Ekoplekz delivers third LP for Planet Mu

Nick Edwards pays homage to his roots on Reflekzionz.

The evolution of the Ekoplekz project has been a particularly fascinating one. From the challenging beginnings of the Stalag Zero 12” on Punch Drunk through a multitude of outings on Further, Mordant Music and Public Information, stopping off for an eponymous diversion on Editions Mego and collaborating with Bass Clef right up to the Unfidelity and Four Track Mind albums on Planet Mu last year. Nick Edwards’ message over that time has reached from a dense fog of punky electronics through to a bubbling melodic psychedelia without losing its fierce experimental aesthetic, as we celebrated in our review of Unfidelity. The recently released Entropik EP for Planet Mu found the Ekoplekz sound revelling in drawn out track lengths with more emphasis on harmonious tones than ever before.

Now Edwards is back in the Mu fold with a third LP that reportedly sports “a subtle change in emphasis” compared to previous outings. As the label states, “there are less of the radiophonic sci-fi sounds, ancient drum machines and none of the post-punk bass or guitar. Instead, Nick Edwards mainly focuses on invoking a blurry, saturated false-memory of the leftfield electronica that was the soundtrack to his life in the early to mid-1990s.” Rest assured it still sounds very much like an Ekoplekz record, from the red-lining synths to the bubbling percussive processing, just with a more accessible slant to the space-age machine murmurings.

Planet Mu will release Reflexionz by Ekoplekz on May 18.

Tracklisting:

1. A Caustic Romance
2. Quakers Road Skank
3. Seduktion
4. Repeater (How Did It Feel?)
5. Downtone
6. Midnight Cliffs
7. Tremulant
8. Dubnium 268
9. Canon’s Marsh
10. Black Calkz
11. Saturation (Full Rinse)
12. Day In May

Header photo used courtesy of Alex Digard.