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> Artist: cLOUDDEAD
> Title: 'untitled 6 10'' set'
> Label: Mush
> Year: 2000
In 1999, Cincinnati MC Dose One and his roommate Why? formed the group Green Think and put out two ill, underground tapes. When they signed to Mush Records in 2000, they made producer Odd Nosdam (who already did the bulk of Green Think's production) an official member and became cLOUDDEAD. They debuted with a collection of six 10" singles, released together in a set that was limited to 50 copies. It was only available from the online store Atak, and came hand-wrapped in blue and white Christmas paper, with a tiny card numbered. My set is #9.
The idea is that each 10" features a different collaborator. None of the sleeves were titled beyond their number and their guest artist - although the CD rerelease later christened them all - and the labels say nothing but "cLOUDDEAD." At least they were different colors, though; so you could have more than one out of their sleeve at the same time without getting 'em all mixed up.
cLOUDDEAD 1, or "Apt.A" as it's since been dubbed, is the only one to feature music that had been previously released. The first side (we can tell sides A & B apart in this series from the run-out grooves, which also includes the catalog #) was included on Odd Nosdam's mostly instrumental tape, Plan9... Meat Your Hypnotis, in 1999. Both sides have a similar feel to them... calm and addictive ambient tones over slow drums. Side A starts with a minute-long instrumental interlude, and then we're into the first song proper. Dose and Why? are relaxed and unselfconscious, with each MC calmly completing a clearly well-rehearsed routine, sometimes going verse for verse, sometimes line for line, and occasionally even word for word. Why? half sings his verses. The next song (still on side A and still taken from Plan9...) is similar, but darker, evoking the tones of a David Lynch film. Here, record one's guest Illogic kicks things off with a complex rhyme scheme and abstract lyrics; but it's Dose's staccato flow that really kills it for me:
"He's tired, sick with bad posturing.
One can't hold in.
Oh Hell, there's a king of jungle in him yet.
Give our young lad middle of America's value;
But spare the gauze...
He's losing poet by the gallon."
Side two begins the all-new material, but you'd never know it wasn't recorded right along with side one. They start off singing, then straight rapping, and soon they're blending the difference between the two until they're undistinguishable.
cLOUDDEAD 2 (or "And All You Can Do Is Laugh") features 1200 Hobos member DJ Signify and a broader selection of samples: accordions, organs, xylophones, vocal samples from movies... Why? comes with his nicest, non sing-song flow, riding the drums at the end of side 1. And side 2 showcases Signify's cutting up a variety of eclectic vocal samples over Odd's scratchy (literally) samples. Signify plays it surprisingly low-key, choosing to supplement the instrumentals rather than hectically going for 'delf. But that does fit in more with the cLOUDDEAD vibe.
cLOUDDEAD 3 ("I Promise Never To Get Dirt On My Glasses Again") features some of the head noddingest (new word!) beats, with bumping drums and a riding piano riff. It also has some of the densest rhymes, with Dose rapidly rapping paragraph after paragraph from an imaginary autobiography:
"I wonder what my mother looked like pregnant...
I've classified water damage as art.
Ruining things,
Trilobite out on the town.
Painting things,
In accordance with my weird ordinance.
My style is glass cutter:
Delicate/ intense.
Why I haven't the mind for books.
Shooting out the moonlights with
my tongue; depression in a vacuum.
Chest pains and violent nightmares
Brought me to this patch of grass and sun.
Beauty is in the dead bolt.
I'm a lonely frontier boy,
Sordid terminal man,
Primitive doll making and suspicious plant eater
Ogling at the magnetism.
A nibbler
With cheap shades on and no contacts in.
Pack leading nuisance with a way with kids.
Open envelope..."
