Through off-kilter samples culled from classical and film soundtracks to early electronic music and spoken word recordings laid over loping bass lines, Anticon has produced a remarkable, psychedelic and classically beatnik sounding collection of peculiar formations.
Later recordings confirmed suspicions that Anticon had stumbled upon previously unexplored terrain of ambient sound art much as they had the idea of being an “anti-corporate” enterprise with an ant as an icon. Producer Jel’s „10 Seconds“ finds him looping samples on an SP-1200 into dustily sharp bursts of music, some too jagged and discordant to be interpreted as mere “beats.” The „Giga Single“ collection is noteworthy for the way the members’ voices become separate instruments speeding along in different cadences, resonating as richly as producer Mayonnaise’s double-time, hi-hat inflected track on „We Ain’t Fessin’“.
However, it is cLOUDDEAD, a project begun between Dose One, Why?, and producer Odd Nosdam, that have brought Anticon’s vision to its apotheosis. What unites these dissidents is their deliberately low-fi approach and use of vocals as oral intonations. These disparate elements, densely layered using analog equipment and computers, are used to construct a highly emotional portrait of inner discontent that is vivid and surreal, whimsical and heartbreaking. (Mosi Reeves)