Boom Bip and Doseone - Circle

I came across this one from two directions. One, I'm slowly going through the cLOUDDEAD-related works beyond Why?'s solo work. So eventually I would've gotten to this Doseone / Boom Bip collaboration. Circle also came up on a list of song cycle albums, so that brought this to the top of the list of things to check out.

This one is super weird. It's so left-field it makes cLOUDDEAD sound like Will Smith. I think there's a part where Dose raps about laundry instructions. Even though it's just Dose One on vocals and Boom Bip supplying the backdrop, it seems that each of the 29 tracks has some different genre or bent. Occasionally it returns to a theme about a birdcatcher, but only briefly.

Boom Bip does some pretty amazing work here; the Allmusic review mentions DJ Shadow and Aphex Twin, that sounds about right. Overall it's undoubtedly the most unusual hip-hop album I've ever heard, and one I'll keep coming back to.

Deep Puddle Dynamics - The Taste of Rain...Why Kneel?

Clouddead (or cLOUDDEAD, more accurately) is one of the few hip-hop groups that would show up among my favorite artists. A brief collaboration between Why?, Doseone, and Odd Nosdam, only produced one album and one compilation of singles. And other than exploring Why?'s fantastic 'solo' career, I haven't explored other albums related to Clouddead or the left-field hip-hop label Anticon.

Deep Puddle Dynamics is Doseone and three other Anticon artists, Sole, Alias, and Slug. This album, named after one of Jack Kerouac's "western" haiku, came out in 1999, predating Clouddead's work. The first half was recorded in a week in 1998, and the last four tracks recorded in one day a year later, June 26th.

I suppose it's interesting and there are some memorable moments (beyond the sometimes annoying ping-ponging nasal delivery of Dose) but ultimately it's not as cohesive as I was looking for. It's essentially an Anticon sampler, so perhaps it wasn't a bad place to start. I'm still going to try to find some other related acts, though.

Clouddead - Clouddead

Culled from a series of limited 10" releases, Clouddead's eponymous debut isn't so much a fully formed album as it is a well-executed exercise in seasick, proggist psychedelia. With background textures that rival Boards of Canada in pastoral, tree-lined opacity and an obvious predilection for boggy atmospherics, Clouddead handily distances themselves from the rest of their hip-hop brethren. Indeed, this is something more considered and sinister -- less about wayward braggadocio than it is about keeping your doors deadbolted at all hours of the night. Even their less-is-more approach to vocalism eventually starts playing tricks on your mind; when lyricists Dose and Why? emerge, it's usually to puncture the pleasant fog of some dulcet, wavering sample. The whole album reads like that; the sonic equivalent of your first legitimate drug trip as narrated by two jittery but triumphant kids who can't bear to keep their choice hiding place a secret any longer. While it's perhaps a tad overlong, Clouddead doesn't suffer from any shortage of great ideas. It's menacing, it's enthralling, and it's one of few modern-day records (hip-hop or otherwise) that honestly doesn't sound like anything -- or anyone -- else.

(Clouddead - Clouddead)