Bleep

2022 heralds a new era for Mall Grab with his debut album where he shows absolutely no signs of slowing down. Mall Grab made waves in the 2010s with his energetic DJ sets for the likes of Boiler Room and Rinse FM, and an overflowing wealth of singles and EPs that haven’t stopped coming since 2015.

What I Breathe is a personal, polished, and versatile debut, exploring “all influences, sounds and sides” of Mall Grab’s many excursions. With several tracks previously teased in live sets and mixes. The album centres on variety, progressing like a DJ set that starts in a sunlit grassy field with daytime festival energy and morphs into an explosive underground party. Mall Grab presents a grab bag of refreshing and adventurous dance tracks, ranging from uplifting house and techno to fiery drum and bass bangers to introspective electronica and a host of guest appearances taking his work into entirely new directions.

The first leg of the album kicks things off with lively, bustling rhythms and twinkling synths, and when the first piano chord on ‘Love Reigns’ hits, an instant rush of euphoria follows. Things take a more mystical and introspective turn on ‘Understand’, drifting in and out of an icy internal landscape with enraged vocals from Brendan Yates of Turnstiles. ‘Spirit Wave’ brings out intense warmth with four-to-the-floor wallops and sizzling stabs, ‘Metaphysical’ finds breakbeats coursing through a storm of low rumbling lightning flashes and detuned tesla coil synths, and the closing ‘Lost In Harajuku’ places Alexander’s own vocals in a sweet whirlwind of punchy beats.

Pulling inspiration from all possible sources, Mall Grab’s debut album What I Breathe unleashes his full potential.