MALUM explore a world of techno, electronica and jazz-influenced funk on the final part of their new project
If the Sunset EP was the warmest entry point into MALUM’s remix trilogy and The Mission EP its most unpredictable, the Bouncer EP is the release with the serious punch… For the right listener at the right moment, it’s the most rewarding of the three.
The centrepiece is Perc’s transformation of “bouncer” into a full industrial techno workout, and it’s exactly as uncompromising as that description suggests. London-based producer and Perc and founder of Perc Trax has built an entire career on music that prioritises intensity over accessibility, and his interpretation of MALUM’s source material strips it down to something harder and more skeletal — a relentless, purposeful machine that preserves the original’s DNA while rehousing it in something altogether more brutal.
Mr. Ho’s contribution, rebuilding “jeweltrain” into a percussive and hypnotic club track, brings a different energy — the Hong Kong-based producer’s blend of house, techno and breakbeat influences lending the EP a geographical breadth that sits neatly within MALUM’s wider vision of genuinely global connection. It’s a remix with a two-step feel and more of an inate groove than Perc’s techno monster..
There’s a jazz-inflected undertow running through his interpretation that gives it an unusual warmth for something this rhythmically driven, nostalgia and forward momentum existing in the same breath.
The original version of “launchbox” completes the package, grounding the release in MALUM’s own voice after two very different outside perspectives have had their say.
A fittingly intense conclusion to a genuinely ambitious trilogy.
