4.5.19 by Ryan Masteller
Új Bála is a slippery fish. A slimy one, according to our own Mike Haley—bless him—and one who’s also probably coated his gear in enough sugar to give a diabetic wicked fits. The Budapest producer makes music like he’s playing Candy Crush in overdrive and inviting all his friends on Facebook to also play Candy Crush with him, because he signed in to the game through Facebook and can’t get it to stop popping up on everybody’s news feeds because no one can figure out privacy settings anymore. That’s as good a reason as any why we should all stay away from social media forever, or at least the ones that Mark Zuckerberg clutches in his perfectly moisturized paws.
Új Bála is a slippery fish. He pretends his production is slick, but it’s covered in gummi bear guts and goo, and you find yourself shooting down the center of the “motoric, mutating proto-techno” like you’re on a Slip-n-Slide smeared with Jell-O and spraying Powerade from the little holes along its length. You wind up translucent and sticky, shiny and sparkly in the afternoon sun, ready for an immediate shower. You glow like an angel. Do angels glow? Surely. Are they sticky? I’ve never touched one. Do they emerge from the heavenly realm to the bubbling strains of “motoric, mutating proto-techno”? They do now.
Új Bála is a slippery fish. He’s so aware that everyone probably writes it “Uj Bala” like lazy, good-for-nothing, inelegant, clueless bloggers that he’s decided to call us all out and throw those “diacritical marks” right in our face. But I’m with you! I write it “Új Bála” like the enlightened scribe that I am. I pay attention, a characteristic I find lacking in modern American scholarship. So when the rhythmic pings and squirts commingle with the digital melodic structures of these six tracks, I imagine the sheet music containing acute accents over every note. That doesn’t make me pronounce anything differently, it’s just a mind game I play with myself. I’m basically just losing my marbles listening to “Diacritical Marks and Angels.” My smooth, beautiful marbles. Új Bála tunes are smooth, beautiful marbles – let loose in one of those lottery machines of course.
Edition of 50 available from Baba Vanga.