Album Review: Clams Casino - 32 Levels

There are few producers on the scene today with as much silent sway as Clams Casino. Over the last six years especially, the New Jersey beat-maker has completely changed the approach to emotion and empathy in beat-making. Artists like A$AP Rocky, Mac Miller, and Vince Staples have been able to thrive thanks to his unique style of juxtaposition, working airy textures and ethereal emotion into bass heavy textures and gnarly breaks when needed. These are the tools that Clams uses to make his playground, and its one that remains beyond trend and beyond a single artist in very high demand. And yet, taking his productions back from the artists he gave them to, he's given us three free instrumental mixtapes chock full of spacious magic. With the exception of one-off experimental EP Rainforest, it's not until now that Volpe has made a big-time big label platform statement. No longer a niche voice or a hidden production credit, with 32 Levels, he gives us one of the best productions of the year, featuring pretty much every artist he's ever worked with, plus some. Long time collaborators like Lil' B show up here in full form, as do new, emerging R&B voices like Kelela and Sam Herring of Future Islands. 32 Levels comes at the right time in Volpe's production history. It not only showcases how he's made a name for himself - it also gives us a preview of his vision for the future. While he's inspired plenty of cloud-rap knock offs, Clams Casino moved beyond the subgenres a long time ago. 32 Levels gives us a vision of the visionary with plentiful layering. It's exactly the record that every fan of Volpe's work could hope for.

From intro "Level 1" to closer "Blast", 32 Levels feels like a greatest hits record. This is for two reasons, the first obviously being the quality - there isn't a single moment of this album that doesn't grab you by the throat. But second, it's that the album sparkles with cinematic linear narrative. Throughout this record, we move through Volpe's world, from his introductory moments to the horizon he rapidly approaches. It's only appropriate that our Virgil on this infernal journey be none other than the Based God, Lil B, whose hazy, train of thought delivery found a natural pairing early on in Volpe's ethereal landscape. Clams Casino and Lil B paired up in 2010 for a trio of tracks off his tape 6 Kiss, including the untouchable Imogen Heap sampling "I'm God". But it wasn't until the next year that Volpe began seeing his name rise on the marquee, dropping "Motivation" with Lil B, then later in the year, producing five tracks off seminal A$AP Rocky mixtape Live.Love.ASAP and two from debut Mac Miller record Blue Slide Park. Where, back then, Clams' hip-hop stylings were airy, gliding, and other-worldly, in more recent years they've come down to earth with a crunch. Volpe's productions on Vince Staples debut full length Summertime '06 were merciless. Songs like "Norf Norf" proved the same knack for atmosphere could be focused in a brutal, visceral vacuum, one that only serves to eviscerate any competition when paired with an emcee like Vince.

Lil B guides the listener through side A of 32 Levels from "Level 1" to the title track, cushioning verses by all of Volpe's star collaborators and constantly reminding the listener to refocus their energy on the stellar productions at hand. Rocky shows up for "Be Somebody", a brutal blast through gritty atmospheres that Rocky hasn't visited in a long time (last time was probably "Freeze"), since his more recent adventures in recreational activity. Next, Vince Staples grabs the reigns for "All Nite", a no holds barred drag race of a slap. The song feels like a perfect sequel to Volpe's work on Summertime '06, with several twists and additional textures to take it out of Ramona Park and put it dead center in Clams' blurry, colorful world (you hear all those birds?). After that, we get a double serving of Lil B, starting with maybe his best track with Clams yet, "Witness". This track is just so quintessentially B and Clams, it's insane. Lil B spits fire like its his last verse ever, and he compliments the constant shift of Volpe's melting backdrop with every turn. Closing out side A, B is joined by alt-J's Joe Newman on the title track. Here, Joe offers a modulated vocal hook on the chorus, while B vocalizes the struggle through the mind that is 32 Levels. Here more than anywhere else, B seems to be Volpe's voicebox, speaking on a shared platform, with a unique perspective on the world, balancing a big picture commentary with personal insecurities. It's a necessary emotional valley that serves Volpe's experiment in contrast extremely well.

