Bleep

Peggy Gou kicked off her Gudu Records imprint earlier in 2019 with the Moment EP - a record which, among other things, gave us the hit tune ‘Starry Night’. For the label’s second drop we find Gou welcoming in one of the clubsphere’s most reliable party-starters in DMX Krew (Edward Upton). Much like Moment, the Don’t You Wanna Play? EP is a release that bursts at the seams with buoyant club fare. Crafted largely from a DX100 and TR909, the quartet of tunes Upton serves us here are full of vim and verve.

Don’t You Wanna Play? opener ‘CJ Vibe’ and the title-track are both charmingly melodious, with noodly keyboard runs zipping about over chunky techno jacks. ‘110 Series’ shifts the melodic material downwards, with a couple of low- and mid-range lines dovetailing sweetly atop a crisp-cut electro groove. Even when the tuneful elements are a little more angular, as they are on ‘Dxioo’, Upton still manages to draw you in with the sheer energy of the track. Many artists are recalled by Upton’s machine-funk sound - Drexciya, Jerome Hill, Gou herself - but there is a uniquely devil-may-care element to his style that makes DMX Krew records instantly recognisable.

DMX Krew is an incredibly prolific artist who releases numerous records each year, but somehow the one born Edward Upton manages to keep his sound fresh from record to record. This theory holds true once again on his new Gudu Records EP Don’t You Wanna Play?.