Clipping: Dead Channel Sky (LOSER edition-2LP/ghostly green vinyl) LP

While Clipping's last few projects have been record-long concepts like classic prog rock, their cyberpunk-infused new album "Dead Channel Sky" is mixtape-like, a carefully curated collection in which every track is a love letter to a possible present. 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. What if someone explicitly merged hip-hop and cyberpunk - those twin suns of the 1980s and 90s - into one set and sound? After all, both movements are the result of hacking the haunted leftovers of a war-torn culture that's long since moved on. On "Dead Channel Sky", Clipping texture-map the twin histories of hip-hop and cyberpunk onto an alternate present where Rammellzee and Bambaataa are the superheroes of old; where Cybotron and Mantronix are the reigning legends; where Egyptian Lover and Freestyle are debated endlessly, and Ultramag and Public Enemy are the undeniable forefathers; where the lost movements of 1980s and the 1990s are still happening: rave, trip-hop, hip-house, acid house, drum & bass, big beat - the detritus of a different timeline, the survivors of armed audio warfare.