Endemik Remote Ensemble is a collection of six experimental hip hop producers (mostly) from Canada consisting of Deadly Stare, EMC, Hermitofthewoods, Maki, sign one, and soso. As implied by their name, they collaborated remotely on a few different tracks until they finally had a finished product, They Fired With Their Lives.

With a group of six producers living apart from each other in different parts of Canada and the U.S., this project was given shape by coming up with a sort of “telephone” system of collaboration. Each producer brought one song to the table, then passed it on to the next producer in line, who would add something to the song, and then pass it down the line until it made it back to the original producer, who could then finalize anything with the arrangement. This helped streamline the process and gave everyone a chance to contribute equally, but it also means that everything is kind of mixed up in a blender. If you really know all of the artists involved and study all of the tracks carefully, you might be able to pick apart a couple of the tracks, but mostly the music just finds this wonderful and weird in-between space. It helps that all of the producers are already on the same indie label and have plenty in common in terms of their general styles, so it’s not like you’re taking some pop producer and pushing them out of their element. These are all producers who work on the more avantgarde side of hip hop, so it just feels natural to get this experimental and challenging project from them as a group. It’s dark and moody, and it requires a little bit of patience, but there are also a few moments where the EP really bumps as well. It’s absolutely a project meant for headphones, where you can listen to all of the nuanced elements that each producer has snuck into each track.

They Fired With Their Lives is a great experimental hip hop project built around collaboration and pushing the boundaries of the genre. It’s not typical in any sense of the word, and it’s dark and moody, but there is a certain level of fun coming out of the creative encouragement of the project that translates into the music as well.