cLOUDDEAD: Ten
Posted by: Mekon on 13 January 2004
It's not out until Feb 23rd, but Big Dada have the .ra files up already. The first single off the album is out in 13 days time, and it's a gem. Boards of Canada have a remix of it on there too. Anyhow, here's the link to the album page with the full tracks on there. Below is the blurb for those who won't click the link.
quote:
cLOUDDEAD are back. The trio whose debut, self-titled album was met with such consternation and acclaim back in 2001 have, after numerous solo projects and a break-up (or two), returned with the follow-up. And what a follow-up it is.
“ten” finds cLOUDDEAD building on all of the elements that defined their debut: razor-sharp vocal interplay, quirky found sound samples, ambient drone dreamscapes, lyrics that walk the line between observational and confessional, and a fair share of nosdam’s growl-slow drums.
Whether scorning America's gun culture, using a car crash as a metaphor for stardom or describing a tour van window view that includes oil drills and a dead-deer-god-done dog shit, Doseone and why? never take the cheap way out. Their lyrics may range from blurry and buried to sharp and surfaced, but each and every line has meaning. The music and production are collaborative, featuring Doseone's knack for bottling emotion, why's self-taught multi-instrumentalist efforts, and odd nosdam's flair for borrowed genius.
But this album is more than an improvement on a blueprint – it’s also a leap forward. The period of recording the ten tracks that make it up coincides with why’s and nosdam’s relocation to join Doseone in Oakland and it’s as if the move from Cincinatti to California has opened the group up. Sonically, the record has more depth, the interplay between why’s and dose’s voices has become more harmonised and even less ‘rap’ driven, their subject matter has become broader.
Individually, Doseone, why? and odd nosdam are as prolific and fearless as anyone in today’s new music scene, but together as cLOUDDEAD they are able to create music that captures all of the promise of their individual talents in a stunning, unequalled sound. You won’t hear many records like “ten” this decade let alone this year. Or as why? semi-helpfully puts it: “I think the sound of the record is quite unique. I think rather than having some specific sound like the self-titled album had, this one is more of a healthy mix of the three of our respective aesthetics. The no more wigish stuff can be heard, the no musicness is there, and the oaklandazulity is also present. And I think as a whole it still sound pretty cohesively cLOUDDEADian.” We hope that makes it clear.