Music Review: Ace Adams – 4 of a Kind EP

Ace Adams’ new EP is like a trip through a dark, weird, small town where outsiders stick out like sore thumbs. It’s a place that’s dimly lit by fading fluorescent lights, letting the shadows encroach more and more; a perfect horror movie setting where otherwise normal scenarios seem fated to turn thrilling. Ultimately, it’s a daring project that bristles with sinister artistic ideas.

“Step Aside” commences with thunderous stomps that balance intense heaviness, knotty, time-stretching progressions, near-symphonic bombast, a taut hook, a foreboding chorus, and killer vocals. Ace Adams’ ambition of working with artists such as Lecrae and Dua Lipa isn’t far if he continues to create  records such as this, which blossoms into a cohesive and well-rounded statement opener.

“All About You” is a masterpiece of narrative songwriting – shadowy but powerfully evocative, twisting even mundane descriptives into something gripping much more like a lurching monster as seen on the track “In The Jungle.” The song pulsates with needling melodies, DMX-like choruses and booming bass, sparse and slow-building as Ace Adams and Wild Card sketch out a night drive that feels like you’re on an endless road into pitch black.

Beings inspired by his favorite producer Timbaland, Ace Adams adds his own flamboyant drums on “Vegas Life” and bounces it off on bucking 2000s synths and R&B-like vocals. But “All Eyes On Me” sees him and Max Bet become once again unstoppable, as they thunder through the track, reaching a climax with their throaty roars while the music crashes around them.

“Heat” is the ultimate record that perhaps is the first time we see Ace Adams exploit his artistical influences alongside Wild Card, exploring the expanded instrumentation to its full potential. Spirited vocal chants, haunting synths and solid drums develop their own small additions which add to the overall feeling of fullness on the EP. This record undeniably sounds like a Timbaland and Swizz Beats collaboration, only this time all the nuts and bolts of the Halloween roller coaster have been tightened.

One can feel the EP being devilishly delightful with the anticipation that something is lurking in the shadows ready to pounce but at the same time thick layers of sound rage on, blending the souls of each record to create a refreshingly blunt, human and conversationally direct experience. Ace Adams’ control is masterful, not just in translating his thoughts so pristinely into hard-hitting tunes, but this EP is testament to just how talented he is as a musician.

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