Wednesday, January 24, 2007 - MERT004

Time for a slice of Piano goodness with Mert Wax 004. This is already out there, and is available from the official website in black or Mert's special 'Purple 12 inch'.

The tracklisting on this is as follows:

A1 - Brainstormer - Piano Fever
A2 - Dekoy - Give In To Love
B1 - Audio X - Generate
B2 - Sparky - Take Control

Brainstormer starts us off with a really chilled out piece of music. A subtle 4x4 kick begins this tune, along some randomly filtered amens. Which drops into a warm string section, with little arpeggio'd piano notes sitting in the background. The main piano then drops in, and its simplicity is its beauty. The beat kicks back in and off we go. Close your eyes. Seriously. Im=m ansufni as ui jfeeus (oops, hard to type with your eyes closed...). I'm loving this tune. Its such a laid back roller, and even the middle section is well done in the same vain. This tune takes me back to sitting in the back of a van, spliff in hand, just chilling, and loving the scene. Really good track Mr Brain. Thankyou for making it.

Dekoy blatantly rips the 'Give a little love' sample from Nookie, but I'll tell you what, this is an awesome tune. The programmed beats are bouncey enough and the strings and vocals work really well, then it drops into the single note piano riff, add the chords, the bass, some space aged fx, some booms and we are ready for it to take off.... And it does. Dirt style. Distorted synths and a d'n'b beat pattern rolls this along right until the whole mood changes when the vocal drops back in with a nice high synthy bleep, bringing the piano back in. A really uplifting track, well produced, and it's no wonder this is getting hammered on internet stations, and events worldwide. Top notch.

Now I've finished blowing smoke up Dekoy's arse, lets move on to Audio X, and Generate. This one is a bit more oldskool styled, and I will get shot for this, but with the orchestra stabs, the synth bass, and the vocal, it sounds very 80's. Thats not a slur, in fact, it's quite the opposite. I love this tune. Kinda Stock Aitken and Waterman meets hardcore meets Miami Sound Machine. The filtered acid line works really well and the Orchestra stabbage is brilliant, the piano runs along nicely, but the real pleasure is in the string pattern. This tune is different, refreshing and good to listen to. I'm guessing though, that if you are reading this and you were born in the mid 80's, you wont really appreciate what I just wrote. But then again, I'm just an old bastard....

Ok, Sparky is last on the EP with 'Take Control'. The start reminds me of 'Panic', then we get a vocoded 'Are you ready' sample, and the beat kicks in. Sounds like the sparkster has opted for programmed beats instead of samples. The drop sees a synth bass come in, and build nicely to the main riff, when the beat drops back in, the bass gets lower, and the track sounds nice and full. I found myself nodding along to this one, and then in comes the piano. A quality riff which rolls perfectly over the beat. Not too sure about the acidy style synth, but thats just me, I suppose. It does add feeling to the track and picks it up a notch. Then we drop back into the bass break, and this sees the stab pattern return and the track runs like this to the end. Another solid track from the Sparky, as we have come to expect.

Overall, Mert Wax 004 is big. 4 solid tracks on there, sadly lacking in a bit of filth, but for all you piano lovers, this delivers. And then delivers again. The bonus is that it is indeed 12 inches, and it's purple or black. This record will help you pull too. Here's the formula....

MERT004 has Pianos....
Girls dance to pianos....
Blokes dance cos girls dance.....
Bloke pulls.....

Therefore.... Blokes need MERT004. So buy it.

End of.

Until next time....
The Mix Analyst