Excision 'X Rated' Review

It’s been a good year for mau5trap recordings. It seems that every time this label drops a new major release, it takes hold of Beatport’s Top 10. Last October, Skrillex’s ‘Scary Monsters & Nice Sprites’ was released, heralding the start of a new era in dubstep, namely one where ‘traditional’ dubstep aficionados and Skrillex fans argue it out on internet message boards and on video comments as to whether this new breed of dubstep, electro house, or whatever you want to call it is a move in the right direction in the field of EDM. Like most things on the internet, of course, these discussions tend to deteriorate into mudslinging and name calling in just a few posts. Clearly if something’s this contentious, Skrillex is doing it right. Since then, the founder of the label himself, deadmau5, dropped 4x4=12 in early December, after all but a couple of the tracks had been released as singles, and soon after, Feed Me (the dubstep alias of Spor) unveiled his debut EP, which again dominated the Beatport charts after its release. Along with releases by Moguai, Chris Lake and DJ Aero, to name a few, mau5trap are proving themselves to be a force to be reckoned with.

Now, their latest release has been unleashed – Excision’s debut album ‘X-Rated’. After showcasing his track ‘Deviance’ on the recent ‘Meowingtons Hax Tour Trax’ compilations, the ominously-named Canadian is poised to smash dancefloors worldwide. Even from its cover, X-Rated looks to be an album with grandiose intentions.  The artwork depicts what Transformers might well look like if Blizzard Studios got their hands on the licence – an angry-looking demonic creation wreathed in lightning and leaking blue light. And the opening track certainly sounds befitting of this. Opening with bass-loaded growling and crashing, before deep vocals by Messinian kick in, over a chopped-up, stuttering bass-monster of a track. Unfortunately, Messinian’s lyrics are limited to the yawningly-obviously ‘X’ related puns, which, among others, have been done to death by Xzibit, DMX and the X-Executioners. This aside, ‘X Rated’ is a serious tune – clearly Excision means business with this album.

X Rated thunders along during ‘The Underground’, which uses a bouncy dubstep backing and scattered samples to guarantee dancefloor destruction, occasionally veering off into sinister synth sounds, before launching back into the unrelenting beats of the main rhythm. The album also offers some electro house, in the form of the manic ‘Ohhh Nooo’, loaded with acid synths over a thunderous four on the floor beat, as well as the similarly-frantic ‘Swerve’. Excision blurs genres even further with ‘8-Bit Superhero’, another collaboration with Datsik, sampling the Megaman 2 theme over a drum-step backing and a catchy as hell lead riff.

However, Excision also proves to us that he is also capable of slowing things down a bit, for example on the album’s closing track, ‘Jaguar’. Already this one seems to be dividing opinion, with Mr. Hudson’s auto-tuned vocals upsetting some listeners. But these seem to set the tone well for the track, a moody, plaintive respite from the onslaught of the rest of the album. But Excision’s collaboration with Savvy, ‘Sleepless’ is where this album perhaps shines brightest of all. A complete change in mood, this track brings in deep piano, and echoing, almost hauntingly-beautiful vocals,  gradually building to melodic dubstep. If nothing else, you should give this track a try – this is like deadmau5’s ‘Strobe’, a track to end the night, exhilarating, simultaneously dark and euphoric. This is a late-night track  if ever there was one – kill the lights, crack open a beer, sit back and let this one wash over you. You won’t regret it. 

So, is Excision’s album a worthwhile listen? Well, it certainly isn’t for everyone. Even among fans of electronic dance music, this one will have fairly limited appeal. Fans of the grimy side of electronica will definitely enjoy it – Excision shares a lot of common ground with the likes of Noisia, Skrillex, 16-bit, Magnetic Man, Feed Me & Nero. But this really is an extremely grimy album, veering off into what sounds more like agricultural machinery at times. Certainly, minimal fans should probably steer well clear of this one. There are enough quality tunes on show here to recommend the album – while it loses direction a bit on tracks 7-9, there’s a lot to enjoy among the rest of it. Excision has delivered on form here, and this album shows great promise for the future. He’s rumoured to be working with deadmau5 soon on some new releases – definitely worth keeping an eye on that. Time to sign off, and find out what Porter Robinson’s been up to on the newly-launched Owsla Records…

Rating – 4/5