Taal Mala - White Label Renegade

  • Share
  • Keenan O'Connor has long been a pillar of Vancouver's bass music community. He's easily its most chameleonic character—his DJ sets span a wide tempo range, and he makes ragga jungle as easily as dubstep. Like many of his peers, however, he never found a home for his productions, leaving most of them to collect dust as obscure dubs. After shedding light on fellow Western Canadians Sanctums and Michael Red, Calgary label Modern Math is here to change that. "White Label Renegade" is a good introduction to Taal Mala. What sounds like 20 distinct drum samples are funneled into a quick-fingered rush of jabs and stabs. It's a bit like listening to a dubstep track while standing on a jackhammer. There's zero room to breathe—a hallmark of O'Connor's music. Grenier's remix shoehorns in some grime-style string samples. Though they fit awkwardly at first, once his version locks into its chunkier groove, he reveals a melodic bent lost in the chaotic original. Two digital tracks offer a deeper look into O'Connor's personality. Both hurtle forward at 160 BPM but take to the racetrack very differently. "Bubble" is essentially micro-jungle, with shards of sound stuttering like a skipping CD. "Love Lies Bleeding" is synth-laden drum & bass, with the percussive elements fading in and out intermittently. Both balance high tempos with a sense of unpredictability, meaning their thrill goes beyond just the speed.
  • Tracklist
      01. White Label Renegade 02. Bubble 03. Love Lies Bleeding 04. White Label Renegade (Grenier Remix)
RA