Travis recently pointed out to me how much he loved these 2 mixes I did back in 2000 of some of my hiphop vinyl at the time. He featured them on the Percussionlab site recently, and I’m gonna go ahead and throw them up here. Mixing of course isn’t anything of note, but this was themed around a lot of good hiphop from the recent years at that time that I enjoyed, while watching all the good hiphop go commercial, and overall hiphop really go downhill. Thus the title ‘Real’. If you are a fan of Now You Know.. listen carefully… you may just notice some similarities.
Part 1
K-otix - Questions
Vakill - Tis Tha Seizin
Jigmastas - Original
Breez Evahflowin’ - On The Mic
Jigmastas - Last Will & Testimony
Shadow Huntaz - DJ Screams Medic
Rubberoom - Sector Rush Remix (Rebuilt)
Company Flow - Population Control
Mr. Lif - Triangular Warfare
Thawfor - ? (12″ from 1999)
Hurricane G. & Rishi - No More Prisons
Equilibrium - Windows 98
Scienz of Life - Powers Of Nine Ether
Part 2
Lootpack - Likwit Fusion
Scienz of Life - The Anthem
Originoo Gunn Clappaz - Suspect
No I.D. - Jump On It
? - ?
Raw - Comment #3 (Family Of The Continents)
Mr. Lif feat. Akrobatik - Inhuman Capabilities
? - ?
Thawfor - Touch Down
Raw - Distant Traveller
? - ?
Dan The Automator - My Guru
2000 edition CD, of which there are about 100 left
+
less than 500 digital album sales… (though it is #2 best selling digital album for Merck)
=
50,000+ unique listeners??
Some more Syndrone fun facts: The opening track on Salmataxia, Cachexia, was originally twice as long. The story behind the track is that Travis actually wrote it shortly after waking up from losing consciousness from inhaling excessive paint fumes while helping someone paint the inside of their place. I always feel listening to the track, that it sounds so much like the dark, paranoid, frightening world of losing consciousness uncontrollably. He captured it so well.
So he originally wrote this 9 minute version, and was insistent that we use that one on the final cut of the album. As much as I love that track, I thought it would be a complete mind-fuck to open the album with 9 minutes of one of the most intense tracks he has ever made. Eventually he relented (and later thanked me for insisting on it), and we ended up with the 4:35 version on the final album. But for your listening enjoyment, I am providing here the original 9 minute version.
So in 2002 Travis had completed a slew of new Syndrone tracks, Now You Know had been doing quite well, and the Half the Battle 12″ soon after was doing even better. Travis was really cranking out the music at that point in time, which included the majority of a new Syndrone album. He sent me a demo CD of the new tracks in the summer of 2002, around the same time as we were starting to finalize work on the Half the Battle and Urban Biology CD’s (they were released at the same time in September 2002). Though the material was strong in some places, through a combination of distractions with the Machine Drum stuff, and some doubts about the quality of some of the material by both of us, the whole album kinda got put on the back burner. It was about 13 tracks total, quite varied in development level, and a lot of it really felt like a drastic revisioning of Cichlisuite and Chiastic Slide, so it kinda just faded and never ended up coming out. Some of the tracks from it were eventually reworked later and made it onto Salmataxia, those being Cinco, Pan_Ic, and Sloky. Listening back on it now, most of the rest of it sounds rather underdeveloped and probably for the best it never saw the light of day, but there is one track I liked to use for DJing live that I’ve always enjoyed, that I’ll provide for download here. I don’t know if this track ever had a name, but I’m going to call it Shredd3r, in honor of a friend.
Been forever, but I’m preparing a move out of Miami finally. So things beyond running my mouth on the internet have consumed my time. Nonetheless, I’m in need of money for the move and I have a few copies left of the first few Merck releases that are now out of print (not available from our Mailorder or distros) that I wanted to offer up for the blog followers. Only $15.00 each plus shipping (see below). Preferred method of payment will be Paypal. Offer valid while supplies last.
Discs available are:
Syndrone - Triskaideka (Merck 001)
Md - Appelsap (Merck 003)
Various - Aurora (Merck 004)
Machine Drum - Now You Know (Merck 005)
Proem - Negativ (Merck 006)
Various - Dosage (Merck 020)
Shipping
U.S. - $2.00 for the first cd, $1.00 for each additional.
International - $5.00 for the first cd, $3.00 for each additional.
hit me up at merck at merckrecords dot com to arrange things
PS. I have a couple copies left of Squadron (1), Serial Human, and Unomia (some of these are sans shrinkwrap) that I’d be willing to part with for $30 each.
I’m going to present a modified version of the Grab Bag that hopefully will be more hospitable to the variety of listeners we have on this blog.
There is now a reduced version of 5 cds and 5 vinyl releases for $55, but you get to pick the releases you want from the list below. The original $99 for 11 cds and 8 vinyls still stands, and I’ll allow people to choose from this list as well for that. (Or you can just choose a random sampling from this list with a few items exempted or guaranteed.)
CDs:
md - between gaps (merck 008) cd
kristuit salu vs.morris nightingale - my mines i (merck 009) cd
various - half the battle (merck 011) cd
lackluster - showcase (merck 015) cd
various - miasmah (merck 018) cd
tiki obmar - seasons (merck 029) cd
lateduster - easy pieces (merck 030) cd
machine drum - bidnezz (merck 031) cd
ilkae - bovine rearrangement (merck 032) cd
blamstrain remixed - compilation (merck 035) cd
various - aurora 2 (merck 036) cd
malcom kipe - lit (merck 037) cd
tstewart - living exponentially (merck 038) cd
various - squadron 2 (merck 041) cd
proem - you shall have ever been (merck 042) 2xcd
40winks - sound puzzle (merck 046) cd
various - terminal (nrtcd4) cd
various - merck mix 3 (mix3) cd
Vinyl:
machine drum - urban biology (merck ub) 2×12″ Promo
various artists - dosage 2 (merck do2) 12″
deru - trying to remember sampler (merck du) 12″
ilkae - bring extra dragons (merck dr) 12″
malcom kipe - lit (merck lt) 2×12″
malcom kipe - breakspiracy theories vol. 2 (merck bt2) 12″
mr. projectile - sinking sampler (merck sg) 12″
kristuit salu - my mines i sampler (merck ks) 12″
lackluster - r u oho? (merck ru) 12″
lackluster - showcase sampler (merck sc) 12″
quench - punctuated sampler (merck ps) 12″
various - blamstrain remixed (merck re1) 12″
landau - thepicompromise sampler (merck tc) 12″
frank and bill - ma0x (merck fb) 7″
sense - 2 day dub (merck ar) 7″
the world on higher downs (plerck 00) 7″
Once again it includes shipping to your (domestic) doorstep and I’ll gladly extend this offer for International Fans too, though you will need to cover shipping costs to get these things across the ocean.
If you’d like to take me up on this offer, all you have to do is send an email to m3rck at m3rck dot net. Please include your mailing address in the initial mail.