We like Ed209 here and have given rave reviews to his previous production work on the earlier Exstatic based EPs. We are a bit confused as we have noticed another Ed209 doing some Dubstep or some other such stuff and we wondered if this was the same guy turning his skills to another genre. Well, never mind, he is now back to hip hop and for this, the last of the proposed Exstatic EPs he has pulled out all the stops with the vocalists he has got to perform over his beats.

Can it really be two years since the last EP came out? Apparently it is, and the new EP picks up straight where the last one left off. What follows is a journey into crusty vinyl and dusty 80’s cinematic inspiration. The EP kicks off with an ironic take on being a superstar… and how to get out of the business. A gentle piano pans left and right, before a hail of gunfire brings us to the first main track on which Konny Kon rains syllables over a very Heavy Bronx style beat.


Tracklist:
A Side (Vocal)
01. Ave Atque Vale
02. Black Thorn Rose ft. Konny Kon
03. Inside Your Mind ft. Cappo
04. The Majestic ft. Cappo
05. The Great Godz ft. C-Mone
06. Hail And Farewell
B Side (Instrumental)
01. Main Theme
02. Passage To Cuba (Black Thorn Rose inst)
03. The Voice Of Reason (Inside Your Mind inst)
04. Motorcycle Pursuit (The Majestic inst)
05. Showdown (The Great Godz inst)
06. All Is Fair (End Theme)

Strings, horn stabs, big drums and the occasional bongo to fill out the slow tempo head nodding beat for a hardcore classic. Konny’s Manchester accent is a fresh change from the usual London youts. Basically Kon The Baptist bigs up his growing status as well as repping for his ends and generally making for a mean offering.

Cappo has been on the dl for a while it would seem, but this return shown him off at his best as he appears to be on top form. Smashing cymbals and electric guitar samples as well as swooping synths make for a noisy and complex backing for Caps to stuff in the syllables over. The intensity is right there throughout Inside Your Mind.

Cappo again graces The Majestic which has similar smashing cymbals as well as well chosen, but intriguingly sequenced funk guitar samples. Again a really harsh sounding track providing evidence that Cappo is without doubt one of the fiercest sounding MCs on the planet.

The EP is rounded off with The Great Godz a downbeat track on which C-Mone is employed to deliver one of her characteristic raps which is quite personal and insightful with regard to human emotions. Effected strings give a space age feel to Ed209’s production which rocks along with a ticking metronomic beat.

The wind down track features a big sounding beat and a whole host of samples for the sort of DJ track you don’t get as much these days. 

As with the previous EPs the B-Side is the instrumentals of the tracks on the A Side, but they stand alone on their own merits and form a cinematic sound track, which only goes to point out the underlying depth of Ed’s compositions. Additionally, the vinyl version of the release comes with a poster of the cover artwork. Once again Ed has produced a stormer of a release and we suggest you check it out.

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