4 out of 5

Label: Byrd Out

Produced by: Ed DMX

I’ll skip my spiel about how dumbfounded I am by Ed Upton’s – DMX Krew’s – ability to continually release material that sounds both fresh and retro, and both unique and yet recognizable, and at an exhaustive pace, and just say: buy this one. Sure, it caters to those with electro tastes towards boppy house with an old school flair, but there’re splashes of acid and chiptune-adjacent beats across Unlikely Seeming that give it broad appeal. I guess if you’re looking for IDM breaks or something that won’t put a smile on your face, let the brightly colored, pop-impressionistic cover art indicate this is maybe a bit more cheerful and linear than you might desire, but otherwise, I can’t imagine anyone not, at the very least, tapping their toe along to this.

The vibe here is mainly electropop: melodies are uniformly upbeat, and geared towards building from instant catchiness to swelling conclusions of synths and thick percussion. While the tracks toward’s the end of the physical edition (including single Wednesday Memory) hang onto the boppy shtick a bit too much, looping and not innovating – some of this stuff would get a nudge with some classic Ed vocals on it, a la his early 90s work – the bulk of the music is amazingly rich, misleading with how “simple” the tunes are, and then you listen a bit closer and hear how much variation there is in the layers, and how Ed changes things up throughout. Key to the relistenability of this are some tonal sidesteps: Data Cruncha is closer to Ed’s acid works, with a bit of a squelch and bite in the beat, and the digital offers up the grungey Uncertain Calculation, and a further remix of the title track by Break Mode, which is also impressive in maintaining all the core elements of the original track but layering it with a slight dub / “island” flavor to the percussion. This adds a nice sense of climax and cooldown, though the physical edition’s shorter runtime also makes it easy to listen to on a loop.

I am just as likely to say this with the next DMX Krew release, but this is one of the most fun things Ed has put out.