Customer Reviews

Ten

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Well it seems like the madmen had a vision all along. The eclectic Dose One, Why?, and Odd Nosdam have finally regrouped long enough to give us the long overdue follow up to their impressive self titled debut. But for as many plays and as much admiration as I had for that album, it left me with a sense that it was all a test run for something much greater. And in a very Eno style move, they indeed took all of the elements from these experimental sound pieces and put them into a much more slick and, dare I say, poppy package for their new album, Ten. With most of the technical limitations behind them, they managed to put together a solid album, yet in the process left behind some of the lo-fi charm of the original.

The album is much more tightly organized this time around. The short song suites of the debut (a by-product of poor equipment, I'd come to find out) are replaced with much longer, more complete songs sporting some incredible hooks and about as many tempo changes and dramatic shifts in mood as a Mike Patton album but hardly that schizophrenic. It is a very methodical approach best exemplified in the album's high point, "Dead Dogs Two", the single from the album. It starts out as a sweetly sung story about two guard dogs in the back of a stadium over a slow droning organ and sparse drums. But it soon breaks into a magnificent hook with a swaying synth that grinds away as a great break thumps along. It is one of those hooks guaranteed to worm around in your head for days. But it slows into a more somber reflection about their impending deaths, then jumps back to the hook, and fades with the lingering thought of their deaths. Who knew that these guys would put together a traditional verse/chorus style song with such an incredible result?

Even through the internal troubles pointed out in the liner notes, this outing feels more like a democratic result of their individual styles. Nosdam's deceptively slow, yet always effective drums and love for all things ambient, Why's pop sensibilities and catchy melodies, Dose's unique style of vocal percussion and imagist/impressionist poetry all come together and are present in every song in some form. But the compromises are really what keep this album from ascending to the ranks of the first album. The debut had a sense of lo-fi purity that this album just can't recapture with its abundance of layering and crisper pace. Not that it is a bad thing that they took another approach, I just feel it doesn't measure up. Besides that, my only other complaint is that the album really loses steam in the last three songs. I'm sure that it was their intention but an album that's under 45 minutes doesn't need ten to fifteen minutes to cool off. It barely has that much time to build up. On a side note, it would have been nice to have another pure ambient piece. The ambient record from the debut was great on contrary to popular opinion, I don't think of ambient songs as filler. But that's very trivial and beside the point.

Criticisms aside, this is definitely a good album and worth your time if you're a listener who puts interesting music before that futile quest for perfection that many other artists squander their time with. There is a possibility that this could be their last album together and that would really be a shame. I really believe that these guys have a masterpiece in them and they're getting closer all the time. It would be foolish to give up now.

I have a hard time deciding if I hate or love cLOUDDEAD. This and their debut album are unlike anything else you will hear for a long time (Ten being the more polished of the two ventures). It is a mark of their success in creating such a new style of music that people never review these albums as simply "ok"; they are either loved or hated.

This music is adventurously weird- a blend of hip-hop and screwy electronic music that takes a few listens to sink in. Doseone has a stuccato, nasal lyrical rhythm like no other MC.

So, hate it, love it, praise it, pan it. It is worth a listen either way.

For a guy who jogs in a purple suit with his CAT (who he coincidentally named "Purple") in a park, Dose One sure as hell is genius when applying his eccentric nature to his music. Take for example cLOUDDEAD, Dose's group with label buddy Why? & [David] Odd Nosdam. You just cannot label this music. You can however identify and note genres these three are amalgamating. But I'm not going to sit here and analyze their sound, because each additional play will usually perplex me, contradict what I previously thought and/or evoke new thoughts. Like someone described perfectly earlier: it's "convoluted" music, which I feel is executed perfectly.

Now I loved cLOUDDEAD's self-titled album, but listening to it you get the feeling that maybe it was incomplete. Maybe because the tracks on it weren't meant to incorporate an album, they were a cumulative group of vinyl releases they decided to compile and release on CD. And if you broke down each song, you could usually do so into 2 or 3 separate sections ("Movements" if you want to consider it progressive). To me the album just seemed like a bunch of ideas that they never really fleshed out, just sort of recorded quickly and thrown together. Even with that, their self-titled album was amazing.

"Ten" is a much more complete release. Therefore, I actually prefer it. It's not exactly a perfect release, but the tracks I like I ****ing love.

My favorite track is "Rifle Eyes", which is an Odd Nosdam produced cLOUDDEAD song that has the typical moody/atmospheric music, but 'fleshed out' into an entire song. To me, this is representation of what the tracks from the first album could have sounded like with a little more work. Why? actually outshines Dose on this song. "Sun Of A Gun" is ironically structured like songs on their self-titled. Which starts off, "Hunting men carry guns in cello cases/ known with beer as the deer erasers." This album is full of comical lines such as that one. Later in the song, they start naming famous dead leaders and find the time to throw in 2pac and Biggie's name, which I felt is hilarious. Following that part the song treads into one of the best beats I've ever heard with Dose flowing repeated lyrics over it. It's my favorite part of the album. "Dead Dogs Two" starts off with Dose and Why? with their voices higher pitched than usual and extra nasally. It's hilarious to hear them trading words and completing sentences together. After a few more listens however, it looses its comical (maybe even cartoonish) appeal and just becomes a song you will repeat for serious listens. "Rhymer's Only Room" is the least 'convoluted' song on the album. It has a very basic, yet unusual (nice) beat. Apart from that beat, and a very few, very subtle sounds in the back ground, this song is mainly Dose and Why? layering their vocals to sound almost acappella (think TV On The Radio's cover of "Mr. Grieves").

