Alexander Crossan’s work in future bass has been pivotal in driving the scene forward (or eradicating it altogether), with his genrefluid approach breeding a significant online following that sees him form part of the new guard of pop and dance music agitators. As Mura Masa, his music transcends categorisation, as comfortably dressed in Chet Faker as it is in Good Charlotte. Inspired by Hudson Mohawke and influenced by everyone from Jame Blake to The Smiths, his work bleeds over most into the spheres of hip-hop and hyperpop, his beats more often that not future focussed and filthy. The success of his formula has decorated Crossan with a Grammy award, an accolade that sets him apart from his peers but perhaps places a level of expectation on the producer to turn out work that is both boundary pushing but palatable. His latest album as Mura Masa, demon time, veers more toward the latter.
This is not necessarily a bad thing. Between his 2017 debut to now, Crossan has become best known for his work behind the scenes of other artists. His solo work has felt more enigmatic, a space for him to explore the various facets of his influences. demon time presents us with Mura Masa the party monster, with Crossan enlisting a whole roster of guest MCs and vocalists to season his collection of banging club tracks that pull from dance and hip-hop’s vibiest corners. It’s significantly less serious than the jaded grunge of R.Y.C, more focussed on getting turnt than getting existential. “I wanted to soundtrack the weird 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. time when you’re up to no good,” Crossan has said of demon time, and he opens the dancefloor with rapper BAYLI chanting ‘“go demon, go demon!” like she’s daring her best friend to down a vodka soda over bouncy Ciara style 2000’s hip-pop. up all week is a grimy, filthy bass track with a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it Faithless reference that’s not much more than something designed for a good time, despite slowthai’s verbose social-commentary-adjacent lyrics. demon time doesn’t get much deeper than this, mostly hitting on surface level lyrics about love, sex, and partying crafted in service of a good hook. hollaback bitch’s title says it all while being one of the album’s strongest party starters, with Crossan calling in frequent collaborator Shygirl and house maestro Channel Tres to the poolside on the glorious deep house cut.
Download and stream demon time here
There’s a delightful irreverence to demon time, which sometimes comes off like a meme posing as an album, though it revels in this sort of silliness. The track titles are listed in SMS shorthand, and most tracks have polyphonic retro cellphone sounds mixed into their intros and outros so that demon time plays out like a tipsy night on the town with your best bitches. This means that when Crossan does try to get deep, it sounds out of place. 2gether featuring Gretel Hänlyn is better suited to the nihilism of R.Y.C. then it is here. A strummed guitar lament that erupts into Flume-esque future bass wobbles, 2gether is not a terrible song per se, but one that dampens the mood of demon time’s non-stop rager. e-motions with Erika de Casier works more serious feelings into the mix better, with its airy harp led UKG beat making for a classic cry on the dancefloor anthem.
demon time is an ostensibly fun listen, its runtime tailored to come in hard and fast. It’s not Crossan’s most groundbreaking work to date, for every banger there’s some fluff in equal measure. But the album sees the producer in a phase of rediscovering a sense of joy in music, a place from which he’s bound for his best.
Listen to hollback bitch from demon time below.
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