Mahal

Glass Beams’ rise has felt quietly inevitable. Since the release of their debut EP Mirage in 2021, the Melbourne trio have built a following less through hype and more through atmosphere, a slow-burning word-of-mouth ascent driven by hypnotic grooves and a distinct visual identity. On 22 March, they return with Mahal, now under the banner of Ninja Tune, alongside the release of its title track.

At the centre of the project is Rajan Silva, whose creative spark traces back to something deeply personal. Childhood memories, shaped by his father’s migration from India to Melbourne in the late 1970s, form the emotional backbone of Mahal. One image lingers. Watching Concert for George on repeat, absorbing the interplay between Ravi Shankar and Western icons like Eric Clapton and Paul McCartney. That moment, where musical worlds collide without friction, feels like the blueprint for everything Glass Beams have since created.

Mahal leans fully into that lineage. The EP draws from a record collection where Bollywood greats sat comfortably alongside blues legends, where tradition and experimentation were never in conflict. You can hear that philosophy throughout. The band’s sound moves fluidly between eras and geographies, blending live instrumentation with DIY electronica in a way that feels less like fusion and more like translation.

There is a restraint to Glass Beams’ approach that sets them apart. The music rarely demands attention in obvious ways. Instead, it pulls you in gradually, looping, shifting, evolving with a quiet confidence. Early live renditions of these tracks, circulated online and racking up millions of views, hinted at something expansive. On record, that sense of space remains, but it is more focused, more deliberate.

If Mirage introduced the band as a curiosity, Mahal positions them as something more assured. It captures a group refining their identity without losing the mystique that made them compelling in the first place. There is no rush to over-explain or overproduce. The magic lies in the balance, between old and new, East and West, memory and movement.

In that sense, Mahal feels less like a step forward and more like a deepening. Glass Beams are not chasing evolution for its own sake. They are building a world, patiently, one hypnotic groove at a time.