Mercury RED

Blog

  • INSOMNIA

    late night voodoo funk track, you won’t sleep after listening to. try to catch the melodic conversation between the congas, bongo and trap kit.

    i worked on this track during long stretches of insomnia while living in mali in the 2000s. i had brought an edirol midi controller with me and used it to program all the drum parts, obsessing over each line, each interaction, late at night when sleep wouldn’t come.

    listening back, i’m still drawn to the conversation between the bongos and the congas. it’s strange and playful, almost argumentative at times. this was also one of the first tracks where i used horns, and they were heavily influenced by the malian and djembe music i was studying then. at the time, i was mostly playing djembe when i wasn’t working on music on my computer.

    credits:
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    mercury red, 2002
    production & guitar = erich huffaker

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  • AFRO BONFIRE

    this was the first mercury red track i ever made. i remember discovering the reson bass synth in reason and loving it so much that i built the entire song around it. i kept coming back to this track for years, revisiting it, reshaping it, letting it sit, then returning again.

    i probably started it in the early 2000s, before mercury red even had a name. back then i called it jungle master, which feels slightly ridiculous in retrospect, and also strangely appropriate for the moment it came from.

    listening back now, the flow still holds. it feels very late nineties, early 2000s. there’s that jungle adjacent drum pattern running through it, which makes me wonder whatever happened to that sound. it burned bright for a short window, then seemed to disappear. this track still carries that era in its bones.

    credits:
    .
    mercury red, 2002
    production = erich huffaker

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  • TRANCE

    the original blueprint for mercuryred.  rhythmically sophisticated. percussive. funk.  all building up towards the sky into cassé-style insanity.  the theoretical model for the this track is derived from a general interpretation and amalgamation of traditional spirit possession music and the principles of hypnosis.  in practical terms this implies a significant building of pressure and tension until a releasing point in which the floodgates are open and the subconscious plays.  special thanks to john estrada for the touch given to the song by his guitar work. 

    credits:
    .
    mercury red, 2002
    production = erich huffaker
    guitar = john estrada

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