Clams Casino: Instrumental Mixtape

"Based." Lil B's buzzword doesn't really have a clear definition, but it has, nevertheless, spawned a distinctive aesthetic. A search through music given the "based" tag on BandCamp reveals a whole bunch of rambling rappers aping B's free-associative flow and just as many oddball producers putting out home-recorded, sorta stoned-sounding beats that maybe-- just maybe-- Lil B will one day rap over. "Based" has evolved from a style of rapping (and a wonky world philosophy) to a know-it-when-you-hear-it sound. New Jersey producer Clams Casino is one of the sonic architects behind "based music." His beat for Lil B's "I'm God", featuring a stretched-out sample of Imogen Heap's "Just For Now", is the "based music" blueprint.

"I'm God" isn't included on Instrumental Mixtape; the beats here are even more diffuse, and it wouldn't really fit. It speaks to Clams' rarefied vision that he refuses to find room for an in-demand instrumental on a free download but includes an untitled final track, a bizarre, minute-long footwork-like manipulation of "Teddy's Jam" from 1980s new jack swing group Guy. This collection of instrumentals doesn't simply survey Clams' production; it turns his rap beats into moody compositions and flips the basic beat-tape concept into an album-like collection of electronic music.

Clams Casino productions generally bring together conventional hip-hop drums, a sensitive ear for off-to-the-side melodies, and an overdose of oddly moving atmosphere. "Motivation" begins with a buzz of in-the-red static and a moaning vocal sample, and then suddenly the beat drops and the vocal sample begins eerily humming along. Later on, blasts of bass rumble through, and animal noises arrive instead of a breakdown. When the beat drops the next time around, it's accompanied by some rainy, Blade Runner-style keyboards. The bird squawks and the keyboard melody are wrapped up in the beat, and it repeats, riding-out for a bit, before abruptly ending with a patch of industrial drone.

But it's Clams' attention to hip-hop structure that makes these beats so emotionally devastating. The desperate melodrama comes through in the hesitant build-up and explosive arrival of the drums. And the lingering sense of sadness is communicated when those drums sneak away and all that's left is a layer of whimpering electronic haze. For all of their experimental tendencies, these songs are essentially, sample-based loops. "Illest Alive" is an artful slicing and dicing of Bjork's "Bachelorette" and as revealed in an interview with Pitchfork last week, "Realist Alive" is Adele's "Hometown Glory" slowed, slurred, and made well, glorious. Even those few productions that ape established hip-hop styles, like the Bay Area wobblers "Brainwash by London" and "She's Hot" maintain this tension between dogged structure and brash experimentation.

Instrumental Mixtape makes it clear that Clams Casino is part of an expanding group of up-and-coming innovative rap producers like Araabmuzik, the Block Beattaz, DJ Burn One, Droop-E, and Lex Luger. But his beats, when heard without vocals, become even more interesting and arguably better. Full of subtle production flourishes (pulsing percussion on "All I Need", a sliver of flute on "Numb", muffled gun-shot sound effects on "Cold War") and possessing a true artist's comfort with indulgence (nearly every track is caked with effects), his music can be heard alongside a genre-spanning scene of musicians like How to Dress Well, Tim Hecker, Burial, Toro Y Moi, and James Blake, all of whom mine the oddly melancholic effect of digital glitch.