Behind every great rapper is likely a great instrumental producer. 23 year-old Michael Volpe is a New Jersey hip-hop producer that has been making beats for the likes of Lil B and Soulja Boy. Far from bombastic rap instrumentals, his work is blunted and space-filling, not the obvious choice for such showy rappers but therein lies the key to Clams Casino’s music. Once you hear Lil B over the top of ‘Oh My God’ it makes sense.
A few weeks ago Clams Casino released a free EP of instrumentals of his work that serve as a superb intro to his sound.
Download: Clams Casino – Motivation [Lil B]
As Clams told Pitchfork: “My beat “Realist Alive” samples the song ‘Hometown Glory’ by Adele– it’s not a weird source, but I just make it sound weird. To find things to sample, I used to just type a random word– like ‘blue’ or ‘cold’– into LimeWire or BearShare and download the first 10 results. I had no idea who the artists were or anything.”
Download: Clams Casino – Realist Alive [Lil B]
In June, New York label Tri Angle (home to Holy Other and How To Dress Well) will release his Rainforest EP, from which ‘Gorilla’ is taken from:
Read a Village Voice interview with Volpe.
Clams Casino : “Gorilla” from Jamie Harley on Vimeo.
Niall Byrne is the founder of the most-influential Irish music site Nialler9, where he has been writing about music since 2005 . He is the co-host of the Nialler9 Podcast and has written for the Irish Times, Irish Independent, Cara Magazine, Sunday Times, Totally Dublin, Red Bull and more. Niall is a DJ, founder of Lumo Club, club promoter, event curator and producer of gigs, listening parties & events in Dublin.
Man, this stuff sounds glorious!
Thanks.
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