Following the album’s release last week, we spoke to the producer to learn more about what was passing through his head during the year-and-a-half timespan he spent creating it.Ĭlams Casino: I was listening to Lil Peep’s music a lot.
Where his official debut album, 2016’s 32 Levels, featured vocal contributions from artists like Kelela and Vince Staples, Clams Casino’s new full-length Moon Trip Radio is an entirely instrumental album, evoking his classic solo mixtapes in its coarse textures while still building on the newer ideas he’s been exploring in recent few years. Those mixtapes went on to inspire a generation of musicians, whether in subgenres like ‘ cloud rap’ or later the ‘ emo rap’ sound of artists like Wicca Phase Springs Eternal or the late Lil Peep – both of whom have Clams Casino collaborations to their name. Still, for a generation of music fans, he’s equally well-known for his run of game-changing instrumental mixtapes in the early 2010s, which introduced the world to a uniquely atmospheric and emotional style of beatmaking that seemed to owe as much to ambient and drone music as it did hip hop.
New Jersey producer Clams Casino has worked with a who’s who of contemporary rap music, from his cult collaborations with Lil B to his team-ups with A$AP Rocky, Mac Miller, The Weeknd, Joji, Flohio, and more.
