. Clams Casino Hip Hop Songs
2. Clams Casino Hip Hop Dances
3. Clams Casino Hip Hop Instrumentals

Clams Casino, “Gorilla” (2011) The commingling of hip-hop and ambient music has been a thing since whoever, presumably jokingly, first threw out the phrase “illbient,” then watched in horror as it joined the portmanteau heap. Cult electronic/hip-hop producer Clams Casino has finally pulled back the curtain on his next full-length move. Titled Moon Trip Radio, Clams' next album will arrive November 7.Right now, though. The sound of cloud rap was murky and morose melodies paired with hip-hop drums. Released as part of Clams Casino’s fittingly-titled mixtape Instrumental Relics. To mark the occasion, we. Freestyle beat, beat, free trap beat, trap beat, rap beat, beats, instrumental, trap, free type beat, trap type beat, free type beat 2020, type beat 2020, type beat. Michael Volpe (born May 12, 1987), known professionally as Clams Casino, is an Italian-American record producer and songwriter from Nutley, New Jersey. Volpe is currently signed to Columbia Records and Sony Music.

So this physical release, under the clipped title Instrumentals, feels like an appropriate gesture. The sheer volume of music given away online ensures that people rarely listen to even half of the free material they download, simply because it's so easy to lose individual droplets in the deluge. So although only a fraction of listeners will end up actually buying it (not least thanks to the fact that its vinyl release is on quite a limited run), its very presence on Type - alongside the likes of Grouper, Peter Broderick and Richard Skelton - ought to ensure it gleans interest from an audience that might not usually pick up on an underground hip-hop record. Which, in the context of the music itself, is no bad thing; that a label whose tastes run right into post-classical modern composition have seen fit to put out Clams Casino speaks volumes about his potential for wider appeal.

Though having said all of that, there's something so delightfully internetty about Clams' music that to impose any degree of physical permanence upon it seems something of a contradiction. His closest contemporaries, both sonically and in terms of methodology, aren't fellow hip-hop producers - they're web-age bedroom producers like Laurel Halo, Dan Lopatin, Hype Williams and Maria Minerva, those constructing almost dizzyingly referential tracks out of complex meshes of samples and analogue and digital sound sources. Listening to a Clams Casino track is a similar experience to listening to a Hype Williams track, in that recognisable fragments of sampled vocal occasionally lurch to the surface of the mix for a second or two before vanishing - or remain half-cloaked in the background throughout, like the spectral presence of Photek's 'Kanei' lurking in Hype's recent 'Rise Up'. And like Hype's music, Clams' instrumentals sound 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. That analysis feels even more fitting given Clams himself, a bedroom producer who sends his tracks out via email to potential vocalists, then frequently loses track of where they've travelled until they emerge into the public eye complete with MC chatter. His connection with Lil B further fuels his status as a post-Web 2.0 producer; B has a reputation for remaining almost constantly online, interacting with the outside world via social networks and an ongoing stream of musical content.

Similarly to the likes of Halo and Lopatin, Clams' music is predominantly made up of synth: huge, rippling curtains of the stuff, with the contradictory property of sounding simultaneously impenetrably dense and almost totally weightless. Opener 'Motivation' explodes into action in peaking-in-the-red mode, its droning bursts of sub-bass distorting into a grainy haze as they hit full volume. Despite its colossal force, though, its physical impact is unexpectedly soothing, a balmy wash like standing waist-deep in tropical seawater. That's largely to do with the way that every available frequency is packed with something, even if only a growling undertow of white noise. The usual sources of abrasive, barbed sound - worming synth leads, snare hits, vocal samples - are cushioned and contained within a protective bubble of sonic interference. The overall effect is somewhat akin to listening through thick, viscous fluid. The previously unreleased, un-vocalled 'Numb' is a particularly good example, its androgynous voices, pitched in any number of different directions, arriving at the ear elongated into trailing siren songs.

