Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Clams Casino

Clams Casino

(^free download by clams casino himself on his soundcloud profile)

As currently being a strong downtempo and instrumental hip hop fan, I very much enjoy the ingenuity that clams casino (Mike Volpe) brings to the table. Many may know Clams Casino through producing tracks for the already popular "lil-B" and "Mac Miller" and "a$ap rocky". Here I would like to highlight the talent of this artist over the trash that his affiliates "rap" over. Considering that the hip hop genre has recently been influenced with very unsubtle bass and lazily chopped up symphony loops, clams casino really takes a different approach and uses far more abstract ideas and places them in a phenomenally tasteful way. A very proper way to describe his style is to take all of the rambunctious hip hop that is produced today, slow it down and allow very slow moving instrument and vocal selections tow work out the aggressiveness. Considering my other interests in electrohouse and indie rock and anti-interest in much of what comprises a lot of today's "rap" scene, it is amazing to listen to such a unique and tasteful producer who specifies his tracks towards hip hop with a very downtempo style. 


above is Clams Casino's SoundCloud profile. Soundcloud is a fantasic music social media site that allows artists to subtly place their music for other users to appreciate. Here are a lot of this artist's tracks that they themselves have posted for the world to listen to. 

Here is the link to a fairly popular and hard hitting Ski Film produced by Stept Productions. The featured track is Palace by clams casino, it is a far more aggressive track yet still holds a very unique style that clams casino holds. 

This interview really strikes a chord with me in many ways regarding music. I feel as though the actual production of music is a process that is far steeper of learning curve and discipline than singing or rapping can ever imagine. And the conflict that I have with music involves the fact that singer or the rapper are far more appreciated than their associate producers in many cases. Considering that producers make or break songs in a far greater manner than vocalists, all of the credit is sent towards who ever vocalizes over a track. Within this interview, Mike Volpe (the mastermind behind "Clams Casino") speaks about how he hasn't gained any credit towards many of the works he has done.