Experimental Noise Hip-Hop trio Clipping made its network television debut on the Late, Late Show with James Corden just last night, performing “A Better Place” off Splendor & Misery (stream the album here). Set your sights on this magnificent performance right here, right now.
Corden also caught up with Diggs about a number of topics, including texting regularly with his childhood hero, MC Hammer [watch it here].
Clipping is also the subject of features this week, in both the Los Angeles Times [link] and The New York Times [link].
Splendor & Misery, Clipping’s Sci-Fi/dystopian concept album, is out Friday, September 9th on CD/LP/DL/CASS, worldwide from Sub Pop [link here] and Deathbomb Arc [link here]. The album is led by highlight tracks “Baby Don’t Sleep,” “A Better Place,” and “Air ‘Em Out,”
Preorders through Sub Pop Mega Mart and independent retailers near you will receive the Loser edition on crystal clear vinyl (while supplies last; we’re nearly sold out of these beauties in the Mega Mart).
Clipping’s current tour schedule in support of Splendor & Misery and its summer predecessor, the Wriggle EP (get it here), includes: two hometown appearances tonight, Thursday, September 8th beginning with an in-store at Amoeba Records in Hollywood (6pm), and concluding with a headline show at Highways Performance Space with Busdriver and Pedestrian Deposit (9pm); September 11th at the San Francisco Electronic Music Festival.
TOUR UPDATE - Dates added as follows: beginning October 26th in Brooklyn at the Market Hotel and ending November 4th in Austin at Sound on Sound Music Festival. Along the way, the group will see support from Youth Code (October 26-November 2nd). Preceding the tour there will be two Southern California shows including the just-announced appearance on September 24th at Music Tastes Good Festival, and September 30th in Los Angeles at the Smell with The Mae Shi. There will be additional live dates announced soon, but for now see current dates below.
Recently, Clipping also released the gravity-defying “Air ‘Em Out” visual, which was directed by returning director Carlos Lopez Estrada (“Work Work,” “Inside Out”), and stars the group’s lyricist/frontman Daveed Diggs. (yes, he’s that Hamilton Musical, Tony Award Winning actor.)
[Photo Credit: Brian Tamborello]
What precisely have The People said about Splendor & Misery? We’re glad you asked:
“A magnificent, nerve-jangling and altogether rather riveting blast of unflinching white noise and throb, virtuoso rapping and, most improbable of all, richly romantic gospel-choir interludes designed as much to disconcert as to offer tuneful respite from and guidance through the surrounding sonic shrapnel.” [9/10, Album of the Week] - Loud & Quiet
“A hugely inventive slab of sonic theatre plotted to the tiniest detail..” [4/5] - MOJO
“Replete with sci-fi references and nudges to Afrofuturist musicians before them, the album confronts the crushing darkness inherent to the alienation of black diaspora and speculates on the identity as an intrinsically fluid process. Splendor & Misery is sincere and staunchly ambitious. With it, clipping. Have solidified their position at the forefront of experimental music.” [8.6/10] - Northern Transmissions
“The production, helmed by dual composers William Hutson and Jonathan Snipes, make use of field recording techniques only instead of chimes and sampled radio alarms, the sharp clangs of breached hulls and airlocks closing are the content used to create these paranoia inducing and dissonant instrumentals. What makes Splendor & Misery beckon for repeat listens, bar Daveed Diggs torrential flow, is how concise and dense the record is. It flows like a satellite in orbit, emerging over horizons witnessing serene beauty only to encounter disruptive asteroid belts moments later like the three ‘Interlude’ tracks where Daveed spits over broken and static-laced connections.” [8/10] - CLASH
“Utterly uncomfortable, but with such an imaginative foundation that you can’t help but feel invited back to try to learn a little more about the strange and beautiful world of Clipping.” [8/10] - Under the Radar
“The space hiphoperatics of California trio Clipping extend the story of the middle passage into the cosmos.” [Album review] - The Wire