But of course, in those years between 2011 and 2015, Volpe expanded his walls far beyond hip-hop. At the end of 2012, almost a year after giving "The Fall" to The Weeknd to bless Echoes of Silence, Louisiana singer and producer Mikky Ekko dropped a free download gem called "Pull Me Down", produced by Volpe. Here, we had Clams Casino like we'd never had him before. Sure, tracks like A$AP's "Wassup" and Soulja Boy's "All I Need" evoke a certain melancholy unseen elsewhere in hip-hop, but this was, so consciously, Mike giving us a pop track, letting a strong vocalist and a killer hook soar like had never happened on one of his tracks before. This was the gateway moment, as subtle as it seemed at the time. From here, the only thing keeping Volpe from the very top was patience, and over the next few years, with production credits on tracks for Blood Orange, FKA Twigs, Jhene Aiko, and others. While previous experimental remixes for Lana Del Rey and Washed Out were lovely, the final pop hammer swung last year with a pair of unbeatable remixes, one for Sia's "Elastic Heart", and the second for Wet's "Weak". I think at this point, anyone paying attention wanted nothing more than Clams to go full pop just to see what would happen.

Lucky for us, that's exactly what Volpe does on 32 Levels side B. Instrumental closer "Blast" aside, here, Volpe offers us five radio-ready pop diamonds. The centerpieces here are, without a doubt, Volpe's two previous subjects, Mikky Ekko and Kelly Zutrau (of Wet). With Zutrau, Volpe lets his Imogen Heap worship of old get the best of him with an off kilter experimental pop wonder that emanates with the same mixture of warm emotion and frigid distance, while still incorporating Volpe's love of bass and east coast hip-hop. As she does for her own band, here, Zutrau makes the room feel 10 times smaller, bringing an immense intimacy to the track and matching every feeling that Volpe pours into this wonder with ease. Then to follow, Ekko gives us one of his absolute best tracks since "Pull Me Down" with "Into The Fire". The confident, brimming pop groove drives forward with a spring in its step towards a marvelous hook of a chorus that you could put on repeat for hours at a time. On either side of these two tracks, Clams gives us the less obvious pop architecture - the head scratching art pieces that we'll no doubt see subtly influence another entire generation of production. Kicking off side B is "Thanks To You", a collaboration with Chicago singer Sam Dew that spits and sputters like the pattering of a broken heart. It's chugging slow jam feel lets the listener transition from the bass-heavy cloud of side A into a lighter space with ease. The angelic voice of Kelela shows up on "A Breath Away", easily the album's most sweeping number, cleaning you out as a listener before Sam Herring of Future Islands takes you to the chopping block.

"Ghost in a Kiss" is not an obvious song - in fact, on first listen, it seems like quite an odd number to make a single. But with its exact placement on the record, combining the best of Volpe's hip-hop and pop cadences into one brutal, rendering masterpiece, repeat listening will make it one of your favorites. Earlier on the record, Clams gives us instrumental interlude "Skull", in which a foreboding flute synth leaves you with an unsettled feeling before a maniacal laugh caves the track in before another Lil B tag. On "Ghost in a Kiss", Volpe revisits the motif, this time allowing a pitched-down Herring to finish the track off in the most ominous manner possible. It's almost as if this moment, in the darkness right before the dawn blasts its way through the clouds for a victorious closer, we feel all that defines Clams Casino in this moment. Five years down the road from the year that made him a household name, he gives us his debut production record with no name on the cover - just a lurking silhouette, back turned to the world. It's that distance that has always put Volpe in a world of his own, an atmosphere in which most of us can't find the space to take a breath. But it's also this isolated introspection that makes his take on music so relatable. Over 32 mystical levels, it's this brilliant contrast of dark and light that keeps us coming back.

32 Levels is out now via Columbia. Grab it at your local record store on CD or vinyl, or grab it at your favorite digital provider to get bonus instrumentals of every track. Clams Casino will tour in support of the new record, and you'll be able to catch him at this year's Capitol Hill Block Party on Sunday, July 24th. For more info, check out his Facebook here.