- Nick Edwards is no spring chicken, but his signing to Planet Mu last year brought fresh vitality to his music as Ekoplekz. This was largely down to the addition of a dash of tunefulness and colour. Dense, murky and sometimes meandering, Ekoplekz compositions can be intimidating; letting a little light in made all the difference.
It's that very difference that makes "Entropy Flash" such a success, though it doesn't exactly retread any of the ground covered on last year's Unfidelity. Instead it's a kosmische epic: 12 minutes of a single four-note motif that plods mournfully round and round, gently brushing the heartstrings on each revolution. Layers of rich countermelody drift in and out of focus, and a globular midrange synth keeps an uneasy heartbeat pulse, but that loop is the hook on which it all swings. "Entropy Symphony" follows a similar blueprint but lacks a hook, and is much harder to gain a purchase on. A single arp flickers gently in the midrange for the first five-odd minutes, before being joined by sheets of hiss and tiny curlicues of melody. It's all quite pretty but, sprawled over a slow-moving 15 minutes, may try your patience.
TracklistA1 Entropy Flash
B1 Entropy Symphony