4 out of 5

Produced by: Ecid

Label: Fill in the Blanks

Crass and wandering as heavy, master producer Ecid strikes again with a comparatively focused solo effort, his cluttered glitch hop beats appropriately doing head-bob first, excesses second.  Pheremone Heavy still suffers from being over-stuffed, but not from the usual Ecid indulgences; rather, the artist seems almost too intent to try to ward off some of the slacker snark tendencies that have bloated past records by including both more pop-friendly tracks – Number One on a Hit List, New Life – as well cuts that could almost be confused for traditional hip hop, like the title track.  Interestingly, the majority of this is shushed to the latter half of the album, which is a bit distracting at first, as it makes the first 30 minutes or so feel like a mini-album worth of Ecid classics.  And classics they are, E’s weed-soaked slow flow kept on point during some of his most inventive and devious beats and a surprising mix of hilariously gross metaphors, childish cracks, and subversively smart comments that emerge from in between.  I mean, just let that opening track hit you over the head, then give it another pass to laugh at the hilarious lyrical comparisons, then one more pass to catch the details Ecid’s slipping into both those layers.

The thing is, despite the album’s tonal split, both parts are really good.  The radio-friendly side of Ecid is catchy as all get out, and his ‘serious’ side shows the adult that’s been hiding beneath the fucking and partying narratives, or rather shows that the restraint E can bring to his productions for other artists can equally be applied to his own work and for his own (and our) benefit.

Yeah, there are still those times you wish Ecid would stay on point instead of making a joke, and the repeated nods to weed and – I guess a new discovery – yoga are Ecid’s version of (and thus similarly tiresome as) any rapper’s “I’m the best” boasts, but through and through the creativity of the album is undeniable, and the rush of its first bundle of tracks of palpable.  The shift toward some different fare in later tracks makes the album on a whole slightly off-kilter, but song for song, it’s probably Ecid’s most impressive release yet.