Mala continues to rack up press with his new Cuban Bass stylings. This time XLR8Rs Vivian Host digs in deep for the full analysis
Words: Vivian Host Photo: Teddy Fitzhugh
Cuban music plays heavily with percussion and goes mental for melodies, but rarely does it meditate on bass weight. By contrast, British producer Mala (of Digital Mystikz/Deep Medi fame) has spent nearly his entire career experimenting with the way bass, sub-bass, and drums can work together to rattle minds and stoke dancefloor fires. On Mala in Cuba—a collaboration between DMZ’s proud lion and traditional Cuban musicians—live instrumentation is incorporated within a loose dubstep framework, but Mala keeps a firm hold on the reins. Rather than trying to match the lively, uptempo energy of the Cuban sounds, he envelopes Latin elements in a thick London fog, pulling melancholy from beneath tinkling ivories and adding mystery to reverbed salsa rhythms…
Mala knew little of Cuban culture, but the producer didn’t think twice before signing on to make a record blending his style with the island’s jaunty trademark timba music. The resulting album, Mala in Cuba, will be his first full-length after innumerable 12-inch singles and a world of DJ gigs. Digital Mystikz released their first single in 2004, and in the eight years since, the 32-year-old Brit has become a seasoned traveler, having dusted turntables with his waist-long dreads in 69 countries. Now, after the commercialization of dubstep, the genre he helped kick start, he’s willing to venture to new places. “I like to be free from what I know,” Mala says. “That’s when real living happens. I’m not a planning type of person.” As it turns out, Cuba’s not a planning type of place either…
For FACT’s latest On Record feature, we caught up with Mosca.
Despite only releasing a handful of records since his January 2010 debut, Mosca’s sense of quality control and refreshing desire to turn his hand to various genres – already we’ve had bassline house, hip-hop, chopped-up vocal garage, Baltimore club, and now, on his forthcoming Wavey EP, 4×4 techno – has seen him rise to the top of his generation of UK producers. As a DJ, you’ll find him drawing records from Angola, Brazil and Jamaica as often as you will those from Europe, Sheffield or London, so we thought he’d be the ideal choice to talk about a record that means a lot to him. He picked Mr. Catra’s Baile Funk hit ‘Vem Nha Nha’.
featuring:
DJ C,
Hrvatski,
DJ Ripley,
Splice,
Selectress Iriela,
Brynmore
and a very special
surprise /guest
w/live video art,
live electronic performances
and more!
