Mörk finally arrives with it's first album, a super extended 3LP of deep, heady club excursions from long-time LA musician, producer and DJ, Grant.
Having become linked to the Lobster family through their distribution arm via his own imprint The Lauren Bacall (a vinyl-based outlet for Grant and his affiliates aquatic, driving house music), a few mysteriously disappearing Soundcloud sets later and 11 tracks finally emerged. Heavily studio crafted, ordered and selected to perfection. A pretty much unmatchable ode to 90's UK house music blended with a distinctive air of West Coast deep house.
All this provides a backbone for wider playfulness in the album's sound palette; from the filtered breaks of Bend and Outsider, to the soaring diva vocals of Contemporate Reality and Around The Edge, or the pure ecstatic euphoria of Different Ways and The Limit (i.e. what Jimmy calls "the Gatecrasher track").
It's a stake in the ground for the Mörk label and easily Grant's biggest release to date. A tour de force in rolling, percussive, nostalgic house that should see Grant finally step out of the shadows and claim his place as one of the most talented and exciting producers in the US right now.
Mörk finally hits a mighty ten releases, continuing our journey into the depths with a cauldron of cavernous dub techno from US delay-hound, Jon Fay.
Despite being Fay's production debut, Untitled is a truly remarkable masterpiece, an explorative and other-worldly journey into the nocturnal side of dub techno. Natural landscapes; caves, woods, mountains and ocean ridges, open up amid the ever shifting seismic production all hinged on the tweaking of a single effect, but one which has the sheer capacity to launch souls into interstellar space.
Opener 1271 is built on a layers of cycling, swirling drones, noise and rasping hiss, with an epic spoken word punctuating the mid section of the track before the colliding and clattering over-saturated delay really takes off. Over-reflecting in it's own endless chamber.
MKV drops the tempo for a lowest-ever-slung techno rider. Steadily coasting off the back of more time-shifting delay patterns while being slowly enveloped in a sea of warm, salted pads.
Infused with a lonely and occasionally isolated feeling of separation, Untitled bumps along with more of Fay's signature crisp sound design while meddling with suddenly emerging melodies and crashes in the dark. Almost entirely breaking down via the knackered CPU halfway through.
Ending on a purely ambiguous note, loop-ambient jam Untitled 2 was made from looping the sound of dust on a vinyl record, set up so that each pop and scratch would trigger a variety of muffled, cavernous, mind delay overloaded samples. Like being turned to sand and swept up into an all-engulfing storm. One for the serious space cadet.
nthng follows up his acclaimed debut EP 'Remember Us' with the third entry into the Mörk catalogue, '1996'. Taking a less aquatic approach to production, but still shrouded in warm analogue fuzz and reverb, '1996' sees the young producer on much more reverent form, channeling a wider range of influences from German dub techno to staggered UK bass and Giegling-esque minimal tropes.
Lobster Theremin launch their first sublabel proper, heralding a darker, murkier and deeper sound on their newly minted Mörk imprint.
Retaining it's mother label's passion for championing newcomers, Mörk launches with a debut release from young Netherlandic producer nthng. Cultivating a sound that sits somewhere between Prince of Denmark and early Claro Intelecto with splashes of Clone influence, nthng's stripped-back techno walks fuzzy, shrouded paths through nolstagic moments in time.
At times almost drowning, his engulfing sound is a raw reminder of the power of subtlety and the use of meditative looping along with a rough-around-the-edges production style has led to an incredibly moving debut work.
The second Mörk release finally gets out of the blocks, helmed by Italian analogue explorer Raw M.T. With some seriously heavy cuts under his belt, we coaxed him out of hiding for a varied 12" of low-slung house, dreamy beachside dreams and hammering arpeggiated techno, cut deep and heavy over two sides of wax.
A1 – Beyond the Shelf: The first track on the EP starts us off with a drifty spatial house affair, showcasing a blissed out dream like atmosphere. The synth sounds range from the deeper side of things to the slightly more urgent. Soft stab sounds are accompanied with distorted rising fx, the blend of which is mesmerising. Beats have a nice shuffle to them and give a positive groove to the track. Solid kick drums, crisp hats and percussive additives add a certain swing. The bass has a wonderfully uplifting style and really completes this great opener from Romansoff.
A2 – Infinite Dreams: Being drawn into something musically hypnotic is always a pleasant experience, this is the case with the title track Infinite Dreams. The synth elements form into a very cyclic blend of spaced out deepness that draws you into the depth of the tune. The beats also help in this regard, the simple but effective combination of kick, hat and clap really drive the track forward. An extra dusting of other percussive parts all add to the 'pulling you into something' feeling that you get with this track. Bass follows along with the main parts and works as a foundation of the groove. So far so good with this rekid.
B1 – Seven Sins: Seven Sins goes down a more dance floor focused path with its almost Energy Flash type groove. It conjures up memories of the great Beltram classic as far as beat structure goes. The obvious difference here is that this has more of a focus on depth of sound rather than an all out rave leg crazed frenzy. The soundscape used does have energy but its done in a softer less abrasive way. Smooth pad sounds take the lead without being to drifty or ambient, they do have a calming feel but without going into the realms of the mega chilled out.
B2 – She Forgives: The final track on the EP closes off with a thought provoking piece. Notice the electro sounding snare standing out amongst the other rhythms within the beats. The groove is simple to follow, giving time for the sounds of the track to work their magic. Flicking chord changes on this track are really cool and have an addictive quality. Stab sounds following the chord changes emphasise the tonal shift and give something more for the ear to latch onto.
Infinite Dream is a superb EP that Romansoff has put together, and really follows on from the previous triumphs that the Mork label has put out. Obviously it’s a no brainer as far as collectors of this label are concerned. If you are new to the label, then try and check the previous releases out as they do not disappoint.
