Merck Fragments

Machinedrum – New Beats 2012

Merck — Thu, 03 May 2012 15:18:57 +0000

Meant to include this in the previous post, but it probably deserves a post of its own anyway. In case anyone missed it, earlier this year Travis posted up his new beats that hes been working on for the year in a nice concise mix on Soundcloud. Its quite an excellent little teaser, check it out if you enjoy Room(s) as much as I do.

May News

Merck — Wed, 02 May 2012 15:09:41 +0000

A couple bits of news for you all:

-First off, based off my last post, I’ll share as well, that Adam J is now a student of the Visual arts, as well as Audio, and he has a portfolio of some of his work up here: http://theythemselves.com/

-I recently submitted a mix for a Spanish electronic music website called Planeta Modular. I’ll get you guys a link to check it out once its gone live with them. It’s an ambient mix, though more on the chin strokey side (music for people who read The Wire is how I describe it).

-I have a pile of reviews I’ve been meaning to write up, just havent sat down with a beer in hand and the music blasting, to write out my comments and feelings. Here is a rough list, so I don’t forget, and so you can start digging if you’d like: Phantogram, Kryptic Minds, Dirty Ghosts, Consequence, Damu The Fudgemunk.

-Helios just released a free album to members of his mailing list, called Moiety. Its all ambient, and I’m not sure if its still gettable or what, but look into that if you’re a Helios fan. Also, if you’re one of those people who thinks that Drive is one of the greatest movies ever made (mostly because it has a hipster soundtrack), you should check out Keith/Helios’s side project called Mint Julep. Its got that same vibe, though a bit more shoegazey.

-Aesop Rock has a new album coming out, heres a preview track:
http://soundcloud.com/rhymesayers/04-zero-dark-thirty/

-And last but not least, Thom York of Radiohead playing Machinedrum at Coachella:

Adam Johnson & Akira

Merck — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 18:51:05 +0000

Looking through Adam Johnson’s portfolio site, I was reminded of a commercial that he and Akira Takahashi (designed many awesome CDs for us) collaborated on for the Flip camera. Check below for some of his original music (diff versions in diff commercials). You should also check out his soundcloud account for a few unreleased gems (find ‘Sunden’ in particular, classy Adam J stylings).

Adam Johnson Soundcloud

Track ID

Merck — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 06:48:11 +0000

I have a Track ID mystery for you guys. Taken from a DJ thats playing during a BMX competition in Amsterdam in 2006. First off, its gotta be something kinda obscure, because neither Soundhound or Shazam know what it is. Also, Funckarma don’t know what it is, so it may not be an obscure Dutch artist either. Any help identifying this track would be much appreciated, as it sounds like something I’d like to hear in its entirety.

Here is the track.

Downtown Miami time lapse with Somnitone

Merck — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 20:06:32 +0000

Excellent shots of downtown Miami in time lapse by my friend Pete. With Somnitone from the Squadron 2 CD as soundtrack. Check it out in HD fullscreen!

DJ Voda – Kenilworth Sessions

Merck — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 19:10:52 +0000

A mid-winter link & recommendation for everyone of some mixes done by Voda aka Jody aka The Brighton/Hove Body Bagger. Friend of mine from the south of England, long time Merck fan, and all around good guy. These were 2 mixes he did in late 2010, with a near perfect track selection profile of stuff straddling the post-dubstep & post-idm genres (I prefer those genre tags over the generic “bass music”). Been playing them a lot throughout 2011, think you all will dig them if you enjoy the idea of the convergence of classic Autechre with the Exit Records sound. And here is to hoping he puts together a few mixes this year for us of some of the gems he collected throughout 2011 (nudge nudge).

Some links to download them and check the tracklists:

Voda – Kenilworth Session 1

Voda – Kenilworth Session 2

Aphilas – Earth 0

Merck — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 18:43:16 +0000

I got a nice birthday present this year. A new Aphilas album. It was not specifically released for my birthday, but it has certainly made the day sweeter, and I’m guessing its gonna brighten a few of your days after the discussion sparked by my post last summer.

A friend noticed a new LP pop up on Discogs from them, gave me a shout, and I tracked down a copy from the label, and started my birthday off the right way, with some new Aphilas.

