Not until halfway through the debut album of twenty-year old bedroom producer Mister Lies did I remember and realize that Mowgli refers to the feral boy-character from The Jungle Book. Given the unique style of ambient house I was hearing, for a while I actually wondered if “jungle house” was a real sub-genre that I had heard of somewhere before. If it isn’t, it should be, because it’s the most concise moniker for this kind of music. Creating lush, primal environments and infusing elements of new-age, trip-hop, and world-style music, Mowgli moves through an amazing half-hour of transcendent downtempo sound and deft electronic craft. It’s otherworldly music that’s best listened to alone; it reaches to invoke that solitary and immemorial spirit within all of us.
The opener “Ashore” spends over a minute slowly releasing ambient textures — water dripping, typewriter keys being struck– across a large, echoey space before a heavy house beat drops in. Sedative bells weave simple melodic spells while new-age flutes flutter softly in the background. With a minute left to go, the song suddenly crescendos, overrun with glitchy electronic textures driven by a spacey, dissipated dub.
The tracks that follow are no less intricate or diverse. “Dionsyian” is a synth-sprayed variety of enervated electro-house. Cool circumambient beats and textures ripple through the faster-paced “Align” while primeval echoes spread out across its tropical vale of sound. The muted, thriving atmosphere of “Lupine” features percussive whips and smacks to heighten its transcendent musicality. “Canaan” is a neat interlude; it is a short literary narration enveloped with a spiritual, cathedral-ambiance that transports you almost unwillingly to its hypnotic, holy place. “Ludlow” is disquiet and celestial—at five minutes long, it’s actually pretty repetitive but you won’t notice because you’ll be too lost in thought.
There is no decrease in quality as the album nears its end. “Hounded” is one of the coolest tracks, during which a haunted feminine voice seems to drag at the edge of your ears with mystical adhesion as high synths streak beautifully overheard and a circumambient symphony of exotic textures and sounds slowly build. The closing “Trustfalls” sees muted beats cutting into ambient synth pads as percussive elements drop in one-by-one, before it builds to a jazzy denouement, a gorgeous mood of downtempo blues that seems to signify some sort of fulfilled journey. Perhaps it represents Mowgli’s emergence from the dark of the jungle and celebrates his return to human society, or perhaps it represents the embracing of the more primal and enigmatic elements of his true nature. Whatever it evinces, there’s no doubt that the music of Mowgli is something meaningful and timeless.
