2 out of 5

Label: Super Rhythm Trax

Produced by: Ed DMX

This is definitely one of those Ed releases where it’s primed for the club, and maybe falls flat on my “let me listen to this studiously and never dance” ears. I recognize that this is some pretty badass acid house, but beyond the as-always lovely, raw production*, this is very standard stuff, doing breaks and drum fills at exactly the points you’d expect. Our DJ definitely has a keen ear for what keeps one’s body movin’ across each of these five minute tracks, dropping the synths in and out and playing up the beat as appropriate, but my previous comment still applies: it all rolls out rather predictably.

That said, the opener, Spasm, is an outright banger, edging the norms shown off elsewhere into more fun and varied territory, with a quicker BPM and somewhat more aggressive tone, perhaps as per its name. The title track is a very cool bit of backwards-sounding manipulation, fiddled with across its runtime, though something about it feels a bit half-hearted, or rather like an experiment exactly to that extent, and not fully invested in being a song. The B-side is where we switch over to typical club fare; the original Wiggly Worm is perhaps a bit goofier – having the vocal and bouncy low-end played down here in the remix diminishes that.

…Interestingly, the bonus-y “Radio Noises” (not listed on the vinyl tracklist but they do appear at the end of each side) are worthwhile, giving us pretty much what they say, sounding like static-y snippets of someone hitting record at random, but Ed has fiddled with this somewhat and given us clipped beats and synths mixed in; the most IDM stuff here. These are only about a minute long, though, and so can’t really be treated as full songs.

*The production sounds great digitally. Could just be my vinyl / rough, but this sounded pretty rough on wax, at least when it comes to the more aurally dense stuff on the A-side, Spasm’s details especially getting lost.