Cool Hand Flex – ZX2 EP

Not the easiest record to find, Cool Hand Flex’s “ZX2” EP is well worth tracking down for its 3 totally different sounding but all excellent tunes. The A side is the massive track “Your Risk”, also released on this EP. Definitely one of my favorites by him and one of his catchiest early tracks. The B1 side switches things up totally and features weird choppy drums in the A1 tune, ala Uncle 22’s “Super Mario EP”.

And then there’s this track. I don’t think I ever gave it too much thought because of the strength of the A1 track on the EP – but I just listened to it this weekend and was suprised how weird it is! The main melody sounds really familiar to me, perhaps also used in another De Underground release? There’s also some nice pitched up Zapp and Roger sounding vocoder funk stuff at 2:11 in the track.

Usually, I’d be just post “Your Risk” because that’s the bigger tune, most people would like it more and I realistically play it a lot more than B2. But I’m always looking for strange/interesting/off kilter sounding oldskool tracks, and this b2 track fits the bill perfectly. In addition, I think this track is a good example of some of the cool weird sounds found in some of those early De Undeground/related label releases, which gave their releases their own unique vibe in comparison to slightly more streamlined stuff on Sub Base and shadow.

Cool Hand Flex – ZX2 B2
link removed pending posting on hardcore junglism