Instrumentals (Clams Casino album)

Instrumentals is the debut mixtape of American record producer Clams Casino. It was self-released as a free digital download on March 7, 2011. It features instrumentals of tracks that he produced for various rappers, including some bonus songs. In July 2011,[1] Instrumentals was reissued by Type Records as a physical release.[2]

Instrumentals
Mixtape by
Clams Casino
ReleasedMarch 7, 2011 (2011-03-07)
Recorded2009–2010
Genre
Length42:12
LabelSelf-released
ProducerClams Casino
Clams Casino chronology
Instrumentals
(2011)		 Rainforest EP
(2011)
Alternate cover
Physical release

Music

Instrumentals consists of Clams Casino's reconstructions of backing tracks he originally produced for rappers such as Lil B and Soulja Boy.[3] An electronic mixtape,[4] it features illbient, glitchbeat, and chillwave styles.[3] Some of the mixtape explores a more traditional hip hop sound. Its second half touches on bouncy basslines ("She's Hot"), dubstep-influenced, low-end grind ("Brainwash by London"), and vocal looping similar to the production of Kanye West ("Cold War").[1] Instrumentals appropriates Casino's previous hip hop beats into moody compositions, which are characterized by melodramatic drum crescendos and melancholic electronic sounds.[4]

Critical reception
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Fact4.5/5[5]
MSN Music (Expert Witness)A−[3]
Pitchfork8.2/10[4]
Resident Advisor4.0/5[1]
Sputnikmusic3.5/5[6]

In a review for Resident Advisor, Andrew Ryce called Instrumentals "a collection of aching, blown-out paeans to wonder, sadness and profound joy—music that any of the above could fall in love with."[1] Pitchfork critic Brandon Soderberg said Casino's "attention to hip-hop structure ... makes these beats so emotionally devastating."[4] Rory Gibb from The Quietus felt that, without the rappers they were originally produced for, the instrumentals are "revealed as intricate enough to stand alone in their own right", while sounding "ephemeral and peculiarly of this moment, phantom aggregations of mood and sound that coalesce for brief periods of time before potentially disengaging at some undisclosed point in the future."[2] Sputnikmusic's Conrad Tao felt that, although Instrumentals sounds occasionally conventional, Casino's approach to sampling is "refreshingly abstract". He went on to write that the mixtape basically serves as "a hugely enticing teaser for what promises to be an illustrious career filled with sumptuous, bittersweet music."[6] Writing for MSN Music, Robert Christgau said Casino's "comfortably disquieting" sound "will grow on you if you give it a chance. And because it's designed to back into your space, providing the chance won't feel all that time-consuming, preoccupied as you'll be with something more engrossing while said time passes."[3]

Pitchfork placed Instrumentals at number 17 in its top-50 albums of 2011 list.[7] In 2014, the website also placed the album at 100 on its list of "Best Albums of the Decade So Far."[8] It ranked the song "Motivation" number 30 on its list of the Top-100 Tracks of 2011.[9] Stereogum ranked the mixtape number 21 on its year-end top albums list.[10] Fact named it as one of the best instrumental hip hop mixtapes to come after the release of J Dilla's Donuts album.[11]

Track listing
No.TitleArtist originally made for[12]Length
1."Motivation"Lil B4:28
2."All I Need"Soulja Boy3:44
3."Real Shit from a Real Nigga"Lil B2:56
4."Realist Alive"Lil B4:00
5."Numb"A$AP Rocky3:55
6."What You Doin'"Lil B4:19
7."The World Needs Change"Soulja Boy2:25
8."I'm Official"Squadda B2:18
9."Brainwash by London"The Jealous Guys2:56
10."Illest Alive"Main Attrakionz4:09
11."She's Hot"Deezy D2:56
12."Cold War"Lil B2:50
13."13"(bonus track)1:19
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References
  1. Ryce, Andrew (August 15, 2011). "Clams Casino – Instrumentals". Resident Advisor. Retrieved April 13, 2013.
  2. Gibb, Rory (August 22, 2011). "Clams Casino". The Quietus. Retrieved April 13, 2013.
  3. Christgau, Robert (February 14, 2012). "Skrillex/Clams Casino". MSN Music. Archived from the original on September 14, 2013. Retrieved April 13, 2013.
  4. Soderberg, Brandon (April 8, 2011). "Clams Casino: Instrumental Mixtape". Pitchfork. Retrieved April 13, 2013.
  5. Lea, Tom (August 15, 2011). "Clams Casino: Instrumentals". Fact. London. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved April 13, 2013.
  6. Tao, Conrad (May 21, 2011). "Clams Casino – Instrumental Mixtape (album review)". Sputnikmusic. Retrieved April 13, 2013.
  7. "Staff Lists: The Top-50 Albums of 2011". Pitchfork. December 15, 2011. Retrieved January 8, 2012.
  8. "The 100 Best Albums of the Decade So Far (2010–2014)". Pitchfork. August 19, 2014. Retrieved July 26, 2016.
  9. "The Top-100 Tracks of 2011". Pitchfork. December 12, 2011. Retrieved January 9, 2012.
  10. "Stereogum's Top-50 Albums Of 2011". Stereogum. December 5, 2011. Retrieved January 8, 2012.
  11. Piyevsky, Alex (May 25, 2015). "Life After Dilla: 25 great post-Donuts instrumental hip-hop mixtapes". Fact. Retrieved February 19, 2018.
  12. "Instrumental Mixtape by clammyclams". SoundCloud. Retrieved February 19, 2018.
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