The avant-electronic duo Mall -- known in some references as MV77 thanks to the unusual typography of their logo -- are in some ways protégés of Flowchart mastermind Sean O'Neal: their first release was a split single with Flowchart in early 1997, and O'Neal produced their first full-length album, 1998's Special Education. However, where O'Neal's work with Flowchart blends an obvious fondness for Stereolab with a similar taste for slightly twee shoegazer pop, Mall is a noisier and more experimental proposition, with roots not only in Krautrock and the early electronic music of groups like the Silver Apples and 50 Foot Hose, but also in the musique concrète of Karlheinz Stockhausen and John Cage's theories of happenstance.

Mall formed in 1996 in New Jersey as the duo of Rob Cantagallo and Mike Page, who both handle electronics, samples, found sounds, and (occasionally) vocals. Mall quickly found O'Neal's support, and the Flowchart leader produced not only the duo's track, Biggie's Star Theater, on the aforementioned split single, but also their first solo release, a cassette called Four Tracks Max: The Slow-Fi EP, that came out on Cantagallo's TBTMO label in March 1997. This well-received EP lead to a deal with the Fuzzy Box label, which released the duo's Special Education full-length in late 1998. A playful mix of dub-like rhythms; samples from old #Sesame Street records and #Flash Gordon serials; and helter-skelter electronics, Special Education attracted quite a bit of attention on the American indie electronica scene. Darla Records, the leading label of that scene, distributed Special Education, and Mall spent the next couple of years placing tracks on various compilations on Darla and similar labels in the U.S., Europe, and Japan.

In 2000, Cantagallo and Page moved to the more artistically friendly climes of Philadelphia, a city with an active space rock/psychedelia scene. Those influences are obvious on Mall's second full-length release, 2001's cryptically titled 05.17.2012 01.34.28 PM -0400 CD. Darker and dreamier than Special Education, with barely audible voices murmuring through most of the tracks and a woozy feel of stoned ambience, the album was an intriguing new direction for the duo. ~ Stewart Mason, Rovi