cLOUDDEAD (Clear Vinyl) [Vinyl]

另類嘻哈迷注意 盼了20多年終於盼到的首次黑膠再版。

這是張 Y2K 時期抽象嘻哈名盤，當時用6張十吋黑膠的方式彙集了眾多從2000-2001年的單曲碎片，完整又似不完整，每一面各自成宇宙，每一首讓人失焦的跳耀感又成了一塊塊令人無法自拔的景色，這朵混亂又美麗的奇花名為cLOUDDEAD，僅由 Why？、Doseone、Odd Nosdam 三位音樂人組成，他們同時也是在當時美國抽象嘻哈推動廠牌 Aticon、Mush 的核心人物之一。

cLOUDDEAD 的音樂由大量的毛邊、詭異的速度感與達達主義的歌詞組成，Why？與 Doseone一來一往的呢喃像是一種異世界的對話，而Odd Nosdam 的節拍簡直是在做緩拍或環境音樂，如果用現在也會通的方式點出他們的音樂感覺，或許會落
在Wiliam Basinski《Disintegration Loops》以及MF DOOM《Operation: Doomsday》這兩張專輯之間，話說他們這樣獨一無二的聲音使用的器材只有Dr. Sample SP-202、Tascam 八軌卡式錄音機以及便宜的RadioShack 麥克風，同時在這三十年來陸續影響了 Cloud Rap、hauntology、Lo-fi hip-hop 等...另類嘻哈的脈絡。

cLOUDDEAD s debut album, compiling six 10" EPs that appeared between 2000-2001, is aurally dense and obscured. A sprawling mass of miniature beat-suites and Dadaist lyrics, this strange and beautiful 3xLP would influence a myriad of sub-genres (cloud rap, hauntology, lo-fi hip-hop, etc.) in the two decades since its initial release.

Only the three members of cLOUDDEAD – Why?, Odd Nosdam and Doseone – can speak to the group s origins, but in the context of underground hip-hop towards the end of the 20th century, their arrival makes perfect sense. Cincinnati had a vital scene; home to Scribble Jam, an annual confluence of MCs, DJs, B-boys and graffiti artists. While the trio soon relocated to the Bay Area where they co-founded the Anticon collective, their Midwestern roots – in ramshackle basements of off-campus hovels, as the "cerberus of Southern Ohio" – would remain the atomic heart of their early recordings.

As Chris Martins writes in the liner notes, "The only reason we know their names today is because of how loudly and curiously they aired their insularity. They rewrote the entire world as they knew it through their own fucked perspective, and when those mysterious 10-inches started popping up in record shops, it was not just a puzzle to investigate: there seemed to be a whole cosmology hidden in those grooves."

Each side of the album represents one of those elusive 10-inches, each embodying a universe unto itself. Opening salvo "Apt. A" and "And All You Can Do Is Laugh" are perhaps most emblematic of the cLOUDDEAD experience. Why? and Dose create a new language through boundless non-sequiturs, sing-song non-choruses and call-and-response hooks, while Nosdam s dexterous production shifts from crackling ambience of Flying Saucer Attack to tight Ohio Players drum breaks and oblique film samples.

Taken all together, cLOUDDEAD is an original interpretation of hip-hop in the surreal Y2K glow – a bizarre meeting point between William Basinski s Disintegration Loops and MF DOOM s Operation: Doomsday. All it took was a Dr. Sample SP-202, Tascam cassette eight-track and cheap RadioShack mic. There is truly nothing like it.