Trip Hop Exposure Week: EZ3kiel

     Welcome to the second installment of Trip Hop Exposure, we have another very short one artist post for you but rest assured the tunes are top notch and the writing is horrible, which is, I understand, everything you've come to expect.

     Formed in 1993 EZ3kiel is a dub/electroacoustic group from Tours, France. But what is eleectroacoustic you might be wondering, well for now lets just explain it as another facet of trip hop. Apparently they chose the name Ezekiel in reference to Pulp Fiction by Quentin Tarantino, and upon discovering that the domain with the same name had been taken they did what any self respecting internet user would, added some numbers in. So because Google translate is what it is I can tell you that from 1993 to now the band has around four members and recorded seven albums including a live tour album/dvd. But again if you could turn your attention to the 2003 album, Barb4ry, we can begin today's lesson.

     Before we get too far click the album link above for an old download from Sharebee, the password for the file should be secretmusicbox, all one word, if you encounter any problems feel free to leave a complaint which will promptly be rebutted with a recommendation to procreate with yourself and find the link on your own. So unpleasantness aside Barb4ry is a masterpiece of electric music, and demonstrates how far one can take the label "trip hop". Now we know that trip hop is usually the instrumental and downtempo is usually the vocal tracks, well with those labels we start to add "dub" which, you guessed it, means that besides an amazing cultural sound we also gets a wee bit of bass. To completely understand what I mean you should hear the whole album but from the first moment you'll get what I mean by cultural, the eleven tracks that make up this golden album ooze sophistication and that traditional violin/accordion/whatever else they play in Europe tune. The samples are top notch, the vocals are just intense enough to complement the overall sound and who ever was behind the controls had a metric ass tonne of fun. Unlike other trip hop this music will not calm you down, this isn't "chillout" music, this is a blood fueled, adrenaline pumping ride through the mad house perfect for those days you find yourself driving to war not work, be prepared.