Consequently, since there’s no rapping here, the emphasis is mostly placed on the song’s sound design-what the synths sound like, what the percussion sounds like, what space they occupy, etc. That said, “ Say Your Prayers” is composed of a couple loops that change only slightly in the chorus, and then return to their stasis in the second and third verse. This is true of most of the mix: Volpe’s music concerns itself mostly with how set parts interact with each other or move in relation to one another: a definite hip hop approach to production. The opener “ Say Your Prayers” doesn’t play games with the listener almost every sample and synth in the whole track is used in the first thirty seconds. It includes two previously unreleased tracks (“ Say Your Prayers” and “ Wavey”), several Hip Hop instrumentals (three of which were made for Vince Staples’ Summertime ’06 album), two remixes-one of DJ Shadow and one of Sia-and the solo track “Time” from the #savefabric benefit compilation. This compilation documents how the producer has refined that sound over the past two years. His trademark style of tripped-out synths is most heavily indebted to the late ‘00s Chillwave scene, but his bare, sputtering percussive style owes more to contemporary Trap and earlier Southern Rap.

Volpe first broke onto the scene as a high-profile producer in 2013 after producing several successful tracks for Lil B and A$AP Rocky. Almost a year after his first proper LP, New Jersey-born Hip Hop producer Michael Volpe, better known as Clams Casino, has released Instrumentals 4, the most recent entry in his instrumental mixtape series.

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