Dead Channel Sky by clipping.

clipping. Dead Channel Sky

78
ChoruScore
10 reviews
Mar 14, 2025
Release Date
Sub Pop Records
Label

clipping.'s Dead Channel Sky lands as a bruising, neon-lit concept record that foregrounds memory, surveillance and Afrofuturist dread while offering moments of kinetic release. Across professional reviews, critics point to clearly defined high points rather than uniform success, and the consensus suggests a generally favorable reception that rewards the album's ambition and production even when its scope threatens clutter.

The critical consensus, drawn from 10 professional reviews, yields a 77.6/100 consensus score and repeatedly highlights standout tracks as entry points. Reviewers consistently name “Ask What Happened”, “Mirrorshades pt. 2 (feat. Cartel Madras)” and “Change the Channel” among the best songs on Dead Channel Sky

Not all critics are unanimous: some reviewers find tracks like “Dominator” and portions of the record oddly sanitized or conceptually overstuffed, while others celebrate those same elements as theatrical and essential to its Afrofuturist project. Taken together, the reviews portray Dead Channel Sky as a vivid, sometimes messy statement whose best songs - particularly “Ask What Happened”, “Mirrorshades pt. 2 (feat. Cartel Madras)” and “Change the Channel” - make a persuasive case for its worth and mark it as a significant chapter in clipping.'s catalog. Below, the full reviews unpack where the record's ambition succeeds and where it falters.

Critics' Top Tracks

The standout songs that made critics take notice

1

Ask What Happened

6 mentions

"the exhilarating and emotionally resonant highlight 'Ask What Happened' posits that"
Clash Music
2

Welcome Home Warrior

1 mention

"the penultimate track "Welcome Home Warrior" (featuring the great Aesop Rock)"
Paste Magazine
3

Mirrorshades pt. 2 (feat. Cartel Madras)

6 mentions

"‘Mirrorshades pt. 2’ is a high camp gem, its glitchy house beat and repetitive lyrics"
DIY Magazine
the exhilarating and emotionally resonant highlight 'Ask What Happened' posits that
C
Clash Music
about "Ask What Happened"
Read full review
6 mentions
85% sentiment

Track Ratings

How critics rated each track, relative to this album (0-100). Only tracks that made critics feel something are rated.

View:
1

Intro

1 mention
82
00:51
2

Dominator

8 mentions
96
02:31
3

Change the Channel

7 mentions
100
02:15
4

Run It

5 mentions
73
04:58
5

Go

6 mentions
74
01:14
6

Simple Degradation (Plucks 1-13) (with Bitpanic)

3 mentions
73
01:37
7

Code

7 mentions
90
03:23
8

Dodger

6 mentions
95
04:08
9

Malleus (with Nels Cline)

2 mentions
76
01:56
10

Scams (feat. Tia Nomore)

6 mentions
41
03:41
11

Keep Pushing

7 mentions
100
03:46
12

"From Bright Bodies" (Interlude)

1 mention
41
00:46
13

Mood Organ

5 mentions
40
01:41
14

Polaroids

5 mentions
100
04:03
15

Simple Degradation (Plucks 14-18) (with Bitpanic)

1 mention
41
01:42
16

Madcap

4 mentions
15
01:33
17

Mirrorshades pt. 2 (feat. Cartel Madras)

6 mentions
100
04:10
18

"And You Called" (Interlude)

1 mention
41
00:42
19

Welcome Home Warrior (feat. Aesop Rock)

6 mentions
84
03:43
20

Ask What Happened

6 mentions
100
04:50

What Critics Are Saying

Deep insights from 11 critics who reviewed this album

80

Critic's Take

In a dense, novella-length tapestry that trades on cyberpunk motifs, clipping.'s Dead Channel Sky finds its best tracks in moments like “Mirrorshades, pt. 2” and “Welcome Home Warrior”, where guest turns and frayed club beats sharpen the record's themes. Eric Hill writes with sure, descriptive relish about how the band resurrects adrenalized club beats and overlays them with a static pulse of electricity - these songs become the clearest touchpoints for the album's neon-blue blankness. If you want to know the best tracks on Dead Channel Sky, listen for the Cartel Madras and Aesop Rock features, which expand clipping.'s cyberpunk palette and make those songs stand out as the album's most vivid moments.

Key Points

  • The best song moments are the guest-featured tracks, especially “Mirrorshades, pt. 2” and “Welcome Home Warrior” for expanding the album's cyberpunk palette.
  • The album's core strength is its dense, textural fusion of digital nostalgia, adrenaline club beats and an overarching cyberpunk aesthetic.

