- For all of the accolades heaped upon Jus-Ed for his skills behind the decks, it's less often that you see heads repping for his production prowess. That, my friends, is silly. Edward McKeithen's tracks are analogue deep house prowlers, tunes that take advantage of his light melodic touch and his innate sense of how to get the most out of a rhythm.
His talents are on full display on UQ-020, which sees Ed leaning more than ever on his gentle and sweet side to probe out the sort of feeling from his machines that few producers are able to reproduce without sounding cloying. Somehow, though, both "Sweetness" and "For Give Me Son" unleash aching synths that do nothing but emote throughout their length while the beat pounds away in the background with fake claves, fake cymbals and fake wind popping up to provide atmosphere within the spare surroundings.
It's perhaps an unlikely comparison, but Ed's synth programming resembles early IDM producers in the mid-'90s who were feeling their way through their gear to mix plaintive themes and overcharged rhythms together. Ed's beats are more straight, of course, but the effect is the same: Each part interlocks beautifully into some far greater than the sum of its parts.
Tracklist A Sweetness
B For Give Me Son