DMX Krew: Glad To Be Sad (Hypercolour)
DMX Krew is no stranger to this site, although it's been a while since last writing about his steady stream of transmissions. Some of that posts here have slowed, but Glad To Be Sad is also Ed Upton’s first release since 2017… that much is understandable, considering the continuous slew of releases from the project in 2016-2017 (3 albums and 3 EPs). In fact, 2018 was his first year off from releases altogether in a decade. Glad To Be Sad feels like a logical extension of the DMX Krew catalogue, and in particular his previous outing for Hypercolour, 2017’s Strange Directions. Upton continues to be a master of his own particular sound, fueled by vintage gear and a keen sense of space. It’s another fully instrumental outing, like most of his releases from the last several years, and it’s also a fairly even collection of tracks. The tempo varies, but the dynamics are relatively consistent. However, DMX Krew isn’t a project I associate with curveballs but rather reliability. And along those lines, Glad To Be Sad provides more of the squiggly arrangements at which Upton excels. While it’s certainly not as spirited as some of his work from the 90s, and its instrumental slant rules out most of the cheekiness of early tracks like “Street Boys,” Glad To Be Sad’s kind of sad is more oblique and spacious rather than overly emotive.
Glad To Be Sad by DMX Krew
Much like Strange Directions, the vibe is somewhere in between all of the sounds he’s shown off in the past, with a very deliberate and measured constraint and sense of space. He continues the home-spun beatmaking of Strange Directions’ “Home Made Drum Machine” with an aptly named “Part 2,” wherein samples of snaps and pops and clacks provide the drums for a spacy electro number. Similarly stabby electro bass appears on several tracks, including “Gate Output” and “Non-Entity.” Elsewhere he focuses in on vintage machines to provide the underpinnings; 8-bit crunchiness and fuzzy distortion tinges the drum tracks of “Mystic Relevation, “NP-Hard,” and “Metal Mod Beat” while Upton’s synth arrangements are airy and feaure a touch of the sadness the album’s title suggests in contrast. The chunkiest and funkiest track by far is “Jagged,” whose thick bass and steady four-to-the-floor recall vintage Chicago jack. Fans of his cheekier Fresh Up singles will enjoy the palate cleansing treat of the closing track “Winter Dance,” a swinging, melodic midtempo number. It’s a stark contrast to the beatless opener, “Shell Game,” but perhaps that’s by design. Upton may be Glad To Be Sad for the hour, but probably not all the time. Another solid entry in DMX Krew’s vast catalogue, one you’d be remiss not to check out.
Buy it: Hypercolour Bandcamp
