Elcee The Alchemist Unleashes Alter Ego on New EP
You may have seen Elcee The Alchemist recently on the Boiler Room for his performance at Abbey Road Studios, an opportunity arranged by none other than Adidas on an invite-only basis. Well, at Abbey Road, Elcee was fortunate to receive guidance from UK legend Slowthai - an influence that creeps through on Elcee’s latest EP The Odyssey Vol. II, set to release tomorrow, Friday the 11th of March 2022.
The 13-track EP hits streaming platforms tomorrow, 11/03/22, for which the Spotify pre-save link can be found here. Following The Odyssey Vol. I’s release last year, Elcee released the acapellas and encouraged producers to make them their own. The fruit of this exercise has materialised into 4 remixes to add onto the 9 original tracks in The Odyssey Vol. II.
Elcee’s new EP comes as a result of his track-a-week project - an evolution from last year’s Freestyle Fridays, which informed The Odyssey Vol. I, that have now developed into single-verse tracks. With the vocals, production, mix and master all done single-handedly by Elcee the Alchemist, this EP sounds exactly as Elcee intended to portray what he describes as “a reflection of my state of mind in that moment in time”.
“This is a side project. The best is yet to come.”
What is unique to The Odyssey Vol. II is that each track is roughly 1 minute and 30 seconds in length, meaning that the 9 original tracks - an intro and 8 songs - can be heard from start to finish in under 15 minutes. Even with the remixed tracks, the EP takes under 20 minutes to listen to, and - if you’re a fan of rap music - we promise it’s worth it.
Usually, Elcee tracks are an ethereal soliloquy where he maintains peaceful lyrics with his distinctively smooth vocals. However, track 4 on the imminent tape Brain Farts intros with Elcee exclaiming “Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Sir Elcee The Alchemist. I’m here to fuck up your day. I hope it’s as disgusting as you are”, from which point Elcee goes on to spit an aggressive - but lyrically complex, nonetheless - verse with ad libs reminiscent of early 2000’s fight music. Perhaps this is Elcee’s alter ego, or perhaps it’s come as a tip from crazy guy Slowthai; whatever the case, Brain Farts deserves to be a pro fighter’s ring walk music.
Contrasting to the uptempo of Brain Farts are tracks such as Liminal, where Elcee humbly and honestly raps a poetic stanza telling times of hardship and uncertainty in his life. The Odyssey Vol. II is a collage of thoughts and experiences, presented through a range of familiar and post-genre sounds. While this EP receives an ‘urgent’ rating in necessity of listening from SOuthside Magazine, Elcee nevertheless affirms: “this is a side project. The best is yet to come.”
Album highlights:
CRANK
Brain Farts
Liminal
Don’t take your eyes off Elcee The Alchemist in 2022, and pre-save the 20-minute-long The Odyssey Vol. II to your Spotify here or by tapping the album artwork below.
