‘Cuts of Culture 2 – The Podcasts’: Week 5b
August 19, 2007 by Laurent
Filed under Cuts of Culture 2 series, Podcasts (all)
Week 5 of the Cuts of Culture 2 Podcasts, and this time we go back to the UK for another video from the main man, 2tall, showing a much more abstract and improvisational aspect of things, while audio comes courtesy of another heavy hitter, ie.merg_ from the US.
ie.merg_ – Midnight, NYC, July, 90 degree
Another exclusive audio track from a previous DMC world winner, this time from ie.merg_. An original member of the 5th Platoon crew, ie.merg_ spent the best part of the early 00s making his mark on the battle circuit winning more local, national and international titles than pretty much anyone else. This all culminated in 04 and 05 with his back to back DMC win, another interesting moment of DMC history which has left countless people debating the ins and outs of his victory ad nauseam.
Again what was interesting to us wasn’t just his battle pedigree, but his increasing production work following his 2005 win. Not only did he set about working on various projects, solo and alongside a cream of the crop of producers and tablists, but he also set up two labels, The Inside and Norm Rex, to allow for the release of his work and that of other artists, including the likes of Machinedrum, Tigerstyle, Craze, Nautilis, Tstewart and others. To date though it’s unfortunately been a little quiet for the labels outside some battle record releases from Tigerstyle, Machinedrum and the man himself. Though those alone have proved a lot more interesting than your average battle record release, especially the Machinedrum one.
Still 2007 and 2008 should see some actual music releases hitting, and with the kinda of project and people involved you know it’s bound to be some seriously interesting stuff. Which leads us to the track ie.merg_ gave us for the compilation. Aside from an odd title, this is a pretty interesting taster of things to come, showcasing a musical departure from his battle origins towards more mixed and varied musical styles and influences. Much like Netik, what’s interesting to us with ie.merg_ is that his stuff sounds like no one else. He’s another tablist and producer who’s chosen his own path and sound. With a lot of electronic influences, as demonstrated in his BBC 1 appearance post DMC, where he dropped a set of electro and house – a pretty interesting departure for your usual DMC cliched sets.
The track is pretty short, but to the point acting more like a skit of sorts in the compilation mix as you’ll be able to hear on week 8. For more on ie.merg_ you can check his myspace and for the labels check the Normrex myspace.
The file is 5mb, .mp3 format, 320kbps.
