2 out of 5

Label: Shipwrec

Produced by: Ed DMX

This is one of those very targeted Ed releases that’s probably just not targeted at lil’ ol’ me.

Let’s set aside the title track for a moment and consider the others: Parasite, Unbelief, and Meltdown. Just from a naming perspective, these are pretty paranoid sounding, and that’s driven home into how tightly acidic the tunes are: cold and clipped beats; squelchy synths. Ed’s acid-focused songs can sometimes have a funky backing, but these are very zipped up, and pretty repetitive. Which can have its place when something’s made more for a dancefloor workout, or some other trancelike behavior (cleaning the house?), but both sides of this EP get dominated by 6-minute lead-in tracks which go very hard on this sound, and though Ed works his magic in the small spaces of each tune – subtly bumping up reverb; tweaking the pitch of the synth; making this a better headphone listen – it’s simply not enough, to my ears, to fill the runtime.

The backing tracks mostly follow suit but are shorter, and a little “lighter” in tone. But only the title track really brings that out in a way that feels particular to Ed’s (admittedly many, many-faceted) style, with hints of kitschy funk in its synths. These tunes still succumb to repetition, though, and closer Meltdown doesn’t make good on finishing things up with much urgency.

I’d possibly go much easier on these from an unknown artist, but Tree in Space, maybe excepting that song, comes across as an exercise for Ed to go full-on acid. I’m sure he achieves his goal…! but the tracks don’t have enough personality for me outside of that.