God is not here, he forgot to rock his Mirrorshades
June 24, 2025 7:35 AM Subscribe
Hip-hop group clipping.'s fifth album "Dead Channel Sky" is as SFF-inal as you might expect from its title and the fact that they're the only hip-hop act nominated for the Hugo twice.
Mixing hip-hop, noise and a strong cyberpunk vibe, with collabs from Bitpanic, Nels Cline, Tia Nomore, Cartel Madras and Aesop Rock, their subpop page describes it as "mixtape-like, a carefully curated collection of songs in which every track is a love letter to a possible present. Like a mashup of distinct elements, the overall concept is there, but the result is brief glimpses into a world rather than an overview of it. It sounds crisp and classic at the same time. When something strikes us as retrospective and futuristic at the same time, it’s a reminder of how slipshod our present moment truly is."
The Quietus calls it "a dark vision of a cyberpunk future set to the big beats of 90s club music."
Clash suggests you "put on your headphones, plug yourself in and enter clipping.’s immaculately-crafted cyber world."
Also, it's a certified bop.
Mixing hip-hop, noise and a strong cyberpunk vibe, with collabs from Bitpanic, Nels Cline, Tia Nomore, Cartel Madras and Aesop Rock, their subpop page describes it as "mixtape-like, a carefully curated collection of songs in which every track is a love letter to a possible present. Like a mashup of distinct elements, the overall concept is there, but the result is brief glimpses into a world rather than an overview of it. It sounds crisp and classic at the same time. When something strikes us as retrospective and futuristic at the same time, it’s a reminder of how slipshod our present moment truly is."
The Quietus calls it "a dark vision of a cyberpunk future set to the big beats of 90s club music."
Clash suggests you "put on your headphones, plug yourself in and enter clipping.’s immaculately-crafted cyber world."
Also, it's a certified bop.
Glad you like!
I forgot to include this interview with them on the Our Opinions Are Correct podcast, with Charlie Jane Anders and Annalee Newitz, about how cyperpunk and hip hop have always been related.
posted by signal at 8:03 AM on June 24 [2 favorites]
I forgot to include this interview with them on the Our Opinions Are Correct podcast, with Charlie Jane Anders and Annalee Newitz, about how cyperpunk and hip hop have always been related.
posted by signal at 8:03 AM on June 24 [2 favorites]
Man, clipping. really should have win that 2019 Hugo...
posted by kaibutsu at 8:19 AM on June 24 [2 favorites]
posted by kaibutsu at 8:19 AM on June 24 [2 favorites]
Daveed Diggs has an amazing voice. I got into clipping after hearing him trading rhymes with his costar in Blindspotting and wanting more. There's some really impressive things going on with the electronics as well.
posted by The Ardship of Cambry at 8:32 AM on June 24 [3 favorites]
posted by The Ardship of Cambry at 8:32 AM on June 24 [3 favorites]
for reference on the album title, the opening sentence of William Gibson's Neuromancer:
“The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.”
I always loved this line, but a dead channel means very different things now. For Gen Xers like me it's static snow, for Millenials perhaps solid blue...for Gen Y/Z, what is it? 404 Not Found? A sky with a spinning "loading..." icon?
posted by mcstayinskool at 9:02 AM on June 24 [6 favorites]
“The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.”
I always loved this line, but a dead channel means very different things now. For Gen Xers like me it's static snow, for Millenials perhaps solid blue...for Gen Y/Z, what is it? 404 Not Found? A sky with a spinning "loading..." icon?
posted by mcstayinskool at 9:02 AM on June 24 [6 favorites]
ooh nice. buyin' dat
and yeah the way Neuromancer's opening line has changed over the years is hilarious, I think now it's "a home screen with a bunch of icons for different channels, and 1/3 of the screen filled with ads that occasionally contain porn even though 90% of the viewing time is kid's stuff".
posted by egypturnash at 9:51 AM on June 24 [4 favorites]
and yeah the way Neuromancer's opening line has changed over the years is hilarious, I think now it's "a home screen with a bunch of icons for different channels, and 1/3 of the screen filled with ads that occasionally contain porn even though 90% of the viewing time is kid's stuff".