Themes

cyberpunk digital noise nostalgia vs present sex and substance use industrial/club beats

Critic's Take

clipping.\'s Dead Channel Sky stakes its claim as a cyberpunk record where the best songs - “Run It”, “Dominator” and “Ask What Happened” - do the heavy lifting, pairing pounding beats with harsh, concept-driven imagery. The reviewer's voice lingers on how “Run It” jumpstarts the glitchy engine and how “Dominator” roils into the frenetic pulse that powers tracks like “Change the Channel”. Even quieter moments like “Welcome Home Warrior” underscore the album’s balance of genuinely fun dance beats and frequently dark lyrics, making these standout tracks the clearest entry points for listeners searching for the best songs on Dead Channel Sky.

Key Points

  • "Run It" is the album’s engine, combining glitchy production with propulsive beats to define the record.
  • The album’s core strengths are its concept-driven world-building and the balance of abrasive noise with satisfying, traditional beats.

Themes

cyberpunk digital isolation surveillance Afrofuturism degradation and hope
Sputnikmusic logo

Sputnikmusic

Unknown
Mar 24, 2025
76

Critic's Take

clipping. have traded some of their horror leanings for a gleaming sci-fi sheen on Dead Channel Sky, and the best songs underline that shift - “Ask What Happened” stands out as an unflinching indictment, while “Dominator” and “Keep Pushing” supply the record with nostalgic grit and ravey momentum. The reviewer’s ear prizes these moments because they combine the trio’s pinpoint production with narrative force, making the best tracks on Dead Channel Sky both topical and viscerally immediate. In short, the album’s highlights prove clipping.'s creative spark remains intact even as the band opts for a more accessible, retro-inflected palette.

Key Points

  • ‘Ask What Happened’ is best for its unflinching indictment and standout storytelling.
  • The album’s core strengths are inventive production, retrofuturist atmospheres, and accessible topicality.

Themes

retrofuturism technological influence nostalgia capitalist infrastructure musical revolution

Critic's Take

clipping. return with Dead Channel Sky, an album that leans into cyberpunk atmospheres while spotlighting a few clear high points - “Mirrorshades pt. 2” and “Ask What Happened”. The reviewer’s voice relishes the album’s digital abrasions and production tricks, praising the disco-infused heat of “Mirrorshades pt. 2” and the melancholic transcendence of “Ask What Happened”. At the same time, tracks like “Dominator” and “Run It” are called out as oddly sanitised or bland, which keeps the record from fully realizing a lush, libidinal cyberpunk world. Overall, the best songs on Dead Channel Sky are those that fuse the group’s experimental editing with palpable hedonism and emotional relief, making them the album’s clearest victories.

Key Points

  • The best song is “Mirrorshades pt. 2” because its disco-infused, sexy energy and Cartel Madras feature deliver the album’s strongest hedonistic moment.
  • The album’s core strengths are inventive production, glitchy digital textures, and moments of melancholic transcendence that puncture its more prosaic tracks.

Themes

cyberpunk aesthetics black survival and marginalization digital fragmentation and glitches body enhancement and sexuality dystopia and isolation

Critic's Take

Hi, everyone. Propthoiny Cliptano here to say that on Dead Channel Sky the best songs are those that still find a narrative center - notably “Dodger” and “Polaroids”, which probe dystopia and memory with sharper focus. The record flirts with techno and breakbeats, and tracks like “Scams” and “Code” land as textured, groovy highlights even when the concepts feel familiar. Overall, clipping. offer bright spots amid a slightly surface-level execution, so if you search "best songs on Dead Channel Sky" start with “Dodger” and “Polaroids”.

Key Points

  • The best song is "Dodger" because it most effectively explores dystopia through jittery techno beats and focused storytelling.
  • The album's strengths are textured grooves and occasional standout tracks, but overall it feels surface-level and uneven in immersion.

Themes

technology authoritarianism futurism memory degradation

Critic's Take

clipping. deploys Gibsonian imagery across Dead Channel Sky, and the review singles out tracks that carry that adrenaline-fuelled vision. The reviewist praises “Dominator” for setting the dystopian scene and cites “Change the Channel” as the high-octane, Prodigy-like mover. It also names “Code” as a moody highlight for its narrated samples, noting these tracks as the best songs on Dead Channel Sky because they crystallise the album's theatrical, Afrofuturist ambitions. The tone remains admiring - acknowledging the record's energy even while noting it does not radically reinvent its source material.

