Touted as Mush’s “most abstract experiment of word and sound,” cLOUDDEAD is the collaborative effort of Doseone, why?, and odd nosdam, and Ten is a collection of songs which confound, exasperate, illuminate, and impress. Flirting with the fringe of hip-hop, cLOUDDEAD drop their lyrical content as 21st century Beat Poets channeling both Allen Ginsberg and Eminem. Awash with ambient soundscapes, long drones, and a scattered multitude of samples, Ten is a record which is being claimed by a number of genres, but is beholden to none; cLOUDDEAD’s amalgamation of sound is blazing a trail to the future cross-breeding of musical forms.
The vocal interplay between Doseone and why? is leisurely and laconic, though each plays quickly and surely with the other, their voices smoothly and effortlessly playing back and forth. Layered around their interplay is a wealth of samples and molasses-mired beats which odd nosdam builds with the deft hand of an ancient mechanic. It’s as if the Beastie Boys decided to redraft Tom Waits’ Bone Machine. The songs of Ten are whimsical and poignant, pops songs for disaffected youth with just the right dollop of melancholy and innocence to sweeten the cynical bite.
“The Teen Keen Skip” opens with an old 78 record, spinning slowly on a decrepit Victrola, allowing a small girl’s voice to provide directions for the listeners (“Wine and cake for gentlemen…and kisses for the lasses”). An aged piano provides a sounding note for the looped voice of a child as the vocalists begin to sputter the lyrics for this ballad of lost youth. “The Velvet Ant” wheezes as a hand-driven bellows gives voice to a small air horn (the liner notes reveal that is actually a German clown nose). The sparse instrumentation builds slowly over this thin foundation, a spire built of chicken wire and discarded corn dog sticks. Doseone and why? capture slices of time like English landscape painters (“A rattle snake caught in a wheel well. / “Strawberry in an ostrich throat.”) and populate their songs with these external viewer observations as enigmatic commentators on the human condition.
These aren’t pop songs meant for disposable listening. While they may be written in brief moments of time (more than one song is credited with having been finished while riding BART), the songs of Ten are densely crafted sonic environments rife with possible interpretations. An amalgamation of sparse hip-hop, free-form sampledelia and minimal electronics with a sprinkle of indie rock and a nod towards free jazz, cLOUDDEAD’s Ten is a many faceted record which will explode in your head with an infinite profusion of Mandelbrot edges. Excellent.
Ten is out now on Mush Records.
