Mall Grab Returns Home with a High-Energy Set for Boiler Room Melbourne
Deft DJ, producer, and tastemaker Mall Grab brought a dizzyingly explosive set to Boiler Room: Melbourne. Following on from the successful release of his debut album What I Breathe last year, an endlessly stacked schedule of bookings, and the continuing expansion of his Steel City Dance Discs label, it’s no surprise that the club was packed to the rafters for the Australian’s return to his home turf.
Jordan Alexander – aka Mall Grab – grew up 90 minutes north of Sydney in Newcastle, an industrial harbor which is the biggest exporter of coal in the world and was once just as important for the steel industry.
He first started DJing as a 12-year-old on rudimentary setups in local bookstores. It was the fizzing electro and blog house of labels like Ed Banger in 2007 and 2008, as well as the radio stations on Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, that later turned him onto modern dance music.
In 2017, Alexander quickly ascended into the realm of top-tier house stars. He first made a name for himself as a pivotal ‘lo-fi house’ producer when the subgenre was at its peak in popularity, but his initially dusty and DIY sound was actually the result of the basic software he used to make his music.
“The reason it sounded like that was because I was just not as good a producer as I am today,” he adds in an interview with DJ Mag. A year later, he shifted to a palette of newer, harder textures on his How The Dogs Chill, Vol.1 EP.
Now evolved to material that spans garage, breaks, house, jungle, and rave, the unchanging aspect of Alexander’s music is his commitment to high-energy rhythms. “I would always rather listen to a good banger than some beautiful electronic piece,” he says. “That’s just the way my brain works.”
Mall Grab is set to take the helm at a deluge of clubs and festivals worldwide, including Unit in Tokyo, Circus in Osaka, Mint Warehouse in Leeds, and more.
https://www.instagram.com/youngmallgrab/
https://soundcloud.com/mallgrab
Mall Grab | Boiler Room: Melbourne: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddeAyYF_uwg