“It’s Afro-futurist dystopia from an album…that tells the “Her”-like love story of a man who survives a slave uprising on an interstellar ship and an onboard computer. That might explain the industrial sounds, pre- and post-digital revolution, and the sense of disorientation; but you don’t need to know it to feel the track’s organization and power.” [“Baby Don’t Sleep,” Playlist] - New York Times
“Beatmakers Snipes and Hutson send you plummeting into the mainframe with a musique concrète cut-up beat of television fuzz and white noise. Negative space sucks the air out of your chest as Diggs raps in an arresting staccato, deconstructing the hegemony in a most deliberate manner: “Saviors are fiction / memories are fading like ghosts.” [“Baby Don’t Sleep”] - Passion of the Weiss
“This bangs, in the most enervating fashion possible.” [“Baby Don’t Sleep”] - Stereogum
“Spirits are present in clipping.’s video for “Air ‘Em Out.” We open on frontman Daveed Diggs settling in to another shift at his jumpsuit-requiring place of employment. As the beat builds, however, mysterious tremors start to unsettle Diggs and the litany of office supplies at his desk. It’s another top-quality video from a group that has made a habit of just that, a simple idea perfectly executed.” [“Air ‘Em Out,” Best Videos of August 2016] - Pigeons & Planes
Tour Dates + Ticket Links
Sep. 08 - Los Angeles, CA - Amoeba Records instore (6pm)
Sep. 08 - Santa Monica, CA - Highways Performance Space* (9pm)
Sep. 11 - San Francisco, CA - San Francisco Electronic Music Festival
Sep. 30 - Los Angeles, CA - The Smell (Benefit Show)**
Oct. 26 - Brooklyn, NY - Market Hotel * ^
Oct. 27 - Baltimore, MD - Metro Gallery *
Oct. 28 - Chapel Hill, NC - Local 506 *
Oct. 30 - Miami, FL - Gramps *
Nov. 01 - St. Petersberg, FL - Local 662 *
Nov. 02 - Atlanta, GA - The Earl *
Nov. 04 - Austin, TX - Sound on Sound Festival
* w/ Youth Code
** w/ The Mae Shi
^ World War (fka Mincemeat or Tenspeed)
Clipping just dropped their official video for “Air ‘Em Out,” another stellar track off their upcoming Sci-Fi/dystopian concept album Splendor & Misery (out September 9th via Sub Pop and Deathbomb Arc.
The “Air ‘Em Out” visual was helmed by returning director Carlos Lopez Estrada (“Work Work,” “Inside Out”) and stars Clipping frontman Daveed Diggs. (Yes, that dude from Hamilton Musical.)
Lopez Estrada says of the clip, “I met with clipping a few months ago to talk about potential ideas for this video and Jonathan half jokingly said that we should put Daveed in zero gravity. I emailed them back a few days later saying “I know you were kidding, but what if we do?” We then embarked on a wonderful creative journey of scrappy visual effect techniques and ended up with our own janky version of zero gravity, which turned up to be a pretty cool thing, I believe.”
Splendor & Misery is led by the highlights “Baby Don’t Sleep,” “A Better Place,” and the aforementioned “Air ‘Em Out,”and is now available for preorder on CD/LP/DL/CASS from Sub Pop [here] and Deathbomb Arc [here]. Preorders through Sub Pop Mega Mart and independent retailers near you will receive the Loser edition - pictured above - on crystal clear vinyl while supplies last.
Additionally, Wriggle, the group’s recent surprise EP, is also available [right over here].
Clipping’s current tour schedule in support of Wriggle and Splendor & Misery includes: A hometown release show on September 8th in Los Angeles at Highways Performance Space (with Busdriver and Pedestrian Deposit); September 11th at the San Francisco Electronic Music Festival; And September 30th in Los Angeles at the Smell. More dates will be announced soon, and the current schedule is below.
[Photo Credit: Sarah Sitkin]
Tour Dates + Ticket Links
Sep. 08 - Los Angeles, CA - Highways Performance Space*
Sep. 11 - San Francisco, CA - San Francisco Electronic Music Festival
Sep. 30 - Los Angeles, CA - The Smell (Benefit Show)**
* w/ Busdriver, Pedestrian Deposit
** w/ The Mae Shi
Last night, Clipping dropped these dizzying visuals for new track “Baby Don’t Sleep” and details of their new full-length Splendor & Misery, a Sci-Fi/dystopian concept album due out September 9th on Sub Pop/Deathbomb Arc.
Clipping are producers Jonathan Snipes and William Hutson, along with rapper/lyricist Daveed Diggs. [Yes THAT Daveed Diggs: Originator of the roles of the Marquis de Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson in acclaimed Broadway musical Hamilton AND winner of the 2016 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical.]