Its a real smooth album! Seems to be made mostly by Petri from the duo, and there is a new member named Jedu. Apparently Niko is only involved with one of the tracks, but it also looks like he has his own Kaino full length coming out this year as well. I’m so glad that they finally got an album out to the light of day, though its a bit different vibe than the II 12″ we released. Its got a bit more straight forward feel, almost like you can add vocals to a lot of these tracks and it would work. My two fav tracks are Hopes of a Solar Angel and Swan Song, which were available previously as Huminakirjuri material, but maybe thats just because I’m used to them. Its available on vinyl LP and Digital.

Head on over to the label website for more details.

You can hear clips of it on Soundcloud here.

Tycho Europe Tour (& US) (& Sepalcure Tour)

Merck — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 17:40:38 +0000

While I’m in the Ghostly promoting mood, my early Merck discovery Tycho, is doing his first tour of Europe. As we have a lot of EU readers on here, I figured I’d pass on the info below. He also still has a lot of US dates left on his current tour, so if you’re stateside, check the link below.

Here are the EU dates:
Feb 16th Amsterdam, Holland @ Paradiso
Feb 17th Luxembourg, Luxembourg @ Exit07
Feb 18th Berlin, Germany @ Gretchen
Feb 19th Copenhagen, Denmark @ Loppen
Feb 22nd Milan, Italy @ Magnolia
Feb 24th Paris, France @ Batofar
Feb 25th London, UK @ Cargo
Feb 26th Antwerp, Belgium @ Trix

More info at his blog

Also, forgot to mention this the other day, but Sepalcure will be touring EU as well this February.
Sepalcure info here.

Aeroc – R+B=? (Ghostly, 2011)

Merck — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 16:11:03 +0000

I can safely say I’ve been waiting for this album for 6 years. Geoff White’s initial Aeroc album on Ghostly was solid, had some good ideas. I saw Geoff play an Aeroc live set at Decibel Festival in 2005, and it blew me away, I came back frothing about it to some friends (it probably also helped that it was played after an awesome Lusine ambient set that also sent me frothing (and was the source for a lot of the material on his Language Barrier album on Hymen). Nonetheless, after bragging about the show, we all sat waiting 6 years for this album to come out, so there was really no way it could live up to those expectations. It is still a pretty good album. Excellent to throw on during a bright Sunday afternoon around the house. Its well balanced, has a great vibe amongst most of the tracks, and a good energy about it. Guitar electronics need a careful practitioner usually, as I find that many non-electronic musicians, coming into the electronic stuff, use the machines in an awkward way. Geoff comes from the other way, so his stuff really flows (to my ears at least). Definitely an album to check out (Merck reference; definitely check it if you dug the Tiki Obmar, Lateduster, and Tstewart stuff).

Discogs Album Link

Amazon Digital Release & Sound Clips

Deru – Say Goodbye To Useless (Mush, 2010)

Merck — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 17:30:04 +0000

This is an awesome album. Yes, I can safely say that all Merck fans should really dig this one. Don’t let the weird french singing in the first track throw you off, its about to get riggedy ruff.

It progresses really nicely through lush beaty material overlaid perfectly with soundscapes, delicious deru percussion, and the melodies that gets in many-a-merck fans heads. This is the kind of stuff that I hoped to release in my Merck days. Heavy on the beats and bass, stuff I can’t stop nodding my head to. He combines the best of Autechre and Dj Premier, in a subtle, seamless, and original way. There aren’t any standout tracks for me to point to initially, because the whole thing is strong, its screaming for a straight through listen, no angst to ffwd a track, or repeatedly backtrack, it flows excellently. Its got a good strong start with a few block-knocker tracks then it slows down a little into Walk and Fadeaway, which remind me of Carter Burwell stuff (his soundtrack to In Bruges). I’m guessing maybe he was listening to some of his stuff around the time of making this, just like you can hear in a few of Proem’s tracks when he had started to listen really heavily to Thomas Newman stuff (his Tiki Obmar remix in particular). Nonetheless, it continues on to finish off with 2 ambient pieces, and sandwiched in between them is Cottonmouth Lothario, with its excellent midway breakdown. Ok, I’ll stop hyping, if you didn’t catch this one already, please do, cheers to Ben & Mush, this kind of music belongs on the label that Aesop Rock started off on. Futuristic hip-hop indeed.

Discogs Album Link

iTunes Digital Release & Sound Clips