- I've done a lot of digging in the nooks and crannies of Vancouver's electronic scene in the past couple years, and few names seem to spark as much reverence as Calamalka. He's a consummate producer's producer, toiling away in his studio and sharing little of the work with the public outside of his renowned live sets. That is, until earlier this year, when new local imprint 10Pin released his stellar Gooey EP, his first release since 2004's electro dub manifesto Shredders Dub, and one that showed his sound moving in the interim to clean and tidy analogue hip-hop. Another new Vancouver label, multimedia venture Hybridity, has tapped Calamalka for a full-length which continues in a similar direction, stripping his sound down to a wood-and-steel core of snappy drums and hardware synths.
Calamalka's hip-hop doesn't have much in common with the Brainfeeder generation, focusing on clean lines and clear skies rather than muddied sample mush. His music on All the Way Up has the elegance and confidence of prime Madlib, with the sampled material replaced by his own synth work, all rendered in hi-definition. In fact, the album is delivered with such clarity (and reverb is used sparingly) that it almost feels arid and dry at times. That makes for a fascinating and intense dimension of texture not typically associated with this sort of breezy hip-hop. Textural interplay is the LP's best aspect, and often works unconventionally—like how the raw steel-on-steel scrubbing of opener "Bad Scene" gives way to luscious sparkles on the title track, or the confident swagger of "Manx," where the synths feel like they're jiggling on the track's metal framework.
All the Way Up's resolute hardware template does leave the album feeling a bit bare occasionally, and its midsection drags ever so slightly with tracks like "Myth" and "Take a Hit." Nondescript groans grate against synths that never quite stick, like they're too loosely constructed. Those, and especially the jaunty jazz of "The Person," feel ripe for MCs, sparse beats that would come alive with some rhyming over top. Regardless, even with a few flaws, All the Way Up is a solid statement for a hermetic artist who deserves some exposure—instrumental hip-hop in 2012 rarely comes this coolly classicist yet forward-thinking.
Tracklist 01. Bad Scene
02. All the Way Up
03. Babe
04. Myth
05. Take a Hit
06. Manx
07. The Person
08. Say It
09. Toni
10. Torque
11. Shout Outs