Amazingly cheesy emo wave rock for Generation Z.
It never gets more nihilistic: “I’m getting drowned by the water / I’m getting fucked up and everybody knows / But that’s just how it goes.” Depressed and still loud, that’s Ekkstacy’s program. His 2021 debut was called NEGATIVE, and he named his second album after himself. Yes, this is emo from the noughties, Ekkstacy himself cites New Wave, SoundCloud rap and postpunk as inspirations. But it was never that moody: “You make me feel like home / But I don’t have one of those,” he sings. Or: “If you go / I’m gonna kill myself.”
It’s the mixture that counts
As extreme as the feelings are, the music is just as monotonous. EKKSTACY has a similar problem to so much of what is composed for streaming services today: it is primarily monochrome. There are almost only two-minute tracks, reverb on the vocals, a lot of reverb on the strings and a few melancholic beats underneath, a catchy melody, and so heartbreak, self-discovery and romance just get ahead of the cheesiness and find it direct path to the Tik Tok sounds.
And that’s actually enough to act as a breath of fresh air in a genre otherwise paralyzed by narcotics and depression. Not that there aren’t plenty of them at Ekkstacy, but it’s the mix that counts. Because Ekkstacy wants to say something big and poetic, and even if it still sticks in his throat a little, Generation Z needs someone like him right now.