- Mall Grab's Elegy 12-inch takes a magpie's approach to dance music, much in the spirit of Vancouver label 1080p. We get punchy lo-fi house on "Awake"—with a sing-speak vocal in the mould of Galcher Lustwerk—and shades of classic Terrence Parker in "Never"'s easy rhythm and grainy hook. Mall Grab pecks and nibbles from other places, too, but his broad tastes in house music load the record with personality.
Most tracks shrouded in tape noise and knocked by cathedral bells would be pretty glum, but Mall Grab twists "Elegy"'s morose material into a nasty New York pump. It sounds like a Nu Groove record dressed for Sunday morning at Berghain. He does a great job massaging the male vocal as well, and the short bursts work in lockstep with panel-beating drums. On "Drive," Elegy finds a rare period of calm, but Mall Grab's enthusiasm is contagious. Amid birdsong and plush forest swells, cantering drums and glue-coated 808 percussion break into a gallop, occasionally threatening to speed off into the sunset.
TracklistA1 Awake
A2 Never
B1 Elegy
B2 Drive