The rapping gets even faster for the next tune, with Dose and Sole exchanging aggressive rhymes ("I only have time for explosives!") back and forth, effectively leaving Why? behind, who just winds up dutifully singing/intoning some back up adlibs, sounding like he's stoned and about to pass out. And side B is back to cLOUDDEAD 1 mode, with just slow, whispered lyrics half-sung over deep, atmospheric tones.
cLOUDDEAD 4 (a.k.a. "JimmyBreeze") opens with a prank call, responding to a "rhythm guitarist looking for band" ad (the titular Jimmy Breeze), asking him increasingly goofy questions. Why? is the star of this one, handling almost all of the raps (Dose only raps a little back-up and sings a bit at the end of side 1) over beats made with elements from old video games, among other things. It's all pretty bugged out - for one part they even play his vocals backwards - with a lot of live instrumentation provided by this 10"'s guest, Why?'s big brother, Josiah Wolf.
cLOUDDEAD 5 (which, even on the CD is only titled "cloud dead number five"), is the all-instrumental 10" in the series, often going long stretches without even a drum track. Side A ends with some subtle but killer scratching by perhaps the most anticipated guest in the series, Mr. Dibbs. But he doesn't do a whole lot of scene stealing. If 4 was Why?'s turn to shine, than 5 is Nosdam's. I guess Dose doesn't get a 10" to shine, because "fuck him." Ha ha
Finally, the set wraps up with cLOUDDEAD 6 ("Bike"). It's the most chaotic of the series, featuring some live recordings, and what sounds like tapes they recorded while out on the street (something they did a bit of as Green Think, too). The credited guests are The Bay Area Animals, which I suspect is just the collective name they gave to all of their friends and strangers who they sprinkle samples of throughout the record. The sounds and vocals are just all over the place, but somehow Nosdam is able to pull it all together and make it work, in a funky, jumbled fashion. It's crazy and confusing, but they manage to jerk the wheel far enough around before colliding head-on with self-indulgence. A lot of the pieces here wound up being reworked and featured on their 2001 Peel Sessions 10".
If you want an original set, you'll have to pry it from a collector's cold, dead hands. But Mush later reissued all the 10"s separately, one at a time from 2000-2001. Then, later in 2001, they released them again as a CD and triple LP, with new cover art, depicting clouds. Hey! I get it! That's half their name!
> Reviewed by: Werner
> Title: 'untitled 6 10'' set'
> Label: Mush
> Year: 2000
In 1999, Cincinnati MC Dose One and his roommate Why? formed the group Green Think and put out two ill, underground tapes. When they signed to Mush Records in 2000, they made producer Odd Nosdam (who already did the bulk of Green Think's production) an official member and became cLOUDDEAD. They debuted with a collection of six 10" singles, released together in a set that was limited to 50 copies. It was only available from the online store Atak, and came hand-wrapped in blue and white Christmas paper, with a tiny card numbered. My set is #9.
The idea is that each 10" features a different collaborator. None of the sleeves were titled beyond their number and their guest artist - although the CD rerelease later christened them all - and the labels say nothing but "cLOUDDEAD." At least they were different colors, though; so you could have more than one out of their sleeve at the same time without getting 'em all mixed up.
cLOUDDEAD 1, or "Apt.A" as it's since been dubbed, is the only one to feature music that had been previously released. The first side (we can tell sides A & B apart in this series from the run-out grooves, which also includes the catalog #) was included on Odd Nosdam's mostly instrumental tape, Plan9... Meat Your Hypnotis, in 1999. Both sides have a similar feel to them... calm and addictive ambient tones over slow drums. Side A starts with a minute-long instrumental interlude, and then we're into the first song proper. Dose and Why? are relaxed and unselfconscious, with each MC calmly completing a clearly well-rehearsed routine, sometimes going verse for verse, sometimes line for line, and occasionally even word for word. Why? half sings his verses. The next song (still on side A and still taken from Plan9...) is similar, but darker, evoking the tones of a David Lynch film. Here, record one's guest Illogic kicks things off with a complex rhyme scheme and abstract lyrics; but it's Dose's staccato flow that really kills it for me:
"He's tired, sick with bad posturing.
One can't hold in.
Oh Hell, there's a king of jungle in him yet.
Give our young lad middle of America's value;
But spare the gauze...
He's losing poet by the gallon."
