Bleep

Built from a sampling session of “amazing obscure records from around the world” at his local record shop, Flips Vol. 1 lands under the DMX Krew founder's EDMX alias to flip through his encyclopaedic knowledge of the hip hop canon. Ed DMX has worked characteristics of hip hop into most if not all of his many prolific aliases and releases throughout his three decades on the scene. Yet, in the middle of the 2020s, he has constructed what is his most expansive love letter to the genre so far.

Like a revered set of DJ tools beamed from decades past, or the illustrious beat tapes of Madlib, Dabrye, Ras G etc containing catalogues of worldly sourced samples, the tracks here provides windows into myriad sounds, scenes, and timelines, guided by a minimal palette of drum machine powered hip hop beats. Cascading piano flutters and dissonant vibraphone chords colour the sequencer patterns found within, jumping from twitchy boom bap to banjo twangs stitched with old school sounds.

Tracks like ‘Flute Flip’ and ‘Swim Beat’ tap into that organic sound, the former with jazz samples cut up into staccato funk licks, and the latter with gurgling disco slap bass, strutting drums, and glossy keys. ‘Weerd’ pivots into an off kilter neo-soul vibe, switching from electro synths to smooth, lush rhodes, bridging the gap between the classically styled tracks and the more experimental, industrially leaning punch of ‘Tibetan Jam’, where mallets and clanging chimes pound on molten basslines, and the sci-fi tinged ‘Furniture’ with lasering, ticking timebomb beats.

With a world of samples at his disposal, EDMX tours his hip hop influences in a cornucopia of beats on the first volume of Flips.