4 out of 5

Label: Deathbomb Arc

Produced by: Various

While they might have come to disdain classifications such as “noise rap,” clarifying that classic hip-hop has also employed destructive musical elements, it’s nonetheless a handy way to explain clipping.’s aggressive sound, especially at the early stage of the songs rereleased and remixed here, which consist of vocalist Daveed Diggs’ spattered rapid-fire vocals atop a pummeling drumbeat (on the opening title track), or vaguely depressive backpack rapping over Jonathan Snipes’ and William Hutson’s power electronics on Studio Freestyle 01 and Block.  …And then the remixes.

clipping.’s general style, especially at this point, isn’t necessarily my bag, it’s a bracing – and impressive sound. The original tracks from this are okay, with Face’s fuck-a-minute lyrics rather eye-rollingly hostile but effective for the tune’s fightful tempo, and the get-in-get-out approach works. The followups are a bit too similar to each other, and more interesting from a noise perspective: Daveed’s delivery is solid but it’s pretty generic word salad, nothing too image-fueling or clever, rather just grim. However, the combination of the flow and the punishing electronics are compelling – it is an oppressive vibe; balanced with stronger lyrics (like something from Dalek, who I’d consider sonically linked), these tracks would be a force.

The real sauce of this release, beyond the title track’s bluster, is the amount of mileage managed by the remaining remixes of Face, and another track remixed by clipping. Again, even though I’d say none of this stuff is really for my ears, I looked upon a nearly whole album of rearrangements of a single song with some doubt, only to be more and more impressed with how unique each take is, and by how far – think Aphex Twin remixes – some stretched things from the original. Taking what’s a (at a surface level) sonically limited/unvarying song and making arguably more complex versions of it is impressive; that they’re all truly solid songs on their own terms is rewarding. We get noisy variants, dancier variants, glitchy variants; often, to me, a better blend of tones, feeling more anarchic than perhaps the forced hostility of clipping.

All to say: this is one of those releases that I acknowledge is not on my playlist, but seems like both a quality outing for the band, and a standout release in terms of bang for one’s buck.