The Dubstep dignitary has dropped another doozie. Codename X is the name of the album given to us in this month of February in 2015. It has been 4 years since Excision’s last album (X-Rated) and with that album and all previous work including EPs and singles, he has set the bar incredibly high for himself. He has established himself as a giant in the scene and expects to hold that position for a while and he continues to make that statement with the music he releases. This album not X-cluded. (eh?)
The album starts off with the title track that was released 4 days ahead of its accompanying tracks. I can’t lie when I say that I listened to this song on repeat for a pretty decent amount of time at an unsafe volume. It transported me back to 2010 when I was just figuring out who this artist was and nearly every track had my neck muscles in knots. The combination of woofer pumping bass, ear itching screeches, and audible allusions to metal made me so very happy. I was glad to have this as an addition to this album as a kind of reminder that this music can still get me going. That’s not to say that Excision hasn’t moved onto other sounds. He is not all blood and fire. He’s got an ear for softer tones and almost emotional melodies. With the track “Float Away”, he goes into something that makes you want to do just that. I can seriously hear the lead from Bassnectar’s “Timestretch” in this track. Try it out for yourself. The similarity is uncanny. I like this sound from Excision. I think that he sometimes gets a bad rep as a solely “brostep” artist when clearly he can do something else.
If you have ever been to a show featuring Excision, you will know that the crowd is usually instructed to hold their arms up in a cross to resemble an X. This has become commonplace in all Excision shows in recent years and there have been a few songs that capitalize on this. Included in this album is another anthem for lovers of the body language. “X Up” is not only a call to action, but it also fulfills the seeming requirement for a track featuring Messinian (aka the dude who has been in every Shambhala mix since 2011. Oddly enough, this song was played in a mix he did for Shambhala in 2014. If you can recall, it was the first song in that mix.
If you have been to any of Excision’s most recent shows, you would have heard the faint sound of purring amongst mechanical whirring and synthy build-up. This would have lead to Excision’s latest collaboration with a long time partner Downlink: Robo Kitty. I’m not too particularly fond of the song, but it does have its merits. It’s just as hard hitting as anything that duo has ever put out and it contains all the elements required to get a crowd moving, but there is just something about the sound of a cat wailing in my ears that makes me uneasy.
The last two notables I will bring up are “Push It Up” and “Night Shine”. These two push Excision into another period of music. These were collaborations with other artists (Space Laces and The Frim, respectively), but that doesn’t take away from the fact that Excision has put out something different than his norm in this album.
Overall, I give this album a solid 8 out of 10 Xs. I can’t deny the energy this album puts into my system. I’m considering making this my morning commute soundtrack as a form of audible caffeine (Something I highly consider you try to do while passing up the coffee shop). I also cannot seem to reject what has been officially deemed “brostep”. I can’t help that it sounds good to me. I’m not ashamed. It gets my blood pumping and my ears reaching out for more albums like “Codename X”
