The takeaway from Clams Casino's recent Instrumental Mixtape, which featured his productions for rappers like Lil B and Soulja Boy, was how well his beats stood on their own. You didn't need a "based" freestyle on top of a track like "Motivation" to appreciate all its great warmth and texture, and in many cases the songs actually worked better without a rapper. Clams (real name Mike Volpe) even echoed this sentiment in a recent interview with us, suggesting that he enjoyed doing vocal-less work more, partly because of the logistical hurdles involved in linking up with MCs. "The beats just sit around for months. It's frustrating... Now, all I want to do is put out instrumental stuff," he said.
So it's no surprise that his latest release steps away from for-hire beatmaking to showcase original material, five tracks that "have always existed purely as instrumentals," according to a press statement. Put out by the well-curated boutique imprint Tri Angle, the Rainforest EP is centered loosely on a terrestrial theme (song titles "Waterfalls" and "Treetop" not-so-subtly reference nature) and carefully balances some very earthy, textural sounds with more airy, celestial ones. For example, a track like opener "Natural" explores the tension between a tattered, grainy arrangement and float-y, angelic vocal samples-- you can feel it pulling you in both directions.
These aren't groundbreaking techniques (this production style owes something to West Coast instrumental hip-hop as well as guys like Four Tet and Burial), but Clams' detailed, musical approach makes them feel like his own. He just does a lot of things right: Vocal samples, which are treated to sound sort of ghostly and haunting, are picked at their most expressive moments, and his sense of build-and-release gives the tracks a momentum that never lets them become too drifty. The lurching first single, "Gorilla", shows his knack for this kind of thrust: Occasionally he'll drop the beat off for a second, letting things go creepily silent, and then bring a cluster of drums back in for a big payoff.
Clams displays on each of these songs this gift for melody and contrast, going blissful on "Waterfalls" and then into more sinister ambient territory on a track like "Drowning". Ultimately the EP is tough to categorize, since it has a clear hip-hop undercurrent but feels more in line with the mixed-genre experimental electronic work of someone like (Tri Angle labelmate) Balam Acab. But it's an impressive, colorful set of tunes that is arguably the best thing this label has put out, next to How to Dress Well's debut LP. And after two very good records in the span of just a couple of months, it might make the case for Clams, who has stressed in interviews that he does music only as a hobby, to go full-time-- Rainforest feels like an artist confidently finding his niche.
