Multiplex
With Hands And Feet EP
(Multiplex Music)
Melodic and crunchy are two tastes that taste great together, and although that combination has been given the massive workover in the past 10 years, Multiplex are a duo that manage to still create interesting and absorbing music that contains those two qualities in spades. Having released a couple discs on the Toytronic label, the group is stepping out on their own with this first release on their own Multiplex label. The result is a 10 track, 40 minute EP that finds the group dropping one new track and then letting friends give it the runaround.
The track from the group opens the disc and is everything you've come to expect from them as multiple gurgling melodies interplay with one another while sharp stabs of noise and chimes offset one another and beats threaten to drop fully but never quite do. Digitonal follows with a string-laden mix that lets the beats ride more fully and submerges the melodies even more, giving the whole thing a Murcof-esque feel that works quite well.
The ever-present (or perhaps it just seems like that after his recent "Fridge Life" EP and split release as Pigeon Funk) Safety Scissors takes things into a completely different realm, layering dense, clangy beats over repetitive melodies and squelched 8-bit stabs while Fizzarum slows everything down into a junk-in-the-trunk thumper that cruises the original right into low-rider land.
On the other side of the coin, the prolific Shitmat (Planet Mu) offers up two spattercore remixes that basically leave the track totally unrecognizable (and pretty much bust up the feel of the entire release) while Novel 23 falls on the other side of the coin and does little more than add a thicker beat to the original. Fortunately, Dictaphone closes out the short release with a gem that mixes in some live instrumentation for a real slow-burner gem that I only wish would have lasted longer. If you're a fan of Multiplex (or the Toytronic label), this one's obviously going to be up your alley.
Rating: 6.75
