Press releases often begin with explanations of how their subject’s music is quite “hard to pin down”, before going to do just that. Ideally this press release would have followed that same direction were Babe Rainbow’s latest EP not so brilliantly confounding. Aptly titled, the Endless Path EP arrives propelled by the momentum of Babe Rainbow’s 2010 debut Shaved EP. That release found fans in SALEM, Gonjasufi, Lil B and Main Attraktionz amongst many others. It’s dark atmospherics and minimalist bass excursions certainly inform this new material, but it’s also strongly colored by the myriad mixtapes and “chopped & screwed” projects that Babe Rainbow has unveiled in the past year.

It would be a misnomer to say that Cameron Reed’s (the intrepid Vancouver producer behind Babe Rainbow) mood has lightened on his latest Warp release, but it has certainly expanded its monochrome universe. One particular touchstone is “Greed” which features a scene-stealing appearance from the charismatic Yung Clova of Huntsville, Alabama’s rising stars G-Side, who have been called the successor’s to Outkast’s throne atop dirty south hip-hop. “It’s All Happening” is a spectral slab of ghoulish synths and neanderthal drums and is accompanied by a disturbing video that suits it’s mood to a tee. “Chains” is a vaporous exchange between mountainous bass tones and manipulated, wordless voices while “Set Loose” is a propulsive, percussion-laced odyssey that began life as a track intended for rapper and full-time internet phenomenon Lil B.

Part of a generation of like-minded peers like Oddfuture and The Weeknd who create online worlds around their musical output, Babe Rainbow has built his own discography of remixes (MF Doom, Midnight Juggernauts, the aforementioned The Weeknd), mixtapes and more recently, production for the likes of young rap firebrands Main Attraktionz. All of these things have clearly been built into the DNA of Endless Path and as Reed’s sound continues to evolve it will also no doubt spawn many more of these bastard children of Babe Rainbow.