This is great!
Archive for the ‘General’ Category
Aphex Twin - Alberto Balsalm - Steel Drum Band version
Tuesday, August 24th, 2010Cachexia, Long Version
Tuesday, December 8th, 2009Some 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.
Syndrone - Cachexia (Long Version).mp3
Actually listening back on it now, I quite enjoy the 2 minute slow building opening… and the last 30 second outro.
Headphone Commute Interview
Friday, July 3rd, 2009My interview over at Headphone Commute has been posted. Check it out here
(side note: playing this week on shuffle: video game rock from the likes of The Advantage/Generic, Minibosses, Alias Jack, and Cursor)
Tidbits
Monday, June 15th, 2009Tim Koch is now on Ghostly as ‘10:32′. Info here.
Machinedrum just put up a new podcast here of a lot of unreleased material, and hes supposedly working on a live megamix of his merck albums.
I’m working on an interview for this site Headphone Commute.
I’m also working on 2 new ambient mixes (they’re more like selections than mixes really). Hoping to get those done by the end of the month to share here.
Fans of Ilkae & Proswell will probably dig this new mp3 release from Carl Brown that came out last month on the Arcoplane label. I had the track Day After Day for the last year, been playing it a lot (sounds like a proper Ilkae/Proswell collabo).
Stay outta the sun!
-G
Some random updates on Merck and its Artists
Tuesday, July 29th, 2008Wanted to share some links and updates with you all.
1. We should have some new Merck logo shirts popping up in the merck mailorder in the next week or two.
2. Aaron of Ilkae has a new self-released cd out that hes selling direct, grab it here.
3. Arctic Hospital from Narita just released his sophmore album this summer entitled Neon Veils, on a new label in Japan called Lantern. info here. You may also want to grab Citystream if you haven’t already, as the repress is almost sold out, and there most likely won’t be anymore copies made.
4. I have a discogs account where I’m selling off some rare merck test presses, dub plates, and general stuff from my collection, check it here.
5. Proem is finally getting his webstore going soon, as well as working on a limited edition book filled with drawings of his, as well as the stories behind all of his tracknames, should be great. more info here soon hopefully.
6. Blamstrains new label Erotus is starting to get up and running, he has releases cooking and a promo mix on their website here.
7. 40winks released a new album this spring in Europe called The Lucid Effect. available from www.hhv.de.
Hey young world!
Tuesday, October 23rd, 2007Welcome to Merck Fragments. I’m Gabe Koch, the founder and manager of both Merck and Narita Records. We’ve stopped releasing new music on Merck as of January 2007. Since then I’ve been working on a little art project on the side, also got Narita on the back burner for now, but I have been meaning to set up a weblog to recommend music, links, and just rant, for a few years now. A lot of people have been asking for music recommendations recently, and I finally have the time and effort to do it. So prepare to finally learn a bit more about the person (and people) behind Merck Records.