Much like Disclosure did four years ago, Guernsey producer Alex Crossan has assembled a debut record that is brimming with nowness. Swapping the Lawrence brothers’ house-garage hybrid for the dancehall-lite tones of its slightly problematic relative tropical house – and sourcing guest vocals from A$AP Rocky, Desiigner, Charli XCX, Christine and the Queens and more – he has made an album that runs the gamut from unpleasantly basic to brilliantly clever, often in the same song.
While “trop house” provides a grindingly ubiquitous framework, the stream of endearing quirks – from Bonzai’s jarringly glottal vocal on Nuggets and the Orange Juice-esque synth break in Messy Love to Helpline’s punk drum intro and the Bon Iver-aping interlude Give Me the Ground – means Mura Masa manages to miraculously transcend its generic core. This may be an album handcuffed to the zeitgeist, but it’s also bubbling with energy and ideas. Just imagine what Crossan could do if he ditched the marimbas.