Clams' sampling style is equally distinctive. While underneath the layers of superheated distortion his basic approach doesn't differ hugely from one common throughout hip-hop - taking short loops and extrapolating them to infinity - he uses almost entirely vocals, which he cut to pieces and allows to duck and dive in and out of audible range. On 'Illest Alive', a short snippet of Bjork's 'Bachelorette' looms to the surface and clips sharply, before reducing to wordless drift again. His treatment of distinctive voices - Bjork, Janelle Monáe on 'Cold War' - is reverent to the mood of the originals but unafraid to break them apart into constituent chunks to use as building blocks. However, while most tracks feature some human vocal presence, most of Clams' characters are anonymous, lonely and wordless, again in keeping with his tracks' webby, information overloaded feel.

This approach to track construction and sampling bears dwelling upon - though last year's short lived burst of interest in what was foolishly labeled 'witch house' (the gothic connection in most of it was tenuous to say the least, and it had fuck all to do with house) aimed to work within similar sonic boundaries, what's striking about Clams' music is how much more proficient it sounds. In fact, the thoughtful approach, attentiveness and depth of Instrumentals shows up many of that non-genre's key proponents as only shallowly engaging with their source material. Where Salem's attempts at dirty south hip-hop sounded forced and half-formed, even Clams Casino's baggiest tunes show an intrinsic understanding of their need for functionality as a backing track (even as, packed with detail, they transcend the need for an MC).

That said, unlike his more recent Rainforest EP on Tri Angle, which showcased some of his less tightly structured productions, the tracks on Instrumentals are far more closely linked to their original purpose as tools for MCs. Its final two tracks are its sparsest and most rhythmically immediate - the low slung beat and bass bulbs of 'She's Hot'; 'Cold War', where a stanza from Monae is left to run for a full three minutes, only occasionally tampered with. While quite some distance from the heaving columns of sound that make up the majority of the record, both are strong reminders that, despite their ghostly aura and presence on Type, these tracks remain intrinsically linked to the MCs that originally vocalled them. Listening to the instrumental and vocal takes back to back, the fact they work equally well in either role is testament to the versatility and subtlety of their construction.

Michael Volpe (born May 12, 1987), known professionally as Clams Casino, is an Italian-American record producer and songwriter from Nutley, New Jersey.^[1][2] Volpe is currently signed to Columbia Records and Sony Music. He has produced tracks for artists such as ASAP Rocky,^[3]Lil B,^[4]Vince Staples,^[5]Joji,^[6] and Mac Miller^[7] and has also remixed works by Big K.R.I.T.,^[8]Washed Out,^[9] and Lana Del Rey.^[10]

Career[edit]

A resident of Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey, Volpe got his start in music tinkering with keyboards while he was a student at Nutley High School.^[11]

Volpe's official debut EP Rainforest was released through Tri Angle Records on June 27, 2011.^[12] His Instrumentals mixtape was released on March 7, 2011,^[13] followed by the release of Instrumentals 2 on June 5, 2012^[14] and Instrumentals 3 on December 18, 2013.^[15] The mixtapes were distributed for free through his website.

Volpe contributed a score for Locomotor, a work choreographed by his cousin Stephen Petronio released on April 4, 2014.^[16] He released his debut studio album 32 Levels through Columbia Records on July 15, 2016. He followed it up with his Instrumentals 4 mixtape, released on June 26, 2017.

In April 2020, Clams Casino cleared the Imogen Heap sample for his instrumental 'I'm God', which first appeared on Lil B's 2009 album 6 Kiss.^[17][18] The song remains his most popular song with nearly 25 million views on Youtube.

Musical style[edit]

Volpe's music has been described as '[bringing] together conventional hip-hop drums, a sensitive ear for off-to-the-side melodies, and an overdose of oddly moving atmosphere.'^[19] Associated genres include witch house and cloud rap.

