The Acidophiles – Earth

By Conor Hooley
The schizophrenic stylings of Fort Collins-based electronic duo The Acidophiles (Zac Rachid and Amandha Gibson) are on full display on their new EP. Earth is a continuously mixed, five-track offering geared toward both lush atmospherics and bass-heavy dance floor bombs.
Things kick off with “New Beginning,” a brief ambient piece that leads into the title track. Leading with a meticulously looped, trance-tinged synth line and a few sparse rainforest sounds, the song develops a sense of intrigue for about five minutes. But when a semi-climatic dubstep beat drops in to bring everything back to the dancefloor, the end result feels slightly unsatisfying.
The next song, “Sacred,” begins as a scorching throwback chemical breaks number with a modernized touch, undoubtedly one of the high points of the EP. But, like the preceding track, the song disappointingly shifts gears, morphing into a merely passable glitch-hop number halfway through.
“Incoming” has no such issues, offering up cracking mid-tempo bass-heavy glitch hop. Front to back, it’s the strongest full song on Earth, and demands to be heard on a quality sound system.
“Grounded” wraps things up, and proves to be anything but what its name might imply. It begins as a fantastic, full throttle psytrance tune and then, midway through – you guessed it – slows back down to dubstep before tapering off into more ambiance.
The equal opportunity genre crossing occasionally makes Earth feel jarring and uneven, but it is nonetheless a solid EP overall, and the good moments are really good.
theacidophiles.bandcamp.com