Sometimes an artist with music so obscure and utterly impossible to describe comes our way, that it wakes us up at night in cold sweats wondering how the hell to present it. Our newest artist, MALK (aka OF HUMAN FEELINGS, The Super Nintendo Chalmers, SCRAN, and 1/3rd of the band Mahatma X) presents exactly this type of dilemma. MALK was dreamed up by Philadelphia native Will Becker, who remains a bit of a mystery, even though we’ve corresponded with him for a number of months now. And we’re good with that, in fact MALK seems to thrive in the ill-light, dank corners of the web, like some sort of finely corrupted aged beef.

MALK newest album ‘WMAIDIT,’ short for, ‘Watch Me As I Die In Time’ arrives in April 2019 as part of Lost Tribe Sound’s ongoing Dead West cassette series. A perfect fit for the series as the album treads new ground for both LTS and MALK. If your familiar with Becker’s other work, you know it packs a great deal of mood and content into a short amount of time, often with little reverence for genre or musical theory. With a razor focus he sets the stage, dealing his poison quickly to trap his prey. It’s the kind of immersive, to-the-point storytelling which makes it ideal for the modern day attention span.

MALK’s critically acclaimed album ‘A Death from a Love’ released on Home Assembly Music was named Norman Records “#1 Best Album of 2018.” It was touted by the label as a cut and paste predecessor his Mahatma X style, only this time taking the listener on a delirious, dark vapor/cyberpunk adventure through the schizoid cartoon narrative of Trump's America of futuristic beats careening across sci-fi soundscapes, creating an altogether exhilarating ride. With ‘WMAIDIT,’ the sound palette veers in a completely different direction, yet again. ‘WMAIDIT’ was conceived in the Mabie Forest in Dumfries, Scotland from 2015-2016. Nearly all of the sounds heard in the project are from the forest, apart from an acoustic guitar, acoustic bass, melodica, ocarina, banjo and toy keyboard. The album was designed to give the listener a sense of being lost in a forest, but with technology still present – like being lost in the forest with only the light from your phone to guide you.

The disorienting elements of punk, hip hop, and vapor wave of Becker’s previous releases still manage to find their way onto the album, however there are far more personal forces at play with ‘WMAIDIT.’ MALK’s interest in electro-acoustic music began with releases like Jon Hopkin and King Creosote’s album ‘Diamond Mine’ and Animal Collective’s ‘Campfire Songs.’ Captivated by the ungroomed union of acoustics and electronic, MALK began to internalize it and fashion his own crude brand. A stint in his part-time home of Scotland provided the right amount of grounding to write, ‘WMAIDIT,’ an album that’s been hidden away for quite some time. That is, until MALK discovered Lost Tribe Sound, with our penchant for releasing rare and often acoustically driven albums by artists who typically create electronic music, LTS was the perfect fit.

In the end, ‘WMAIDIT’ is a challenge to define by style, genre, or mood. ‘WMAIDIT’ runs through a bizarre alchemy of styles, combining tender moments of homespun folk and indie with dub, lo-fi grunge with off-kilter beats, and woozy ambience with all out punk aggression. Would it be ridiculous to class it as forest dub, post-punk-swamp-step, or folk-rock-wave, probably? Regardless, we haven’t heard anything quite like it before, and that is a major positive when you’re talking about an artist like MALK, who has a clear mastery of what he wants it to sound like. He cares little for convention, and bends the preconceived notion of style and delivery to his whim.

CASSETTE DETAILS
‘WMAIDIT,’ our 4th installment in the Dead West Tape Series, arrives on a limited real-time, pro-dubbed, hi-bias tape cassette. Each edition is housed in a reverse printed 300gsm heavy card stock folded case. Mastered by James Plotkin. Artwork by Eric Lacombe. Each one (limited to 100) also comes with a download card offering a choice of formats including FLAC, 320K MP3, etc.

DEAD WEST TAPE SERIES
Dead West is an ongoing series of limited cassette tape releases from the Lost Tribe Sound record label, inspired by the relocation of the LTS headquarters from the dry desert of Arizona to the lowland plains of Wisconsin’s farm country. The Dead West focuses on music built for exploring and soundtracking your environment, whether you're deep in the middle of lush woodlands, or just laying back at home with rested eyes.

‘WMAIDIT’ is the fourth release in the series, and will be released along side the 5th edition in the Dead West series from artist, Vieo Abiungo (aka William Ryan Fritch). Editions IV and V are some of the most challenging music we’ve ever had to describe. Listeners are urged to simply trust us, and dig in on these two cassettes while their still around. So far every edition has been an early sell out.

As for the Dead West narrative, if Fritch’s, ‘Ill Tides’ navigates the sea, Seabuckthorn’s ‘I Could See The Smoke’ traversed barren deserts, From the Mouth of the Sun’s ‘Sleep Stations’ gave us the bird’s eye view, Malk’s ‘WMAIDIT’ abandons us in dank forests, and Vieo Abiungo’s ‘The Dregs’ treks between arid highlands and dense jungle.