A few years ago, out of nowhere as it seemed, a guy called Garry McCartney or Ejeca as he calls himself as an artist, stepped into the game with quite some noise as the old skool House vibes he was able to deliver found some joy from Pete Tong to Roger Sanchez and back. I must admit I was a fan from the first second and some of his tracks never left my box ever since. In the same time I have to point out that the Belfast based DJ & producer has served some quite minimal jams after his first bunch of releases, which might have been a natural development for him, many fans of the first, amazing phase did feel this move a bit too abstract though. Even happier they will be, that the old Ejeca sound seems to be back with this quality approach on Richy Ahmed’s Four Thirty Two label.
The man carves out an energetic slab of audacious party house on ‘Unloving’, resplendent with rolling beats and stabby chords, and topped off with dramatic strings and vocal chops.
Elsewhere on the EP he unleashes some 303 bassline action and dark vocals on ‘Standard Acid House Track’, which thankfully rises well above anything standard! And on ‘Crystal Maze’, Ejeca harks back to the darker dance energies that were a staple of the late 1980s UK acid house boom. Wrapping up the EP, ‘Iswhatitis’ gets ever so slightly twisted with an orbiting synth hook and weighty stabs over a spirited rhythm section. If that wasn’t enough already, Paul Woolford under his Special Request guise jumps on board just to deliver a mix that will last forever. This is 88 Acid Revival sound as you used to hear it from Altern 8, Bizarre Inc. or Shades Of Rhythm back in the day in perfection and it surely is a version that will get a great episode of UK’s Dance Music closer to a totally new generation of ravers. Thank you Paul Woolford, thank you Ejeca!
https://soundcloud.com/fourthirty2/sets/ejeca-the-crystal-maze-ep-432r007-clips
4.5 out of 5
Reviewed by MANNIX
