- The JUICY GANG boss channels her mental health troubles into razor-sharp electro.
- DJ MELL G's debut album begins with something of a guided meditation—a voice calmly intoning you to breathe deeply and re-focus. It's beyond clichéd for techno and house, but it's hardly ever sounded as sinister as it does on "ISSUES (INTRO)." Here, it's more like the desperate mediation of a medical professional, drowned out by huge drums that only get louder as the track goes on and start distorting and clipping the vocal pattern into a musical "one, two, three, four." The LP, appropriately titled ISSUES, is inspired by the German artist's ongoing battle with borderline personality disorder (BPD), which she describes as "like riding a roller coaster... Everything is OK for a short time, and then it starts again." Her experience with the disorder is characterized by situations where she loses control of her emotions. She calls them "loops," which come out in the form of tight, often foreboding electro cuts that stand up there with the best of them.
I'll be honest: Aside from that vocal sample in the first track, there isn't much on ISSUES that directly deals with her mental health struggles, outside of the titles and moods of each track. But the music speaks for itself. The brand of electro here is somewhere between classic DJ Stingray and newer, techno-inspired strains of the genre, and she thrives in both modes. "DISTURBED" has the industrial-strength heft of the best material on Stingray's Micron Audio, embellished with gurgling textures and trancey, hard-panned arpeggios. "GREATEST DESIRE (2AM HOPE MIX)" is a Detroit techno take on a manic episode, almost triumphant but quaking with anxiety in the rhythm section. (The 8-bit synths are also perfectly fuzzy.)
Fittingly mood-swingy, "WHAT I FEAR" is rippling and upbeat until it isn't. A glassy synth motif cleaves the track in two and initiates a dense, jittery second half, all held into place by an impressive sounding bassline that finds a sweet spot between low-end and midrange. This kind of sound design is what makes DJ MELL G more than an imitator—to hear her tell it, she only came to electro recently, having got her start with trap and ghettotech. But she sounds more comfortable here, fitting into the genre like she's always been meant to make it. There are hints of innovation sprinkled throughout, like on "BORDERLINE," where a jabbing footwork bassline lurks underneath the zippy rhythm. For the most part, MELL G sticks to tried-and-true electro tropes—which are popular for a reason. At just six tracks and half an hour long, ISSUES is slight yet powerful, channeling harrowing personal experiences through one of dance music's most expressive and eminently danceable forms.
Tracklist01. ISSUES (INTRO)
02. DISTURBED MIND
03. WHAT I FEAR
04. GREATEST DESIRE (2AM HOPE MIX)
05. BORDERLINE
06. BEYOND 70