Mubali - Shenanigans

( Trishula , Oct. 2008 )



1. Mubali- Funk in Ya Trunk 145bpm 6:51 
2. Mubali- Assfaced 144bpm 7:41 
3. Mubali- Smile, We Still Can't See You 149bpm 7:14 
4. Mubali & Lauryn- Beer Goggles 145bpm 7:33 
5. Mubali- Narcolepsy 144bpm 6:45 
6. Mubali- Artificial Freaks 147bpm 7:24 
7. Mubali- Steaming Pile of Trippy 148bpm 7:02 
8. Mubali- F&*! Yeah! 148bpm 7:26 
9. Mubali- Sinister Minister 150bpm 6:54 
10. Mubodhi- Procrastinory Definition 152bpm 7:42

Ok, time for Mubali's second effort. Mubali (Greg Farley from California, USA) is one of the few all American psytrance producers out there. After his first album Cats @ Play, also released by Trishula, he remained silent for some time, aside from some compilation releases. Now, his second album is out since October 2008 and I've finally gotten around to reviewing this. So here goes. Think dark psytrance with lots of drive, weirdness and general loudness. The stuff on offer here isn't really that dark, but there are lots of sounds flying about in most of the tracks. There's not really a focus on melody, more on the bass line and weird effects. What's on offer here has been done well, but in my opinion it's a lot to stomach at once. For me this album works wonders when played just two or three tracks at a time. When I listen to all of this at once I tend to get sort of tone-deaf, if you will. I can't figure out what number one or two sounded like anymore. Now, this has two sides. One is a downer, because nothing really sticks with you for a long time. On the other hand you could think that this has a huge upside, since you could listen to this, pop it in two hours later and get the feeling you've not really heard this before in detail. Anyhow, the way I see it is that this is a good album for people that like this more quirky and busy style. My recommendation would be to listen to it for a couple of tracks at a time. But hey, if you're a diehard listener of this style you could probably finish it in one sitting. I do have some personal favorites here, the opener- Funk in Ya Trunk, Artificial Freaks (T6, which does have a kind of melody and therefore sticks out immediately) and Steaming Pile of Trippy (T7, busy as hell, with a great bass line) and finally Sinister Minister (T9), which darker and haunting. The last track deserves a mention too, it's the darkest track here and has a pounding kick drum with lots of effects packed inside the song. All tracks here are 144 bpm plus, ranging up to 152, so you know what to expect.

Recomendation: All in all, a great second album, definitely better than his first. You gotta love the dark artwork too. My advice is to listen to some of the samples, but I can already tell you that if you liked his first album, you can buy this one as a no-brainer. I was pleasantly surprised by it, and although I can’t stomach all of this at once it's a great effort by Mister Farley. Thumbs up here!

Review by : Acidhive