Back to BZNZ

After last week's drugged diversions, it's back to BZNZ for me, which basically means back to shit that sounds like Blade Runner looks.  That's right, my bread and butter is this amorphous genre out there in the empty space between dubstep, electro, and hip hop (with a touch of footwork), just where you'd find Clams Casino lurking. 

What's in a name? Well, Clams Casino is a cat from New Jersey (current and past home of all BZNZmen), who chose as his stage name a delicious appetizer comprised of clams on the halfshell with breadcrumbs and bacon. The name aside, this guy sounds like a more straight hip hop version of Burial, which is perhaps surprising given his collaborations with the likes of Soulja Boy and Lil B. I don't take the name of DJ Shadow lightly, but the album has a similar flavor to Endtroducing and a other Mo' Wax artists as well. Clams and his devotees would call this stuff "based" music, perhaps another microgenre in an era of far too many microgenres. Leaving the genre labeling aside, these beats are tight.

It's no small feat that these beats stand up so well without lyricists. Instrumental albums run the risk of sounding incomplete, but then again I haven't heard the other versions of almost all of these tracks. In fact, I can't imagine where an mc would even fit on most of these tracks amidst the man Clams' propulsive rhythms, let alone the mc who taught the world what it meant to "superman". Admittedly it could be done, since the overall structure is not terribly complex, but verse would break the hypnotic spell. With more Clams Casino in the pipeline in the form of an EP entitled The Rainforest, due June 27, fans of this based-chill-dub-wave-core-hop music can smile.

Just download it, already! You'll be glad you did.

Clams Casino - Numb by HUNGRYiPOD
Clams Casino - Cold War by mantequilla Motivation by JONEZ