Side two begins the all-new material, but you'd never know it wasn't recorded right along with side one. They start off singing, then straight rapping, and soon they're blending the difference between the two until they're undistinguishable.
cLOUDDEAD 2 (or "And All You Can Do Is Laugh") features 1200 Hobos member DJ Signify and a broader selection of samples: accordions, organs, xylophones, vocal samples from movies... Why? comes with his nicest, non sing-song flow, riding the drums at the end of side 1. And side 2 showcases Signify's cutting up a variety of eclectic vocal samples over Odd's scratchy (literally) samples. Signify plays it surprisingly low-key, choosing to supplement the instrumentals rather than hectically going for 'delf. But that does fit in more with the cLOUDDEAD vibe.
cLOUDDEAD 3 ("I Promise Never To Get Dirt On My Glasses Again") features some of the head noddingest (new word!) beats, with bumping drums and a riding piano riff. It also has some of the densest rhymes, with Dose rapidly rapping paragraph after paragraph from an imaginary autobiography:
"I wonder what my mother looked like pregnant...
I've classified water damage as art.
Ruining things,
Trilobite out on the town.
Painting things,
In accordance with my weird ordinance.
My style is glass cutter:
Delicate/ intense.
Why I haven't the mind for books.
Shooting out the moonlights with
my tongue; depression in a vacuum.
Chest pains and violent nightmares
Brought me to this patch of grass and sun.
Beauty is in the dead bolt.
I'm a lonely frontier boy,
Sordid terminal man,
Primitive doll making and suspicious plant eater
Ogling at the magnetism.
A nibbler
With cheap shades on and no contacts in.
Pack leading nuisance with a way with kids.
Open envelope..."
The rapping gets even faster for the next tune, with Dose and Sole exchanging aggressive rhymes ("I only have time for explosives!") back and forth, effectively leaving Why? behind, who just winds up dutifully singing/intoning some back up adlibs, sounding like he's stoned and about to pass out. And side B is back to cLOUDDEAD 1 mode, with just slow, whispered lyrics half-sung over deep, atmospheric tones.
cLOUDDEAD 4 (a.k.a. "JimmyBreeze") opens with a prank call, responding to a "rhythm guitarist looking for band" ad (the titular Jimmy Breeze), asking him increasingly goofy questions. Why? is the star of this one, handling almost all of the raps (Dose only raps a little back-up and sings a bit at the end of side 1) over beats made with elements from old video games, among other things. It's all pretty bugged out - for one part they even play his vocals backwards - with a lot of live instrumentation provided by this 10"'s guest, Why?'s big brother, Josiah Wolf.
cLOUDDEAD 5 (which, even on the CD is only titled "cloud dead number five"), is the all-instrumental 10" in the series, often going long stretches without even a drum track. Side A ends with some subtle but killer scratching by perhaps the most anticipated guest in the series, Mr. Dibbs. But he doesn't do a whole lot of scene stealing. If 4 was Why?'s turn to shine, than 5 is Nosdam's. I guess Dose doesn't get a 10" to shine, because "fuck him." Ha ha
Finally, the set wraps up with cLOUDDEAD 6 ("Bike"). It's the most chaotic of the series, featuring some live recordings, and what sounds like tapes they recorded while out on the street (something they did a bit of as Green Think, too). The credited guests are The Bay Area Animals, which I suspect is just the collective name they gave to all of their friends and strangers who they sprinkle samples of throughout the record. The sounds and vocals are just all over the place, but somehow Nosdam is able to pull it all together and make it work, in a funky, jumbled fashion. It's crazy and confusing, but they manage to jerk the wheel far enough around before colliding head-on with self-indulgence. A lot of the pieces here wound up being reworked and featured on their 2001 Peel Sessions 10".
If you want an original set, you'll have to pry it from a collector's cold, dead hands. But Mush later reissued all the 10"s separately, one at a time from 2000-2001. Then, later in 2001, they released them again as a CD and triple LP, with new cover art, depicting clouds. Hey! I get it! That's half their name!
> Reviewed by: Werner
