The mysterious cLOUDDEAD combines a trio of underground hip-hop artists arranged in the Anticon collective -- Doseone, why?, and Odd Nosdam. Each of them are solo artists and featured artists on dozens of underground recordings, but their music as cLOUDDEAD is quite different and unlike anything you'd expect from a group of rap connoisseurs -- it's both experimental and ambient, garnering many comparisons to the Residents and Brian Eno's Music for Airports or My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, with chanted vocals that recall Tibetan monks. Instead of writing traditional songs, the band opted for their 2001 self-titled album to be released as a series of 10" singles, comprised of six separate movements. Each release focused on a different musical theme, and included a different closely related guest artist for each segment -- Illogic, DJ Signify, Sole, the Wolf Bros, Mr. Dibbs, and the Bay Area Animals. Each of the six singles were meant to be played back to back, to create one single full-length work. Several years of time spent on innumerable projects preceded the 2004 release of Ten, which cLOUDDEAD promised would be their last. ~ Greg Prato