Technical Difficulties

Along with most electronic music, I'm quite into hip-hop/rap 'beats'. Not always the typical beats, not the Lil Wayne type beats. I was introduced to the whole genre by a rapper friend of mine, and I'm grateful. I enjoy electronic music and beats. I love it when the two collide.

Enter Mike Volpe, aka Clams Casino. With a new twist on what was a stagnant time for hip hop beat producers, this guy is making serious waves, and well deserved waves too.
One of his first EPs, Rainforest (EP, Tri Angle Records), is largely overlooked, though I have trouble understanding why. With a beautifully controlled delay, often with just the right amount of distortion, master crafted beats, and lots of vocal 'oohs & aahs', Volpe has crafted his own style of instrumentals in a time of great staleness.

Natural, the first track off the Rainforest EP is the archetypal tune from Clams Casino.


** I still haven't worked out the typical Ilictronix embedding, so for now I'll have to make do with YouTube videos and Soundcloud embeds.

The next track is just one of my favourites from Volpe. I simply find it relaxing. I find it to be the perfect start to a day, or the perfect end to a day. That smooth vocal catches my ear every time. Although this track is surprisingly lacking in distortion, all of his tunes seem to have a type of aural watermark that just stamps it as a Clams Casino work.



Along with his tunes and producer capabilities being used by many big names in rap such as Mac Miller, Lil B and A$AP Rocky, Volpe has released a few remixes and two mixtapes; Instrumentals and Instrumentals 2. They definitely have a similar sound, and it may be seen as repetitive, but there are definitely stand outs in there. I won't post anymore, simply to save on YouTube links.

Apologies for the YouTube/Soundcloud links, next post I'll have that embedding downpat.

- Sulphites