We’ve spent a load of time praising aka Ekoplekz on these pages, and evidently it’s bound to continue. He’s teamed up with Editions Mego and released a 45 minute LP across two plates that’s completely blown us away. If Dromilly Vale and Snuff Mill Tapes took us to new furthest reaches, then Plekzationz is the crowning glory on all his experiences over the last three years.
Blessed with the ability to talk from within machines, and even more importantly talent in making the sound ten times bigger than it otherwise would be, the 11+ minutes per track is essential. As an all analogue artist (he even replayed the sounds of Usual Drama for his ‘replekz’ on AWK004) there’s no chopping and changing after the record button goes up. The pieces are created and designed to be listened to as extended journeys in which he twists the effects and knobs on his machines to near death, whilst staying back far enough to keep the original spirit of the song remaining at the end.
This is something he’s mastered on the new album, the ability to use the constraints of each track to his advantage, recognising what makes each of them unique then taking it as far to these walls as possible, without losing the initial idea. Plekzationz has been described as a “hard-listen’, but that’s not a fair comment. Rather, the four-track four-side album is a unique listen, creatively and individually Ekoplekz, who sounds like nothing else out there. It’s a long listen that can’t really be broken up, but incredibly worthwhile. No loops or boring breakdowns, just evolution and electronic soul. It’s interesting to note that three of the locations of the recordings are at least on their second recurrence in his projects, namely Westerleigh Works, Fountain Square and Dromilly Vale.
Like us, Mr Edwards is a big fan of Keith Fullerton Whitman, who posted a nice write-up for his online store, and as one of the masters of this scene offers some pretty heavily weighted praise and opinion on it.
via Mimaroglu Music
september 2012 release ; … mr. edwards’ work as ekoplekz has eluded me thusfar (despite trying in earnest to track down physical evidence of it on many, many occasions) … this newly recorded (spring 2012) quartet of side-length extrapolations is something of a revelation ; rooted in the “live electronic” tradition (word is … he does the whole thing in-situ w/ a scant assortment of table-top electronics) inasmuch as the early-mid-80’s uk wave (cabaret voltaire, 23 skidoo, this heat … def. frames of reference here) …
… of all of the artists currently mining the darker back-alleys of club-footed electronic music’s sordid past(s), this is arguably the best example of a perceived “nostalgia” for a thing (sheffield, ca. 1973-78) being firmly supplanted (again, purely contemporarily) by a present-tech stab at the same approach(es) … the timbral densities & grid-locked pulsing(s) of this music, as it’s presented here, could really only have been done over the past few years (speaking purely in terms of the advancement of portable audio-production solutions) ; edwards is a str8-magician at weaving through portals of form, yielding a narrative arc that’s both momentum-pushing and/or halting …
… one of my favorite records of the year thus far, without a doubt ; highly recommended !!!
For the Ekoplekz groupies (we’ve still not cracked the mystery of how this electronica man gets scores of attractive women at his gigs) you can now frame your very own portrait of him in the oil-painting stylised cover that the plates come in. Done by Hollis Art, there’s a quality blogpost on the process of the artwork creation up here: http://hollisart.wordpress.com/2012/08/14/nick-edwards-ekoplekz-album-art/
Further good news is that this is the type of the iceberg in recent and forthcoming releases from Ekoplekz. His combined cassette release with Nochexxx recently (which gets a pretty good breakdown via Sonic Router here: http://www.sonicrouter.com/2012/08/noted-chxfxplkzfx-exoferriclatent-acid-further/) was pretty stunning and there’s more on the way. He’s gone and set up a release page including the forthcoming joints, all of which are worth keeping an eye on, through the Ekoplekz Bulletin Board called ‘Buyer’s Guide.’
For starters, check the above mentioned release with Nochexxx for stream below. Under the guises CHXFX/PLKZFX the double cassette release is gone on physical but can still be purchased digitally. Exoferric/Latent Acid is a completely different experience to the Plekzationz release, just another example of the depth and experience from both artists involved.