4 out of 5

Label: WéMè Records

Produced by: Andy Jenkinson

Before I start to spout some nonsense, the track-by-track take is that Ceephax’s Acid Fourniture EP kicks off with an eight minute slab of solid, funky acid, shifting tonally up and down over a bangin’ beat, and you’re like – yeah, that’s Ceephax alright, boogiein’ – and then it just goes brilliantly off the map.  Followup ‘Alligatored’ seems like it takes a fraction of the time of opener ‘Berlin Trip,’ even though its still 6+ minutes long, and adds acid to its acid.  The B-side then offers up ‘The Zone,’ one of the best tracks Jenkinson has delivered, which somehow blends his danceable sensibilities with a dark, cold, early Aphex vibe, smooshing that together into something wholly new and quite haunting.  Closer ‘Alien Beacon’ returns to the intensity of ‘Alligatored,’ but its inherited some of its preceding tracks’ distance, making for an awesomely weird affect where you’re dancing, but sort of self-aware of your moves the entire time.  At first blush, the EP is a simple thing, the kind of stuff Ceephax does well and does consistently, but once you get into that B-side, it opens up, and encourages relistens to really dig into it.

Now here’s some nonsense: ‘fourniture’ puts me in the mind of, yeah, ‘furniture,’ which, for lateral reasonings, has me thinking of the process of moving.  Moving starts out apace, with energy, and going according to plan.  It’s sort of staid, but you’re trucking along, happily enough – that’s opener Berlin Trip.  You empty out the moving truck, or near the end of whatever the first ‘phase’ is, and you get a burst of energy, thinking this is all going down easily – ‘Alligatored.’  But then as you start moving stuff into the house, it dawns on you how taxing going up and down the stairs is, and that you’re really less than halfway done at this point.  That’s the dread that sets in during ‘The Zone’ – you go into zombie mode, just working, working, with the worry that it’ll never be done.  Finally, though, you cross the finish line, or near enough.  It’s not quite a celebration, ’cause you’re exhausted, but you can at least smile once more; ‘Alien Beacon.’

That, uh, maybe makes the record sound unpleasant, because who likes moving, but look: separate it from the hassles of actually moving and instead view it as indicative of the emotional journey these four tracks represent, and it’s suggestive of how jam-packed the EP is.  Or it’s just 20 minutes of prime acid.  Your choice.