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Another week, another pick! This week’s pick will definitely have to be The Mall’s Time Vehicle Earth. I picked this record up and played it when we got it in based solely on the artwork by Indonesian artist Ibayarifin alone. The art depicts a vast, dystopian future and what looks to be time machines coming from or flying to this planet that one can only imagine from the music is open fields that go on for miles and miles.
At moments, you can close your eyes and imagine you are in a movie set in this futuristic timeline. The Mall’s music is dark, bass heavy and minimalist electronic music. On the title track, “Time Vehicle Earth,” you can tell this album would make for a perfect soundtrack for a dystopian nightmare fueled movie. Just add in some killer fight scenes with aliens or a car chase like in Mad Max and this would track would fit perfectly.
With tracks like “Nostalgia,” you can imagine that you are in a dark and grimy Berlin nightclub. Every one in the club dancing, drenched in sweat and pounding their fist in the air to the beat. This is by far my favorite track in the album. The hard thumping bass is reminiscent of hard techno in Europe and those influences really show through in this track.
My relation and love of dance music comes from when I was first introduced to it in my years living in Greenville at its house show/underground music peak. There was house party or show almost every night of the week. One of my fondest memories of underground dance music would have to be at a very popular show/party house called the 9th Street House. This place had shows often. One in particular was when a guy named OCDJ performed. The dance floor (or if you lived there, the living room) was packed full of people dancing, drinking and having a great time. The floor was bowing in from the sheer amount of people and the constant state of it being wet from beer being spilled.
The music was so loud it felt like your brain was being rattled from the bass. People were just dancing and not giving a shit about anything or anyone around them. This is the freedom I felt through punk music and this was the same feeling I was getting through electronic music. This is when I really opened my mind to what punk really could be, and how expansive it could be.
If you want something different and really good check out this record. You will not be disappointed. Mark Plant’s work on this album is something special. It’s darkwave dance music with a punk rock ethos.