It shares an atmosphere of gloom and sludgy texture with some of the best chillwavers and witch house artists, and it's no coincidence that Clams' EP comes out on Tri Angle, home of Balam Acab, oOoOO, How to Dress Well and Holy Other. It's a distinctive sound-world he envelops A$AP in, and he immerses himself in it, too, on his Rainforest debut EP – a 'chlorine fog' of sound, according to Pitchfork, which evocatively captures the miasmic, slow, stoned, screwed/skewed strangeness of it all. This mixtape of his shows he has more to give, credit for which in no small part must go to Mr CC and the 'hypnagogic hip-hop' style he brings to bear on his own and other people's recordings. We loved A$AP before, but we were worried his amazing track Peso was just that – a fluke, a stunning one-off. But we've been moved to finally write about him today by the excellence of his production for A$AP Rocky's new mixtape, LiveLoveA$AP. The background: He's been around for a while, has 23-year-old Michael Volpe aka Clams Casino, as featured on the cover of Spin magazine's The Changing Face of Hip Hop issue alongside Odd Future, A$AP Rocky, Yelawolf, G-Side, Big K.R.I.T., Curren$y, Araabmuzik and more.