posted by egypturnash at 9:51 AM on June 24 [4 favorites]
Thanks for this. Immediately dialed up genius.com to follow along.
posted by the sobsister at 10:26 AM on June 24 [1 favorite]
posted by the sobsister at 10:26 AM on June 24 [1 favorite]
I love this album, although The Deep is my absolute favorite of clipping.'s repertoire.
posted by autopilot at 11:19 AM on June 24 [2 favorites]
posted by autopilot at 11:19 AM on June 24 [2 favorites]
Right after Splendor and Misery came out (which I loved) I was subjected to a super weird monologue from a colleague of mine about how Bach is mathematically the best possible music.
I thought about trying to explain what clipping. is, and how much said colleague was missing out, but decided it wasn’t worth the extra breath. (Also I do like Bach.)
Anyhow, I look forward to listening to this new album, and yeah I don’t need to share it with my colleague. Be stubborn and sure you’ve heard the best, miss out on the great new things.
posted by nat at 11:39 AM on June 24 [2 favorites]
I thought about trying to explain what clipping. is, and how much said colleague was missing out, but decided it wasn’t worth the extra breath. (Also I do like Bach.)
Anyhow, I look forward to listening to this new album, and yeah I don’t need to share it with my colleague. Be stubborn and sure you’ve heard the best, miss out on the great new things.
posted by nat at 11:39 AM on June 24 [2 favorites]
I actually only just heard about them from the posted podcast, but looking foward to diving into all the previous albums.
posted by signal at 12:05 PM on June 24
posted by signal at 12:05 PM on June 24
Random Cobwebby Neurons Firing: Tucked away in a storage box somewhere I have a copy of The Young Gods' 1992 album T.V. Sky, which I bought for the Gibson reference and remember literally nothing else about.
posted by The Tensor at 1:23 PM on June 24 [1 favorite]
posted by The Tensor at 1:23 PM on June 24 [1 favorite]
It's a great album. Thanks for the post.
posted by potrzebie at 2:21 PM on June 24 [2 favorites]
posted by potrzebie at 2:21 PM on June 24 [2 favorites]
I have not actually tried to parse any entire lyrics but the part of me that misses being an animator says any track from this would probably be absolutely delightful to animate something to.
As usual she gets patted on the head and gently lead back to her room by the rest of me, who really does not miss a lot of what was involved in being an animator. We do however all agree that putting together a bunch of images that work against this rapid-fire verbiage and the accompanying beats and ambience would be pretty fucking rad.
posted by egypturnash at 4:14 PM on June 24 [3 favorites]
As usual she gets patted on the head and gently lead back to her room by the rest of me, who really does not miss a lot of what was involved in being an animator. We do however all agree that putting together a bunch of images that work against this rapid-fire verbiage and the accompanying beats and ambience would be pretty fucking rad.
posted by egypturnash at 4:14 PM on June 24 [3 favorites]
Also damn this sure was a good album to spend a while dancing around the studio to. Quite a workout!
posted by egypturnash at 4:33 PM on June 25 [1 favorite]
posted by egypturnash at 4:33 PM on June 25 [1 favorite]
oh and also also just in case anyone is still looking at this thread: I was recently gobsmacked to discover that one of clipping.'s beat-and-ambience-makers is none other than master musical shitposter Captain Ahab, who is a long-time problematic fave of mine for their gleefully horny gay comedy music.
posted by egypturnash at 5:21 PM on June 25
posted by egypturnash at 5:21 PM on June 25
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Seeing the Bandcamp link on the album page made me go look up Bandcamp Fridays and yes, August 1 is a Bandcamp Friday, so I've just added a reminder to go buy the record then.
clipping is a tiny bit noisy for my personal tastes but I utterly love them just the same, and I am stoked to hear about this new release. ( ... and they're on Sub Pop? How did I miss that? excellent.)
Thank you so much for posting this, signal. I can't wait to check out the whole thing.
posted by kristi at 7:49 AM on June 24 [2 favorites]