Clams Casino - Moon Trip Radio (2019)

In the early days of this decade, the shadowy New Jersey producer, working by himself at home, helped pioneer the psychedelic, droning subgenre that came to be known as cloud rap. Clams worked with rappers — Lil B, Main Attrakionz, A$AP Rocky — but early on, he never even met his collaborators. He was simply a fascinating name on a tracklist. Clams’ mixtape Instrumentals and his EP Rainforest only increased the sense of wonder around him. Eventually, Clams became a known figure, touring and doing photoshoots and working directly with big-name artists. But on a new album, out today, Clams recaptures some of that old mystery.

Back in 2016, Clams released his proper debut album 32 Levels which featured people like Future Islands’ Samuel T. Herring and the team of A$AP Rocky and Lil B. He’s kept up with his Instrumentals mixtape series — Instrumentals 4 came out in 2017 — but now he’s released an album of murky, hazy instrumental tracks that wouldn’t even fit on that series. On the new LP, Clams goes into that DJ Shadow …Endtroducing drift-zone, making music that wouldn’t even make sense if it had rappers on it.

Clams only announced the new LP Moon Trip Radio last week, sharing the early track “Rune.” Today, the album is out. It’s a heady piece of work, gasping and lurching its way toward transcendence. And on first listen, it’s perfect fall music.