THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “While clipping.’s last few projects have been record-long concepts like the classic prog rock of old, Dead Channel Sky is mixtape-like, a carefully curated collection in which every track is a love letter to a possible present. Like a mashup of distinct elements, the overall concept is there, but the result is brief glimpses into a world rather than an overview of it. It sounds crisp and classic at the same time. When something strikes us as retrospective and futuristic at the same time, it’s a reminder of how slipshod our present moment truly is.
The twin suns of hip-hop and cyberpunk both rose in the 1970s and warmed the wider world during the 1980s and 1990s. What if someone explicitly merged them into one set and sound? After all, both movements are the result of hacking the haunted leftovers of a war-torn culture that’s long since moved on. On Dead Channel Sky, Clipping texture-map the histories of hip-hop and cyberpunk onto an alternate present where Rammellzee and Bambaataa are the superheroes of old; where Cybotron and Mantronix are the reigning legends; where Egyptian Lover and Freestyle are debated endlessly, and Ultramag and Public Enemy are the undeniable forefathers; where the lost movements of 1980s and the 1990s are still happening: rave, trip-hop, hip-house, acid house, drum & bass, big beat — the detritus of a different timeline, the survivors of armed audio warfare. That war at 33 1/3, its atrocities imprinted upon yet another generation, what someone once called, “the presence of the significance of things” without a hint of ambiguity.
clipping. are very story oriented. They deal in ontology and narrative as much as beats and rhymes. They’ve been approaching making music like writing science fiction since the band’s conception. Two of their records have been nominated for Hugo Awards (one of science-fiction’s top literary prizes), and a novella spun off from their music was nominated for a third. They’ve collaborated with as many experimental noise artists as they have fellow rappers. Here those co-conspirators include everyone from the guitarist Nels Cline on the outro to Dodger (titled Malleus) to their labelmates Cartel Madras on Mirrorshades, Pt. 2, rapper/actor Tia Nomore on Scams, as well the wordy wordsmith Aesop Rock on Welcome Home Warrior. Daveed Diggs is known for intricate lyrics and rapid-fire rapping, and the tracks that Jonathan Snipes and William Hutson build in the background are no less complex. On Code, they sample narrated memories from the Afrofuturist documentary The Last Angel of History; and on Dominator, they repurpose a line from the classic Dutch hardcore track of the same name by Human Resource. All of the above serves to give us a glimpse of an adjacent possible present, where hip-hop and cyberpunk are one culture.
Binary stars are often perceived as one object when viewed with the naked eye. Like those twin sun systems, it’ll take some special equipment and some discerning attention to pull the stars apart on this record. As Diggs barks on the fire-starting Change the Channel: Everything is very important!”
