Cex - His Crimes

The very new and exciting Free Music Archive, just posted a couple tracks from the most recent Cex EP. I should probably put quotation marks around “recent” — I first heard these tracks right around when I was working a record for Mr. Kidwell way back in 2006, and it looks like they were actually released in April of last year. Regardless, I’m excited to see these tracks coming to light now, as they’re really pretty special. The music is composed entirely of samples from a certain immortal 1970’s rock band whose name rhymes with Dealie Stan (hence the title of the EP, Dannibal). This sounds like a gimmick, but it doesn’t come off that way: the music itself holds up, regardless of whether you know the little underlying trick. The track above is my particular favorite. Disembodied, distorted vocal samples and white noise build into an ambient drone, with tribal-ish percussion propelling everything forward. A recognizably human sample keeps repeating over a grindingly melodic, metallic bassline. It lasts ten minutes, and feels like it could go on forever.