All of the aforementioned songs are just completely fascinating, and there are other good tracks on this album as well. Overall, this is one of my favorite Anticon release to date, and I consider myself a pretty big Anticon fan. Do yourself a favor and pick this up, and while your at it, grab their self-titled album too.

cLOUDEAD - Ten

Poi minnows have teeth in their throats. Did you know this? I learned this from repeated listens to cLOUDEAD's latest album. They are constantly choking on their own teeth. Why is this important to know? Because it's a vivid and interesting image. This album contains ten songs and each is packed with images scraped from the mucousy walls of our collective memories. The music is convoluted, lo-fi sample-based melodies and hip hop beats. It is all very intricate and perfect. Dose One speak-walks over the beats like a trapeze artist, he stays on the line by the tip of his tongue and constantly risks complete and total failure with each verse. Simultaneously smooth and jagged, melodious and discordant, it's perfect music for my ears. Each morsel fits snugly next to each piece of broken glass. Don't bother listening if you're not willing to sit down and pay attention and hey, take notes, because, there will be a test at the end.

This is music.





For dead people with xylophones instead of rib cages, this is what they listen to in limbo.

The genre as a whole has grown stale, the same recycled beats and ideas for the last twenty-something years. Hard gangster or lofty-intellectual are irrelevant, the production is much the same. So many are anxious and ready to criticize this album for breaking the conventional boundries of hip-hop, as it does just that. "Ten" represents the linear progression that is necessary in order for hip-hop culture to survive. The album plays on boundries of genre, an amalgamation of influences so vast an untraditional that on the first few listens it becomes abrassive to an average listener. However, consider yourself encouraged to dig deep into this album and keep listneing, eventually you will understand. After all, is that not the music that has lasted the longest? The old set of albums you listen to still, from years past that took time to comprehend, albums you've had to invest a part of yourself in. "Ten" is the oyster with the pearl that you keep, not the one you swallow whole and throw away.

"And then we said f- in our pop song."

Sure, I have heard hip hop LIKE this, but not exactally the same.
I have followed the Anticon label for years and having been a resident of Oakland for numerous years I expierenced the Anticon boys do there take on hip hop.
cLOUDDEAD though sheads all formulas of traditional hip hop and embraces a little bit of everything.
Droney tones under hip hop beats and rappers harmonizing does not classify to me as normal Hip Hop, But this record isn't all just experimental to be experimental. I feel that they make valid statements about the current state of the world, but most importantly the current state of the U.S (we all know the garbage that goes on).
So go buy it......give it a spin......and take notes.....this is a learning expierence.

This is not merely a hip-hop CD, but one of the most powerful poetic and musical experiences to come out of the United States in years. Truly progressive, each track typically begins rather composed with a small sample or delicately repeated note but they always pay off as they peak into a massive sound of looming bass, church organs, white noise, and Doseone's ever flowing imagist poetry. Why? seems to help him focus a bit more on choruses and traditional rhyming structure compared to his freewheeling work with Boom Bip and, since odd nosdam's beats are more structured as well, it is to good effect.

The sound, though, is the most amazing thing about this album. It's often cheap and distorted with occasional lowered sample rates but there are a lot of elevated mid range growls and keyboards while the beats are finely constructed and catastrophically overwhelming. So it's quite busy, interesting, and stimulating as well as easily danceable making it a useful album to have. This is no half-assed, thrown together at the last minute, money driven, mainstream product nor a sit back, moralist indie effort. This is all things to all types of music consumer, low and high brow, and one day it will receive its due recognition.

I had to have a couple of listens to this at my local shop before I decided to by it. My initial impression was that it's just plain weird. I mean the album was filed under hip hop the first tune is titled'pop song'.

Anyway I decided to buy it and after numerous listens it has certainly grown on me. Why? Well a big part are Odd Nosdams' beats. They remind me of a patchwork quilt; all different colours, textures etc...but held together somehow. If you've heard Faust, many tunes have a semi industrial beat feel to them-check "pop song" and "rifle eyes" for instance.

Lyrically these guys are difficult. If they're not dropping lyrics at 100kmh their full of esoteric references and bizzare metaphors. There's also a strong, how do i describe this, reference to animals. In particualr dogs, ostriches and birds. They change their pitch, delivery and timing frequently but it keeps the record interesting. It reminds me of Beck in someways, there's a heap of meaning there but you've got to go searching for it.

This may or may not be the future of hiphop depending on which magazines and reviews you read but Why? Odd Nosdam and Doseone have produced a fascinating pop hop trip hop record that's quirky, lively and difficult. Great stuff.

Since the days of Greenthink, Dose, why? and Odd Nosdam have never dissapointed me. This is the culmination of it all. Great lyrics (of course), eclectic sampling (Flying Saucer Attack, Phil Elvyrum, etc), and genius pop sensibility. All three members are at their best here. 'Son of a Gun', 'Rifle Eyes', 'Dead Dogs Too', and 'Our Name' are highlights. Here's hoping this isn't the last cLOUDDEAD album.

This isn't a "must-own for any hip-hop fan." This isn't a "chart-topping hit." I'm not even sure I would label it as hip-hop, it's got a cool folk feel on a couple songs. I picked this album up on a hunch at a library, thinking I recognized the name "cLOUDDEAD" from somewhere. I didn't, although I had heard Dose One before on the Aesop Rock track "Odessa." This was nothing like Dose on that song, but I liked this album anyway. Maybe you will too.