It has been a little over a year since the internet had been beseiged with questions about one person's identity. Clutchy Hopkins, a multi-instrumentalist whose music was supposedly discovered accidentally at a swap meet in the Mojave Desert, is a man who could be the person you see pictured. He has also been purported to be DJ Shadow, Madlib, Danger Mouse, and others in disguise in as much as Madlib is Yesterday's New Quintet in his jazz multi-instrumental reincarnation. Clutchy has also collaborated with underground faves and Stones Throw artists (as is Madlib) Dudley Perkins and MF Doom. He draws several comparisons to many of the best producers in recent memory, including RZA and the Beastie Boys. In this writer's opinion, much of Clutchy's new album released today, Walking Backwards, sounds much like the Beastie's under-celebrated instrumental album In Sound From The Way Out!
Is "Clutchy Hopkins" really a bunch of kids rocking out in a garage somewhere? It's possible, and who cares? This album is full of unexpected tunes where the beat starts out unassuming and sort of hippy-ish, as if you stumbled into someone's Haight-Ashbury acid trip replete with sitars, dashikis, and lots of patchouli, then becomes smoother yet rougher and you suddenly notice your head nodding involuntarily.
Yeah, I know this dude looks like someone you might pass by asking for change, but we all know that looks can be deceiving. Get your hookas, your incense, and gather your best friends for a rhyme cipher, because midway into the first track, you'll already be forming rhymes to spit in your head. Trust us: the name of Clutchy Hopkins, whoever he may be, is going to be on the tongues of all true beat lovers all year long.
Clutchy Hopkins: "Rocktober"
Clutchy Hopkins: "Alla Oscar"
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Clutchy Hopkins [Official][MySpace][Amazon]
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