★★★★★
It is hard to find the right approach from which to listen to this latest effort from the hyped hip hop producer Clams Casino. The songs, for the most part, are intricate and skilfully produced, often using granular synthesis and disembodied loops that call to mind Oneohtrix Point Never and Balam Acab. But they are packaged with club-friendly beats and bass that make them more appropriate as backing tracks for artists like A$AP Rocky and Mac Miller...
- www.beat.com.au
2014-01-24
★★★★★
Nearly three years after his breakout moment, the sounds of Mike Volpe have infiltrated spheres of music large and small. The suburban New Jersey producer, who's toiled away in earnest for several years now as Clams Casino, emerged in 2011 with a cinematic, handcrafted sound that possessed a glowing radiance despite its density...
- pitchfork.com
2014-01-08
★★★★★
Record Review A part of me feels bad for how I relate to Clams Casino's second instrumental mixtape. Let's be real: this release consists of some of the best beats of the year (okay, last year, most of them) and underlines the peerlessness of Clams' hazy, sonorous craft; it clarifies his prolific intent into a streamlined compilation, in much the same way as Instrumental Mixtape (2011) did before it...
- www.cokemachineglow.com
2012-07-30
★★★★★
Call and response: I say 'soul' and you think of what? A world where everything is smooth, all honey and gold, hushed lushness and midnight love? Is that your soul music: a sonorous, velvety voice expressing sexual ecstasy, unending pleasure, love-as-wonderful-addiction ("can't get enough of your love, babe"). Or does 'soul' conjure experiences, personal or political? A luxurious agony, tells of haunted nights and miserable mornings, shadowed by grief, heartbreak and loss...
- thequietus.com
2012-07-09
★★★★★
Right now, Clams Casino is the shit-hottest producer in the world, the single point at which a clutch of America's most cutting-edge trends converge. Basically, Michael Volpe is co-ordinating a rap renaissance on three fronts: LA's Lil B-fronted 'Based' revolution; Orlando, Florida's 'cloud-rap', spearheaded by Main Attrakionz; and New York's so-called 'hipster-hop', whose figurehead A$AP Rocky has Clams to thank for the epic 'Palace'...
- www.nme.com
2012-07-05
★★★★★
Clams Casino is amazingly consistent. He does what he does very, very well. He crafts songs that are wandering, that build slowly and intrigue both melodically and rhythmically. He produces his best songs for rappers, but they sound better on their own. His solely instrumental EP last year was decent, but not as good as the rapper-less versions of songs he produced for Lil B the previous year...
- www.noripcord.com
2012-06-18
★★★★★
There are two divergent trends in hip-hop production these days. On the one hand you have producers getting noisier and noisier. Death Grips, El-P, and Bigg Jus have all put out albums in the past few months that sound a little bit like a robot getting into a fight with a laundry machine and electric guitar. These artists are making beats that are chaotic and cacophonous, as soothing as a root canal and as peaceful as an explosion...
- rapreviews.com
2012-06-14
★★★★★
The hazy, atmospheric productions of New Jersey hip hop producer Clams Casino have become hugely influential over the past couple years, helping to spawn the cloud rap movement...
- kexp.org
2012-06-11
★★★★★
Clams Casino's second free goodie bag of instrumentals leads with "Palace," the track that kicked off the mixtape which led to one of the past year's biggest rap successes, A$AP Rocky's LiveLoveA$AP. It's suitably grandiose: choral vocals hum ominously over one of the New Jersey producer's heaviest beats, with a curiously theatrical feel like it belongs in some gladiator movie...
- www.residentadvisor.net
2012-06-11
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