In an unsuspected but welcome turn of events, you all voted for Connor and me to dissect the latest LP, There Existed an Addiction to Blood, from the Los Angeles-based experimental hip hop trio, clipping. If you’re new to our site, a quick perusal of past podcast episodes will reveal our inclinations toward rambling about extreme metal, despondent dark ambient, and a smorgasbord of disparate, outlandish timbres. Never have we endeavored to dissect a hip hop album during our tenure, until today.

The word experimental aptly embodies the tone, atmosphere, and vibe of clipping.; however, it does not fully brace you for the blood-curdling textures contained within their compositions. Scathing monoliths of harsh noise that vibrate with misanthropy or fearful howls from those drawing their last breath are but a couple of examples and it’s their seamless melding with Daveed Diggs’ biting poeticism that elevates the jagged arrangements to echelons most petrifying. No track sounds similar to the others as the trio galavant through a gamut of labyrinthian pathways, fortifying the album’s foundation with a thematic bedrock that pays homage to horror and mafia films of yore. As clipping. tear around the corners of their construction, they reveal, in pallid flickers, novel production techniques (“Run for Your Life, feat. La Chat”), colossal synth fissures (“Nothing is Safe”), and virulent beats (“Blood of the Fang”). Beyond these examples, however, there permeates an uncanny atmosphere that garrotes you with penumbral claws. In moments of trepidation, clipping. will grind the atmosphere to a stagnant limbo to beckon a piercing sense of confinement. In others, they relish in its claustrophobia by drenching us in caustic spasms of grisly frequencies.

There Existed an Addiction to Blood is an album that surprised both Connor and me. Its dreary milieus, the ghastly word-smithing, and its litany of artist features made for a thoroughly tumultuous and invigorating engagement. We sincerely hope you enjoy our exchange as we stumble and fumble for words that accurately capture how this album struck us. Thank you so much for tuning in.