You walk towards the mall. Looking up at what you have been told is "the sky", you see the grid. The grid that reminds you that everything you see has been put there. You live in a terraformed colony in Mars and this grid that surrounds it is what keeps you and all your colonymates alive and breathing.
You shake these thoughts off your head and continue on the entrance to Palm Mall Mars. You hardly remember when it was opened. It feels like an eternity, and it is, in a way. 50 years are a long time for a human-built colony.
When you cross its shiny doors you are greeted with a barrage of sounds and noises. The soft muzak coming from some far away ceiling speakers, the sounds of all the other people strolling around, the shops' personnel announcing the day's sales...
You have never set foot on the Earth. Neither have your neighbours nor your friends. Some of the colony's elders tell stories about it. You wish you had grown up there, running around in green forests and experiencing what the elders call "the sea".
Here at the mall you feel like if you were on Earth. You have always been told that this mall is modeled after another mall on Earth called Palm Mall, built in the very distant 1980's. It is hard to believe humans could have built such a magnificent place that far ago.
Having had some fun speculating what life on a colony on a terraformed Mars could be like, let's take a look at Palm Mall Mars itself.
Overall, it is a good album by the great 猫 シ Corp.. With Palm Mall Mars we see a continuation with the Mallsoft themes although it differs from "家族. 劳动. 쇼핑.". This time we get a more airy, crisp sound coming from the judicious use of reverb, making the mall built in this album wide and bright.
Although there are samples in this album (such as the commercials in the aptly named track number 12 "Commercials"), it sounds tight and cohesive, not just some samples thrown in together with some reverb. Not all tracks are washed out ambient tracks, like the first track of the original Palm Mall. Instead we get some more upbeat cuts, like track 15 "META Fashion dept.".
Palm Mall Mars' setting is inspired by a video by Christopher Hansen, which describes life in a Mars colony, and we would say this album is able to capture and transmit this feeling.
Palm Mall Mars was released on Bandcamp on June 2018 in digital form and green cassette tapes (which sold out in a matter of minutes). It was later re-released in orange cassette tapes in November of 2018.
Go check it out and get lost wandering around the first mall ever built on our red neighbour planet.
Score: 8/10
You shake these thoughts off your head and continue on the entrance to Palm Mall Mars. You hardly remember when it was opened. It feels like an eternity, and it is, in a way. 50 years are a long time for a human-built colony.
When you cross its shiny doors you are greeted with a barrage of sounds and noises. The soft muzak coming from some far away ceiling speakers, the sounds of all the other people strolling around, the shops' personnel announcing the day's sales...
You have never set foot on the Earth. Neither have your neighbours nor your friends. Some of the colony's elders tell stories about it. You wish you had grown up there, running around in green forests and experiencing what the elders call "the sea".
Here at the mall you feel like if you were on Earth. You have always been told that this mall is modeled after another mall on Earth called Palm Mall, built in the very distant 1980's. It is hard to believe humans could have built such a magnificent place that far ago.
Having had some fun speculating what life on a colony on a terraformed Mars could be like, let's take a look at Palm Mall Mars itself.
Overall, it is a good album by the great 猫 シ Corp.. With Palm Mall Mars we see a continuation with the Mallsoft themes although it differs from "家族. 劳动. 쇼핑.". This time we get a more airy, crisp sound coming from the judicious use of reverb, making the mall built in this album wide and bright.
Although there are samples in this album (such as the commercials in the aptly named track number 12 "Commercials"), it sounds tight and cohesive, not just some samples thrown in together with some reverb. Not all tracks are washed out ambient tracks, like the first track of the original Palm Mall. Instead we get some more upbeat cuts, like track 15 "META Fashion dept.".
Palm Mall Mars' setting is inspired by a video by Christopher Hansen, which describes life in a Mars colony, and we would say this album is able to capture and transmit this feeling.
Palm Mall Mars was released on Bandcamp on June 2018 in digital form and green cassette tapes (which sold out in a matter of minutes). It was later re-released in orange cassette tapes in November of 2018.
Go check it out and get lost wandering around the first mall ever built on our red neighbour planet.
Score: 8/10
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