About four years ago I was searching for a new sound of music. At the time, I had temporarily exhausted my taste for the music I already had. This seems to happen every once in awhile, letting me stretch and accept new and different forms of music. When I came across cLOUDDEAD’s second full-length album Ten, I was very intrigued to say the least. The rewards were bountiful and beauteous, overflowing with texture and obscure statements on subjects all over the linguistics map. I was sold, and from there I dove into what this amalgamation of a band had to offer.
Before I purchased the album I was unaware of the three components that constructed the band’s sound. Doseone, an artist with words, constructs lines of poetry reminiscent of T.S. Eliot or even Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass,” while deconstructing the syllables and emphases of words and phrases to suit the bombastically trip-heavy beats lumbering around behind him. His style is very different; for those who are more acclimated with more mainstream hip-hop styles it will take some time to warm up to it. Reading the lyrics, provided in the booklet, opened my eyes to the sheer brilliance of what was going on, allowing me to accept this foreign style being spat through a high-pitched, nasally inflected voice.
The second member, Why?, is, unfortunately, not as frequently spotlighted as his former band mate but he nonetheless provides a fluidity that is coupled with one of the most distinctive voices I have ever heard. Why?’s techniques meld seamlessly with Doseone’s and their combined effort is a strange occurrence to behold. His very personal revelations are splayed out for the listener to cringe and gasp as he listens to a man with no barriers between his mind’s most darkest and perverted thoughts and his mouth. This makes Why? all the more interesting and immediately engaging.
The final component of this strewn together group is Odd Nosdam. Likely to be the most important part of the group considering he engineers the sound and constructs most of the songs with some help from Why?, who also proves to be a skilled musician. Odd Nosdam’s beats are so enthralling and heavy that I could probably listen to this album without the vocal tracks and still deeply love it. He has proved himself worthy in comparison to, and has collaborated with, many other great electronic artists such as: Boards Of Canada, Fourtet, Flying Saucer Attack, Thee More Shallows, and Black Moth Super Rainbow. There is present in his music an immediate sense of heavy-lidded bliss embellished with numerous amounts of strange “instruments” including, for instance, power drills. His contribution is an extremely important element.
The album’s opener “Pop Song” distributes these combined forces perfectly as Doseone and Why?’s vocals are overlaid, distorted, and cut up, while repeating the lines, “Elvis, what happened?” and “Cotton cotton candy spun anyway you like.” While this mesmerizes, Odd Nosdam’s reversed synths lay the foundation of the beat, making the listener feel as if floating in an atmosphere that has a significantly stronger gravitational pull. The second song “The Keen Teen Skip,” starts of with a little English boy repeating a children’s rhyme until he is cut off mid word. Then, while looping the cut-up exhalation of the boy’s failed attempt to finish the word, Doseone and Why? begin by proclaiming, “Youngsters today are not prepared to buy plants, or collect stamps. They won’t believe they’re wearing lead-linned pants.” The song opens up when Odd Nosdam’s poppy beats play with structured time signatures.
The somber, reverential ending of “Son Of A Gun” brings a nostalgic feeling to the overall sense of grief and despair over the state of the world and those few people who control it’s fate. The lyrics displayed in this progression are again present during the hazily trip-hopped explosion at the end of “Physics Of A Unicycle.” Both “Rifle Eyes,” and “Dead Dog’s Two,” are perfect singles, while “3 Twenty,” and “Our Name,” are slow burning chill-outs that lull you into a state between progressively heavy lids and the crusty eyes of induced sleep. Doseone’s poetical verse is ultimately shown through “Dead Dog’s Two,” where he describes seeing two dog’s dead in a field, dog’s he thinks are dead until their rib cages inflate. He states, “It’s hard to stand the sight of two dog’s dead under a sky so blue. You have to stop the blood to your head to fit the breath in front of you.” Why?’s most enthralling moment comes when he finally introduces his acoustic guitar in “Rifle Eyes.” While he fervently hammers out power cords he screams, “A single long stem rose resting between to mounted antlers.” Vivid imagery beset beautiful music is a deadly combination, proven here by these well adept craftsmen. Odd Nosdam’s talent is continuous throughout the record, but it is only when he drops the beats and introduces an ambient drone at the end of ”Our Name” that he captures the truth behind his work. His textured drone is awe-inspiring and jaw dropping in its grandeur, reminiscent of bands like: Belong, Lovesliescrushing, and Stars of the Lid.
Ten by cLOUDEAD is a strong, final album. The band split after this release and ventured back to their respected solo careers. Doseone, starring in various different bands and collaborating with Boom Bip, still continues to create music. Why?, as well, has continued with the production of the popular albums Elephant Eyelashes, and Alopecia. Odd Nosdam has also continued to make music with his albums, Level Live Wires, Pretty Swell Explode, and T.I.M.E.. The harmonious combination of these three artists lasted long enough for them to create two wonderful albums and to completely entrance me in their musical world.
