Review Summary: An auditory journey through spacetime, Mimosa weaves a beautiful soundscape that will not be soon forgotten.
Dubstep in a genre of music that has - since its inception - primarily flourished in the UK. However, over the past year or two, more and more dubstep has strayed from the UK-centric stereotype and gone toward more of an international one, with guys like US dubstep artist
Bassnectar, touring college towns and performing at festivals like Coachella.
Mimosa is another dubstep artist from the US, and has quickly made a name for himself in the dubstep scene, touring with
Benga,
Skream, and other titans from the genre. Silver Lining is the Los Angeles native's most recent offering, and is the album that first sparked my interest in the rest of his work.
The album kicks off with "The Higher Consciousness," which is a slower, dreamy tune that masterfully sets the tone and mood for the rest of the album. The album is one that you can spin while you're about to fall asleep, or one that you can throw on if you're driving in the middle of the night. No matter which way you listen to Silver Lining, you will find yourself completely absorbed in the music, and you will watch your surroundings begin to blur as the album progresses. Silver Lining will go from tracks like "When Will We Learn" and "Drippin'," which showcase their half-time, spaced-out grooves, and will go to "No More Messin' About" and "Pushing Little Daisies," which are quite a bit faster and more intense.
However, the best part about Silver Lining is not its diversity between its tracks, but more so its subtle versatility - its ability to span the entire genre. By this, I mean that you will go from parts of "Badlands" and hearing laid-back, lo-fi
Burial-esque nuances and then hear elements of
Skrillex and his over-the-top distortion in the album's title track. You'll even hear some strong drum and bass roots in "Detour," with stop-and-go breakbeats throughout. These elements are not overpowering though, as they are seamlessly integrated into Mimosa's scheme.
While the tracks on Silver Lining do have pretty decent parity, in that they each offer something different to the album, they do start to run together, albeit in a very subtle way. Like I said before, it will all become a blur when you just melt into the album. This is not to say that this quality is an entirely bad thing, by any means. As cliché as this sounds, it's all just part of the experience, and the listener can take away something different after each spin.
If you are not familiar with
Mimosa, Silver Lining is an excellent introduction to him and his work. It is a masterful melding-together of various elements of dubstep. I won't recommend individual tracks to look up, as this is a very holistic album - the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. If you're at all a fan of dubstep, or even someone new to the genre, this is a must-listen.
