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Molek FMClams Casino: Beat Wizardry
Mike Volpe’s music as Clams Casino is what happens when the production discipline of Primo got into a forced marriage with the dirty disorder of rapegaze. Despite the critical praise elevating him beyond just hip hop and comparisons to acts as varied as Ariel Pink and Washed Out, Clams is unabashedly a hip hop producer. That is the only title he identifies with.
You’d be surprised to find out that someone whose music is called avant garde has a repertoire that is built around production work for the likes of Lil B and Soulja Boy. While we credit those two for hiring Clams Casino, we think Clammy’s beats are better off left as instrumentals with only some vocal samples.
Instrumental Mixtape, a free release comprising of instrumentals he’d given to rappers, proves that Clams’ music works best as an electronic act. Subsequent release Forest EP, made of wholly unused beats, reassures this claim. More recently, Clams joined Adult Swim’s singles project with new track ‘Wizard’, a staccato of new age synths drenched in dreamy lo-fi samples over a looming funk chorus. It’s almost Salem-esque, had they bothered with cleaner production.
Download ‘Wizard’ here.