Discography[edit]

Studio albums[edit]

Mixtapes[edit]

Extended plays[edit]

Singles[edit]

As lead artist[edit]

As featured artist[edit]

Compilations[edit]

Clams Casino Hip Hop Songs

References[edit]

1. ^Kuperinsky, Amy (January 8, 2012). 'Making a scene: A new generation of New Jersey hip-hop asserts itself'. New Jersey On-Line.
2. ^Dombalon, Ryan (March 31, 2011). 'Rising: Clams Casino'. Pitchfork Media.
3. ^Lester, Paul (November 17, 2011). 'New band of the day – No 1,151: Clams Casino'. The Guardian.
4. ^Montes, Patrick (May 16, 2013). 'Producer Clams Casino on His 'Weird' Relationship with Our 4Knots After Party Headliner Lil B'. Village Voice. Archived from the original on 2014-02-02. Retrieved 2014-01-23.
5. ^'Vince Staples Hops on Clams Casino's 'All Nite''. Highsnobiety. 2016-06-10. Retrieved 2017-01-08.
6. ^'Joji teams with Clams Casino for new single 'CAN'T GET OVER YOU''. The FADER. Retrieved 2018-10-22.
7. ^Roos, Brandon E. (November 27, 2011). 'Clams Casino Talks Making Strong Connections With Mac Miller And A$AP Rocky'. HipHopDX. Archived from the original on October 31, 2014. Retrieved February 13, 2014.
8. ^Martin, Andrew (December 20, 2011). 'Listen: Big K.R.I.T. 'Moon & Stars (Clams Casino Remix)''. Complex.
9. ^Thiessen, Brock (November 9, 2011). 'Washed Out – 'Amor Fati' (Clams Casino remix)'. Exclaim!. Archived from the original on 2014-12-13. Retrieved 2014-02-13.
10. ^Adams, Gregory (January 17, 2012). 'Lana Del Rey – 'Born to Die' (Clams Casino remix)'. Exclaim!. Archived from the original on 2014-12-13. Retrieved 2014-02-13.
11. ^Olivier, Bobby. 'How this Nutley artist became New Jersey's latest music pioneer', NJ Advance Media for NJ.com, December 21, 2016. 'The EDM bleed has paid dividends for Mike Volpe, a Nutley native better known as Clams Casino, who has become one of the most sought-after digital designers in hip-hop's experimental universe.... 'It's great, how easy it is to get stuff out, and make music at home and all the sudden people everywhere can hear it,' he says, from his home in Hasbrouck Heights.... The Nutley High School grad first began to tinker with beats as a teen, fooling around with basic keyboards and synthesizers, much simpler ones than the machines now scattered around his basement home studio.'
12. ^Sharp, Elliott (July 5, 2011). 'Guide To New Music, 7/5/11: New Releases by Clams Casino, Exhumed, Memory Tapes, and Pursuit Grooves'. Philadelphia Weekly. Archived from the original on 2014-02-22. Retrieved 2014-02-13.
13. ^Reynaldo, Shawn (January 2, 2012). 'Clams Casino Offers 'Instrumentals' for Free'. XLR8R. Archived from the original on 2014-02-22. Retrieved 2014-02-13.
14. ^Shaw, Steve (June 12, 2012). 'Clams Casino: Instrumentals 2'. Fact.
15. ^Fitzmaurice, Larry (January 8, 2014). 'Clams Casino: Instrumental Tape 3'. Pitchfork Media.
16. ^Seibert, Brian (April 4, 2014). 'Come Here, Look Back, Move Forward – Stephen Petronio Company Marks Its 30th Anniversary'. The New York Times.
17. ^'10 songs you need in your life this week'. The FADER. Retrieved 2020-05-02.
18. ^Chris. 'Clams Casino's legendary, Imogen Heap-sampling 'I'm God' finally gets an official release'. GORILLA VS. BEAR. Retrieved 2020-05-02.
19. ^'Clams Casino: Instrumental Mixtape'. Pitchfork. Retrieved 2016-01-11.
20. ^Yoo, Noah (October 29, 2019). 'Clams Casino Announces New Album Moon Trip Radio, Shares New Song 'Rune': Listen'. Pitchfork. Retrieved October 30, 2019.

External links[edit]

Clams Casino Hip Hop Dances

• clammyclams on SoundCloud
• ClamsCasinoMusic's channel on YouTube
• Clams Casino discography at Discogs

Clams Casino Hip Hop Instrumentals