A long player of new music from DMX Krew on Hypercolour. ‘Glad To Be Sad’ presents the usual collection of first class electronic funk and modular melodies that DMX is known for, but covers a wide and colourful palette of rhythm and sound, abundant on the bass and with a heavy dose of futurism in its waves of glorious synth-work and deadly drum machine rhythms.
Shipwrec is 50 releases old. No mean feat and to celebrate the dutch label is returning to one of its stalwarts, Ed Upton aka DMX Krew. For this very special 12″ the veteran audio alchemist conjures up five tracks of machine music magic. Squirming, acid soaked electro forms and melts in “Bush Baby Bug Eyes” before the shapeshifting “EQShift Trak.” “Language Reponse” goes up a gear, rhythms zipping along on a highway of bright bars as synth lines beam warmth. The flip skids into the corners for the chiptune freshness of “Irrational Momentum” before the wave funk wizardry of the title piece. Ed Upton cracking open the champagne for this Shipwrec milestone and once again proving his undeniable prowess behind the machines.
23 years have passed since Edward Upton first donned the DMX Krew alias, but the prolific British producer shows no signs of slowing down. Astonishingly, Strange Directions is the electro stalwart’s 21st full-length excursion. Predictably, it’s rather good, with Upton delivering a set that effortlessly body-pops between vocoder-laced electro workouts, melodious IDM, bass-heavy intelligent techno, gnarled Drexciyan throbbers, Artificial Intelligence style home listening fare and even a dash of muscular, tongue-in-cheek Italo-disco (the deliciously sleazy “Soft Networks”). As usual, the distinctive, off-kilter swing of original analogue hardware is present throughout, as Upton showcases his full range of talents.
7777 presents its 13th release featuring DMX Krew and Yuri Suzuki. Side A brings you straight house attitude. B side strips it down and adds the acid. These songs are perfect for your record bag.
Following his stunning box set on Fundamental Records, Ed Upton aka DMX Krew makes his third outing on CPU, increasingly becoming home for his darker side. Space Cucumbers contains a wealth of expression with Italo disco arpeggiators, seldom heard time signatures, Hi-NRG, and bass heavy electro funk. Featuring the usual aquatic tendencies mixed with echoes of darkwave. Vintage analogue strings, overdriven acid and Upton’s favourite drum machine all make an appearance riding on his signature funk laced arrangements.
UK wave funk veteran DMX Krew returns to Abstract Forms with his latest double album project. Escape-MCP features 13 tracks of synth drenched electro and elastic techno grooves drawing inspiration from a 1983 computer game where the player is trapped inside a computer by a rogue processor. Fortunately DMX Krew isn’t trapped inside a computer and is still with us making killer grooves.
Following hot on the heels of Tadd Mullinix’s ‘Skein’ – Bopside’s second album release for 2016 comes from label owner Tadd Mullinix’s dancefloor destroying nom de plume who needs little introduction: JTC An 8 track concise body of work perfectly calibrated for DJ use and home listening alike, where the beats hit hard and the melodies linger in your brain. The self-titled LP starts with ‘Caskadia’ – a call to arms for dancers with call and response synth lines and broken beats. ‘Atmospheres Pt.2’ takes things out into deep space, and ‘Nexus Ship Core’ is an acid drenched burner with glacial synths. ‘Infoline’ then makes it’s first appearance in a remixed guise by Rephlex alumni Ed DMX, then closing out the album with its recognisable lead line in its original form. Things take a deeper turn with ‘Dusselmorph’ before the full on breakbeat assault of ‘Blitz Puff (High Position Mix) takes things up a gear, then dropping you off safe and sound, though a little shaken with ‘Atmospheres pt.5 (Hemi Mix).
This record can easily be classified as Library. Listening to these tracks moves your senses back and forth through time, from 80’s sci-fi back to Raymond Scott’s early 50’s experiments. The perfect soundtrack for bedrooms, late night dinners and greenhouses Ed Dmx contributes to a tradition in musical history, a richly vivid trail in which composers influence each other’s harmonies and ways of writing tunes, like an endless ping-pong game between minds and individuals but at the same time between continents and places throughout the world. Unlike many of Ed Dmx’ electro- oriented productions, ‘TheNew Age Travellers’ shows a more intimate side of his work. A story told through short synthesized conversations and electric piano improvisations is reminding us to cry, dream, remember, feel, live … and love.
Hypercolour announce the latest long player from UK stalwart, Ed DMX AKA DMX Krew, the visionary British electronic producer who has been responsible for a slew of excellent releases since the mid 1990s. ‘You Exist’ is DMX Krew’s debut appearance on Hypercolour, and as expected the record features nine tracks of beautifully crafted, melodic electronic sounds. From the opener ‘Spiritual Encounter’, DMX sets the tone perfectly with oodles of pitch perfect synth riffs and driving drums, working his way through snappy and bright pop moments like ‘Hard Copy’ to more melancholic, darker cuts like ‘Computational Paradigm Shift’. DMX breezes in and out of electro techno territory to more contemplative IDM vibes with ease, testimony to the guy’s talent (that’s also seen him wear the hat of over 10 aliases throughout his career to date). ‘You Exist’ captures a very true and genuine musical form, produced and delivered with love from one of the scene’s unsung heroes, and makes it a great companion piece to another Hypercolour released album from similar stock. A consistent and engaging album then from DMX Krew that will pleasure the ear buds of discerning listeners everywhere.
DMX Krew makes his debut on the quality Last Known Trajectory. “RAM Expansion” is a heady electro tune with a sunken load of synths at its disposal, while ‘Experiment 5″ is classic DMX – mad modular-like patterns surrounded by menacing drums. You also got the weird and wonderful bleeps of “Quantum Computer” on the A-side, whereas the flip kicks off with a fiery techno punch in “Division By “Zero”, heads to more AFX territories via “Rubout”, and ends on high-tec electro stroll of “Bad Vibes”. This is no nonsense dance music at its finest.
Abstract Forms new Synth Funk offshoot presents the third release of DMX Krew. Ladies and Gentleman the man with the magic fingers gives you Tha Bump!
After landing his malfunctioning PX-4000 on the purple planet, Captain DMX steps out of the smoldering cockpit. After barely setting foot on the dusty landscape, the Captain is startled by deep thudding from over the hills. Dragging his oxygen pack with one hand and his atomizer with the other, he sets off in search of the other-wordly din. Over the hill his pupils adjust to the stroboscopic lightning and below him lies a sea of strange creatures moving together as one body. A cosmic sermon takes place under the three suns in the sky, mechanical and stuttered frequencies set a manic pace and drive the dark creatures back and forth. Captain DMX sighs a heavy breath and starts to descend into the fray….
DMX Krew continues to shine on Abstract Forms new Synth Funk offshoot. Like the first EP ‘Electro Worm’, ‘Dogg Fungk’ features more old school flavours and for Volume 2 Ed gets busy with some killer synth-driven Jazz and Funk grooves.
Volume One in the new Synth Funk series on Abstract Forms set to revolve around retro-synth funk and electro; and who better to kick-off the proceedings than DMX Krew. Four tracks that deliver “exactly what it says on the tin” – as in warm, funky, synth-driven electronic grooves. Also features a Luke Eargoggle remix.
DMX Krew treat us to a wild concoction of tracks for the fourth installment of the now firing on all cylinders, Super Rhythm Trax label. The music here veers between grimy basement Acid trax, UK Bleep inspired future warehouse anthems and even an ultra cheeky ragga style rendition of Lil Louis’ classic ”Original Video Clash”.
