“60 Years On…” 06-05-25 playlist Hr.2
*Mercuriturn – Behind Me
*Mercuriturn – Bed Of Water
*Mercuriturn – In Here
David Gilmour – There’s No Way Out Of Here
Cream – Sunshine Of Your Love
The Jimi Hendrix Experience – Manic Depression
Klaatu – Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft
Klaatu – California Jam
Klaatu – Anus of Uranus
Klaatu – Sub Rosa Subway
Klaatu – True Life Hero
Klaatu – Doctor Marvello
Klaatu – Sir Bodsworth Rugglesby III
Klaatu – Little Neutrino
* IMC ‘Zine #55 Nov. ’03 Feature CD – Mercuriturn
26.75 years ago on Sept. 1, 1998 I founded IndepenDisc Music Club.
To Celebrate, during hour #2, we will revisit all the IndepenDisc Monthly Feature CDs/Artists from 1998 – 2013.
Issue #55 Nov. ‘03
Mercuriturn
I walked into 7th grade Music class naïve and expecting no more than a last row seat and a year of scales, notes, boring Classical instrumentals, and Operatic solos. I never could have imagined how that class would change my life. Part of that change was the many different musical styles I was introduced to while sitting there intently listening to all the sounds pouring out of the turntable. One sound in particular stands out to this day: Acid Rock. My teacher chose the Iron Butterfly classic “Inna-Godda-Da-Vita” as representation for this genre. Acid Rock evolved out of the Psychedelic experimental rock of the late 60s. Bands such as Iron Butterfly, Cream, Blue Cheer, and The Jimi Hendrix Experience took the concept of mind tripping musical exploration and applied it to Heavy Metal. Acid Rock had such impact that it was immediately identified with the muse behind it.
Fast forward to the 21st century about a decade since the birth of Emo. The grand and glorious scheme of music is that all genres survive to be reborn and morphed into the needs of the times; Emo is Acid Rock Lite with a subtle hint of psychedelia. Enter Mercuriturn.
Mercuriturn is Acid Rock; it uses the guitar as the instrument that unlocks the doors into the subliminal demons of the mind. The disc opens with “Behind Me,” using a throbbing bass and drenching guitar that stretches itself out as it walks us down the hallways of the insane asylum of the mind, while relating the story of someone trapped in the present because of his past; it is a prerequisite to the trip this disc is about to lay on us.
Using a simple cover of what could be a cell dividing itself in two, or an oddly shaped mask, the metaphors implied reach us through the complexity of the music. Given little else except for the back cover photo of guitars, amps, cables, and beer bottles strewn about a dimly lit room, the track listing, and an inside B&W picture of a guy sitting in an easy chair with guitars on either side, we are left to understand Mercuriturn by intently listening to all the sounds pouring out of the disc player.
Mercuriturn covers the gamut of the pioneers and perfecters of the Acid Rock scene of the late 60s/early 70s. Mixed, engineered, and produced in such fashion as to bring out the brilliance of the era, Mercuriturn is a worthy successor to the throne that has been virtually empty since Pink Floyd’s implosion after the Animals LP (we don’t count The Wall). In fact, picture Pink Floyd fronted by Jimi Hendrix channeling Syd Barrett and backed by Cream playing Led Zeppelin-esque rhythm tracks, and you’re beginning to get Mecuriturn.
As further evidence we need only to direct your ears to “Rolled Into One” – It’s Jimi Hendrix through a black curtain of bass and drums. There are double and triple tracked vocal harmonies riding upon a wall of electric guitar while the rhythm remains steady, flaunting resistance while relishing control over the command of the 60s style layered guitar riffs delivered straight from the hammers of the gods.
Feel “Searchlights,” where right from the opening chords of distortion the layered guitars leap from the speakers and take on the quality of lights searching the sky. Listen to the music and you can see the lights crossing back and forth as the vocals thrust us forth into the trip that is taking place amid the fog of this mental haze, while searing through the riffs and bombast galore. In “Bed of Water,” we can feel the guitar pick slicing through the strings while the fingers wrap around the neck and strangle note after note out of it, leaving us gasping.
While it is the Heavy Metal intense inward turned style of over the top playing that dominates the central theme of the altered mind journey that delves into the recesses and inner sanctums of personal transgressions, there still is apt representation of the mellower side. “You Just Might Find” offers awesome electro-acoustic instrumentation underneath, while the electric guitar soars above with a dizzying array of pedals (Wha-Wha, Fuzz, reverb, and various other distortions). This song also showcases unusual time changes, and depressingly insightful lyrics – “There’s less in life/than what appears to be.” “So Alone” wraps the Waters and Gilmour Guitar God instrument of/to the mind into an ether huffing Emo fused Acid take on the classic Bugs Bunny episode where the mad scientist is chasing the rabbit – “Come…back…here…lit…tle …bun…ny…rab…bit.” “Slow Down” is a rustic, country-esque ballad that boasts transcending guitars and the use of Bongos and various drum/percussion beats. It lends itself to a coffee house style sit-in among the enlightened beat poets, where they advise us to “come down/from your ivory tree” and to “slow down/take a second and breathe,” which is as much a part of the whole when reflecting on the rule of the genre.
The closing pair of songs, “In Here” (a modern day “No Way Out Of Here”) and “Closer To Somewhere” build on big amped acoustics with dreamlike vocals that are drawn from the Art/Prog Rock of the early to Mid 70s and have us aching to see the Mercuriturn guitar arsenal. We want to know how these sounds are coaxed out of these guitars. How much is live, and how much is studio tinkering? In this reviewer’s opinion the majority of the guitar playing and effects are played live, while the studio was reserved for the multi-tracking and overlays. Basic rhythm bass and drum parts were probably done live, as well as filled in at the studio. All in all, what we have is an amazing production of a musical style that has been swallowed by modern day culture and spit back out as Emo, but which Mercuriturn chews and savors. They present the proof that this is still a viable form of expression, especially when dealing with the isolation and paranoia that the depths and turmoil of our mind reveals, when bent and altered into states of consciousness only recognizable through such creative outlets as that of art/music.
Mercuriturn Rocks the inner sanctum of the mind with a hit of Acid Rock, and this time we’re no naïve 7th grader.
– G.Gone