Key Points

  • The best song is best because it crystallises the album's dystopian, theatrical atmosphere and high-energy production.
  • The album’s core strengths are its Gibsonian cyberpunk framing, Afrofuturist references, and relentless, hardcore-continuum energy.

Themes

cyberpunk Afrofuturism hardcore continuum technology and hacking nostalgia/mid-1990s aesthetic

Critic's Take

clipping. return with Dead Channel Sky, a head-spinner that repeatedly highlights its best tracks like “Polaroids”, “Dodger” and “Ask What Happened”. Tom Morgan writes with controlled enthusiasm, praising Daveed Diggs' mesmerising control on “Polaroids” and the machine-gun menace of “Dodger”, while calling “Ask What Happened” an exhilarating, emotionally resonant highlight. The review frames these songs as the album’s emotional and political centerpieces, propelled by Snipes and Hutson’s urgent, modern production. Put simply, the best songs on Dead Channel Sky marry vivid storytelling with inventive electronic textures, making them standout tracks on the record.

Key Points

  • The best song, "Ask What Happened", stands out for its emotional resonance and transcendent drum and bass production.
  • The album’s core strengths are Daveed Diggs’ vivid, politically charged lyrics and Snipes and Hutson’s urgent, modernised electronic production.

Themes

cyberpunk technology and power dystopia updated electronic production

Critic's Take

clipping.'s Dead Channel Sky luxuriates in Y2K retrofuturist textures, and the review puts the spotlight on the album's best tracks, especially “Change The Channel”, “Mirrorshades pt. 2” and closer “Ask What Happened”. The critic admires how “Change The Channel” marries industrial percussion and synth tones to evoke early internet optimism, while “Mirrorshades pt. 2” is called a high camp gem that could be a holiday club hit. The review also singles out “Ask What Happened” as human and brutal, its claustrophobic drum'n'bass and dreamy synth delivering the album's emotional apex. This is praise framed in the writer's studious, vivid mode, arguing that these standout songs make Dead Channel Sky an epic masterpiece.

Key Points

  • The best song, “Ask What Happened”, is the album's emotional apex due to its claustrophobic drum'n'bass and brutal human storytelling.
  • The album's core strengths are its Y2K retrofuturist sound palette and cinematic, politically aware storytelling contrasted with industrial and softer instrumentation.

Themes

Y2K retrofuturism internet nostalgia industrial vs softer instrumentation political critique cinematic storytelling

Critic's Take

clipping. sound most alive on Dead Channel Sky when they loosen up, which is why the best tracks - “Change the Channel”, “Run It” and “Mirrorshades pt. 2” - sing out. Rhys Morgan’s ear catches the album’s front-loaded brilliance: “Dominator” and “Change the Channel” bring a 90s house and Prodigy-inflected stomp that the rest of the record rarely sustains. The review keeps returning to that tension between thrilling invention and conceptual overreach, praising the moments of play while lamenting the slog. If you want the best songs on Dead Channel Sky, start with those energetic cuts and skip when the conceptual clutter sets in.

Key Points

  • Change the Channel is the best song for its Prodigy-inflected stomp and energetic immediacy.
  • The album’s core strength is its vivid cyberpunk industrial textures and occasional euphoric club energy, though conceptual clutter undermines consistency.

Themes

cyberpunk aesthetic industrial textures conceptual ambition vs clutter moments of playfulness
Louder Than War logo

Louder Than War

Unknown
Mar 9, 2025
86

Critic's Take

clipping.’s Dead Channel Sky is a violent, hyperreal cyberpunk diary where the best songs - “Dominator”, “Polaroids” and “Dodge r” - smash you with skull-splitting bass and fractured beats. Ryan Walker’s voice revels in the album’s sensory assault, praising the rave attack of “Dominator” and the subwoofer-submerging sonics of “Polaroids”, while spotlighting the delirious rhythms of “Dodger” as pulse-quickening high points. The review presents these tracks as the record’s clearest triumphs, exemplifying clipping.’s knack for marrying brutal hip-hop cadence with corrosive electronic textures. Overall, the critic frames the best tracks on Dead Channel Sky as visceral, cinematic highlights that define the album’s merciless, thrilling character.

Key Points

  • The best song is driven by visceral production and attack, exemplified by 'Dominator' with its rave energy and bulldozing breakbeat.
  • The album’s core strengths are its intense cyberpunk atmosphere, inventive sampling, and collaborations that sharpen clipping.’s experimental hip-hop edge.

Themes

cyberpunk dystopia sampling and reclamation sonic violence and propulsion collaboration