- A sterling collection of hi-fi hooks and heavy duty dance music, informed by the Australian producer's adopted home of London.
- A lot of people have a lot of opinions about Mall Grab. He represents different things to different audiences—the boy wonder, the lo-fi house guy who accidentally struck gold, maybe even the big room sell-out. Missing in so many of these discussions is why Jordon Alexander became so popular in the first place. The answer is, simply, because he's a brilliant musician. You could hear it in the earliest lo-fi stuff, whether he was riffing off Galcher Lustwerk or Wiley, and you can hear it later on tracks like "Positive Energy Forever," from when he was going through his techno phase. As his music became glossier and more professional sounding, his audience grew larger, following him through genres and scenes as he moved himself to London and started to immerse himself in sounds he once only knew from afar. It's been a bumpy ride through pastiche and growing pains, but when Alexander reappeared with "Metaphysical," the first single from his debut album, What I Breathe, suddenly everything felt convincing. It was if all the pieces had finally fallen into place.
"Metaphysical" is a surprisingly heavy jungle techno track that, if you were waxing lyrical, you might say pays homage to London's long history of pirate radio. (You could also say that it's an on-trend breakbeat techno track.) But what makes it striking is how physical it feels—it would be brutal if it weren't so smooth. That's the rub across What I Breathe's 13 tracks, where Alexander tackles genre pieces with an intoxicating mixture of earnestness and expertise. It's one of those old-fashioned electronic music statement albums loaded with big feelings and dripping with crossover appeal.
What I Breathe is so all-over-the-place that it could have sounded generic if it weren't for Alexander's sterling production values. The opening stretch is sprint, from the blissed-out piano house of "Love Reigns" through to the Chemical Brothers-style psychedelic majesty of "Without The Sun," where Alexander's voice soars, buoyed by the trancey arps like a bird riding a thermal updraft. In between, he collaborates with fellow Londoner Nia Archives for some punch-drunk vocal house that channels underrated Shut Up And Dance star Nicolette, and Brendan Yates from crossover punk darlings Turnstile, whose throaty shout on "Understand"'s Bicep-ian arpeggios creates a contrast not heard on pretty much any other dance record this side of HEALTH.
Back when Mall Grab first worked with Turnstile, the remixes felt like anomalies, an ambitious hiccup in a discography that was becoming increasingly erratic. But now, in retrospect, those tracks feel like a clear glimpse of Mall Grab's eagerness to learn and try new things, and to purposefully absorb the sounds around him, even those he might be less comfortable with. In an honest interview with DJ Mag this month, Alexander described how he tried to "tastefully implant" himself in new scenes, and you can hear the sounds of West, South and East London equally tastefully incorporated all over What I Breathe.
The album's best tracks, like "Metaphysical," are the ones where he runs with the heavy-duty UK influences. (These are also the tunes where Alexander sets himself apart from other big-room UK acts like Bicep and Fred again.) His junglist techno holds up to verses from Novelist and D Double E on "Time Change," "I Can Remember" takes on the dark garage of Horsepower Productions and "Breathing," the album's centerpiece, rides an enormous Reese bassline over clammy, almost claustrophobic pads, like an early jungle track exploding into 2022 technicolour. ("Spirit Rave" and its pill-rush prog pays homage to a different time and community in the UK, too.)
With all these references geared towards a relatively mainstream fanbase, What I Breathe feels like both a jumping-off point for dance music newbies and a feast of great ideas for those who have been around the block a few times. It's all held together by great pacing, frankly amazing production and a lack of cynicism that feels refreshing, open-hearted to the very last moment. The LP closes with a shoegazey track called "Lost In Harajuku," whose title and conceit conjures up a lot of jokes about DJs in Tokyo or Lost In Translation, but listening to it, those thoughts flutter away. Alexander's hook is sweetly sung and maddeningly catchy, and the LP that ends on a bittersweet note that reminds you that, no matter how great the party is, it has to end sometime. Acknowledging this feelings and the wide spectrum of emotion is what makes What I Breathe enduring, beyond the heaving beats and glossy, HBO-ready hooks.
Tracklist01. Hand In Hand Through Wonderland
02. I Can Remember It So Vividly
03. Love Reigns
04. Understand feat. Brendan Yates (Turnstile)
05. Patience feat. Nia Archives
06. Without The Sun feat. Jordon Alexander
07. Spirit Wave
08. Breathing
09. Intercity Relations
10. Times Change feat. Novelist, D Double E
11. Distant Conversation
12. Metaphysical
13. Lost in Harajuku feat. Jordon Alexander