It’s been exactly twenty years since UK-based electronic producer Ed Upton released his debut album under his DMX Krew alias ‘The Sound Of The Streets’, and in the two decades since he’s scarcely paused for breath, releasing a dizzying amount of albums and EPs on labels including Rephlex, Spectral Sounds and Permanent Vacation. A scant few months on from his Buddha-centred ‘There Is No Enduring Self’ collection on Mystic & Quantum, this latest album ‘You Exist’ sees him offering up exactly what longtime DMX Krew listeners will no doubt expect; eighties-centred retro electro-funk grooves infused with a trace of obscure library music, the output of his Fresh Up label providing the perfect companion to the sounds and influences being explored here. ‘Spiritual Encounter’ opens proceedings here on an upbeat note, sending propulsive house rhythms gliding against electro-funk bass runs and bright, gauzy analogue synth tones, the end result calling to mind some previously undiscovered Italo-disco jam session between Giorgio Moroder and Jan Hammer.
If there’s more than a hint of Miami Vice’s pink sportscars to the aforementioned track, ‘Hard Copy’ ventures further out into odd Euro-tinged disco grooves as burbling analogue bass sequences roll beneath snapping drum machine rhythms and snaking flute melodies, vampy synths starting to sneak in during the second half as the drum patterns tighten up. Elsewhere, ‘Dark Rider’ lives up to its title as as crisply mechanistic drum machines power against surging bass runs, the addition of minor-key synths and bleeping electronics casting everything with a sinister yet deeply funk robotic vibe, before ‘Woolly Hat’ offers up this collection’s most peaktime dancefloor oriented moment as rippling bass arpeggios and brooding synths send things gliding out into sheeny Italo-house pastures, only for things to suddenly take a side trip into synthy soul during the breakdown. Overall, there’s less of an emphasis upon surprises here than there is on quality electro grooves, and longtime DMX Krew fans are unlikely to be disappointed with this characteristically classy latest effort.
