After dubstep’s explosion out of the underground in the late noughties, some rode the ‘brostep’ wave or jumped ship or did something else. But Mala stayed true to the craft, staying positive and drawing his sound back towards the soundsystem culture that was a crucial part of his roots, and over the years has cemented his legendary status. DJ Mag’s features editor Lauren Martin expertly tells Mala’s story in our cover feature this month, beginning on page 16.
Elsewhere this issue we meet An On Bast, the wicked modular techno performer who’s just signed to Awesome Soundwave (page 28); profile the UK rappers featuring in our Meet The MC video series (p32 onwards); hear from German composer Nils Frahm about how he plays live (p46); and spotlight some more Ones To Watch (p53 onwards) in 2021.In addition, we’ve got Ida Engberg in the Hot Seat, Baltimore’s DJ Spen telling us all about his Influences, Chicago house legend Ron Trent giving us his Lucky 7, the story of Whirlpool Productions’ ‘From Disco To Disco’ in our Game Changer slot, West Norwood Cassette Library’s WNCL is our Vital Label, we take a look inside Steve Bug’s studio, and a helluva lot more. Charts, news, columns, reviews, new artist profiles, tech reports, fashion, gaming… it’s another jam-packed issue.
Carl Loben
Editor