Mala - Mirrors

Mala
Mirrors
2016
Spotify

Mala as a producer is always trying to find new challenges for himself. Whether going to Cuba to record his last album or using Peruvian instrumentation throughout this new record. Mala is always pushing the boundaries of what dubstep can do. The sound of the pan flute is almost ever present in some form or another, but not in the typical way. On "Cusco Street Scene" we are treated to the way the instrument does sound, but it is transformed and shaped into something new, more in line with the electronic nature of the record. Mirrors is less concerned with getting into some kind of dance groove or making people sway, instead it comes across as much more of an exploration of a style more to see where it goes than to really make something life changing. The risks being taken here are vast, because Mala is not completely entrenched in the styles He explores it can mean that He does not have complete mastery and it can become a bit generic sounding. Mirrors will often hover around a soundcape type of thing, but it never fully gets there not really achieving the picture it is trying to paint. That seems to be a trend with the entire record, when it works it really does, but when it doesn't work it leaves you alone on a island trying to make sense of what you are listening to.

"Cunumicita" one of the only tracks with vocals is just snaps, an acoustic guitar and a singer and the results are something really pretty, but completely out of sink with the rest of the album. The Spanish singer sounds fantastic and really connects, but you would never expect to hear a track like that on a album like this. To his credit Mala constantly surprises you and really seems to have very few limitations to his music. That scattergram of creativity however often leaves the songs sounding devoid of any kind of soulful sound. There is a small fire burning throughout the whole record but it never really erupts into a full on fire. "Igna Gani" however is the one that really stands out. On it Mala is able to take all of this instrumentation and shape it into a real dubstep sound that anyone would have no problem putting into their sets. It's the one time where it seems everything aligned to make a really great track, but there still is that sense of not being able to reign it in to something super super tight. The times he gets a bit grimeyer is when the record is really the most successful but those moments just do not come often enough and are really secluted in the later parts of the album. A super solid idea and a lot of greats thoughts here, but they never really coalesce into the strong record that they really needed to be.

6.1 out of 10