Visions of Bodies Being Burned - clipping
Clipping’s music should not work; yet, somehow, their music successfully harmonises disparate influences: those of noisecore, film scoring and hip-hop. In their 2020 release, Visions of Bodies Being Burned, an accompanying album to their previous year’s release There Existed an Addiction to Blood, Diggs, Snipes and Hutson envision a world of horror through a gargantuan atmosphere of noisecore and ambient sounds, and dizzyingly labyrinthine raps. Clipping’s conjoining of different influences extends to their well-chosen features as well, a highlight being Cam & China’s infectious vocal supplement on ‘’96 Neve Campbell’. This malleability to their sound, without fear of digression, showcases Clipping’s extraordinary ability to successfully realise a concept. Diggs’ inclusion of humour is also notable: he rhymes “fool a g” with “eulogy” on ‘Check the Lock’, cleverly sticking to the morbid theme of the song; additionally, stressed syllables in his rhyme structure arrive at humorous ends, such as “Teeth sharp like collar, bone hard like dick” on ‘Something Underneath’. This briefly disrupts the dark and frenzied nature of Diggs’ narrative, which is allowed to rest for brief bits of humour in the otherwise rigid horrorcore storyline. Indeed, this is only one facet of Digg’s rap skill. His versatility, and his ability to fluctuate the speed of his elocution, is incredibly impressive. Finally, Clipping’s vision is no clearer on their song ‘Pain Everyday’: the song builds to a kaleidoscopic end that harmonises the sharp rapping of Diggs with Snipes’ orchestral backing and Hutson’s invocation of glitch. A satisfying and rich experience, Visions of Bodies Being Burned is a fearsome experiment that all hip-hop lovers should try out.
Stavros Ktorides