All In - Malaa

The first project of Malaa's double album is from his own familiar mask-obfuscated face, but sometimes, familiarity is a vice in music.

I'd be wrong to say "All In" isn't precise. The polish on these house tunes is undoubtedly well-done, the production is clean and the mixdowns have a well-rounded finish to them, alongside some nifty sound design that interjects at times amidst the pseudo-stern house tonality. Malaa's execution of this album is almost impressive. Or, it would be impressive, if it wasn't so exceedingly unimpressive. Perhaps that makes no sense, perhaps that's a paradox, but it's the only way I can describe "All In". The thing is, Malaa tries absolutely nothing on this LP, nothing new, nothing to even make the tracks stand out amidst each other. The house production is squeaky clean, but if there's nothing to scrub, the mix is going to be surprisingly easy to polish (who'd have thunk it?). That's the problem, in essence; absolutely nothing of importance happens throughout this entire 30 minute tracklist. Most of the tracks on this LP genuinely go in one ear and straight out the other without a second spent embedding themselves into the brain. With practically no memorability factor present, it's safe to say that this side of Malaa's double album struggles considerably. And, to be honest, Malaa did structure "All In" in a way that is poised to be memorable — largely with the song titles, coined to the backdrop of the double album faceoff concept — but instead of gracefully executing it, "All In" ends up tripping over its own monotony in perfect synchronization with the dull house beats that envelop it in its entirety. Let's face it: the drops do not expand upon themselves whatsoever; the sampling idly fills its shift like a broken record; the festival-centric motifs are shallow and completely undermine the originally well-crafted double album concept; and the vocal features are faced with the backbreaking task of keeping the record from drowning in its own basslines. Sometimes they succeed, but it's certainly an uphill climb.

All things considered, "All In" isn't terrible, it just really bores me. Some of the tracks are undoubtedly very cool, namely the Apashe collab "No Escape", but they ultimately don't help the tracklist enough for it to feel rich and intriguing. I won't criticize the length — in fact, for a double album, 30 minutes is probably an ideal time for each side — I just wish Malaa had a little more pizzazz and flair in his production on this LP, especially considering that this bass house style is supposed to be his forte. Check out "Blackout" by Malaa (Alter Ego) for the second half of the double album (and check out my review of it too!).