“Baby Don’t Sleep” is Clipping’s collaboration with multi-disciplinary artist Cristopher Cichocki. The new video is an electrified vortex of visual art that jolts into the core of the group’s commanding noise-rap and musique concrete aesthetics. Captured within the industrial bellies of New York and Los Angeles, this meticulously detailed work is comprised from Cichocki’s visual experiments with interference static, oscilloscopic wavelengths, and flicker-frame animation.
Splendor & Misery is an Afrofuturist, dystopian concept album that follows the sole survivor of a slave uprising on an interstellar cargo ship, and the onboard computer that falls in love with him. Thinking he is alone and lost in space, the character discovers music in the ship’s shuddering hull and chirping instrument panels. William and Jonathan’s tracks draw an imaginary sonic map of the ship’s decks, hallways, and quarters, while Daveed’s lyrics ride the rhythms produced by its engines and machinery. In a reversal of H.P. Lovecraft’s concept of cosmic insignificance, the character finds relief in learning that humanity is of no consequence to the vast, uncaring universe. It turns out, pulling the rug out from under anthropocentrism is only horrifying to those who thought they were the center of everything to begin with. Ultimately, The character decides to pilot his ship into the unknown—and possibly into oblivion—instead of continuing on to worlds whose systems of governance and economy have violently oppressed him.
The album is led by the highlights “Baby Don’t Sleep,” “A Better Place,” and “Air ‘Em Out,” was produced by the band, and mixed by Steve Kaplan in Los Angeles. The announcement of said album comes hot on the heels of the group’s just released Wriggle EP [see the GIFtastic title track video right over here].
Splendor & Misery will be available worldwide on CD/LP/DL/CASS, and is now up for preorder from Sub Pop and Deathbomb Arc. Preorders through Sub Pop Mega Mart and independent retailers near you will receive the Loser edition on crystal clear vinyl (while supplies last).
Clipping’s current tour schedule in support of Wriggle and Splendor & Misery includes: August 4th in Seattle at Neumos (with Cakes Da Killa and Porter Ray); August 19th in Los Angeles for the Perpetual Dawn Anniversary; A hometown release show on September 8th in Los Angeles at Highways Performance Space* (with Busdriver and Pedestrian Deposit); And September 11th at the San Francisco Electronic Music Festival.
*The September 8th show is presented by Highways Performance Space, Artistic Directors, Leo Garcia & Patrick Kennelly.
Additional tour dates will be announced soon. For now, please find a current list of dates below.
Tour Dates
Aug. 04 - Seattle, WA - Neumos*
Aug. 19 - Los Angeles, CA - Perpetual Dawn Anniversary Show (venue TBA)
Sep. 08 - Los Angeles, CA - Highways Performance Space**
Sep. 11 - San Francisco, CA - San Francisco Electronic Music Festival
* w/ Cakes Da Killa & Porter Ray
** w/ Busdriver, Pedestrian Deposit
Ticket links don’t sleep here.
The cup of Clipping runneth over in these past few days, and just last night the Los Angeles rap group - featuring Daveed Diggs, William Hutson, and Jonathan Snipes - announced their triumphant return to your ears with the new Wriggle EP, which is available digitally right here, right now.
Wriggle highlights include the title track, “Back Up” (feat. Antwon and Signor Benedick the Moor), “Shooter,” “Hot Fuck No Love” (feat. Cakes Da Killa and Maxi Wild), and “Our Time” (feat. Nailah Middleton). The EP was produced by Clipping, and is the group’s first release of new material since 2014’s CLPPNG, their acclaimed (and not at all coincidentally on-sale) second album and Sub Pop debut.
F your I - Wriggle precedes a new Clipping full-length, coming this fall on Sub Pop/Deathbomb Arc.
[Pictured: Daveed Diggs with an actual fake Tony Award]
And just two nights ago, Clipping’s Daveed Diggs won an actual not-fake Tony Award for “Best Featured Actor in a Musical” for Hamilton. While promoting the musical (in which he plays the Marquis de Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson) he stopped by the Tonight Show for an interview. During the segment, the Roots play “Work Work” as his walk-on music, and he’s asked to prove that he is the fastest rapper on Broadway. Which he does. Watch his acapella performance (and Jimmy Fallon’s subsequent geek out) of “Taking Off” from their album CLPPNG via this link right here.
[Photo Credit: Sarah Sitkin]
