Mercers -The Liminal Tapes
Mercers -The Liminal Tapes
Self Release
Release date: 17/07/26
Review by: Jon Deaux
7.5/10
My doctor told me I had a chronic Stockholm syndrome diagnosis — turns out I’d just fallen in love with my own captor, the news cycle and The Liminal Tapes
Some bands come into existence out of necessity. MERCERS came to be out of necessity. Two men reached their forties and realized that the only thing more frightening than trying again was remaining the same. Formed as a result of the collapse of FONY (a nu metal band too obscure to exist outside of a mirror in their basement), vocalists Olly James and guitarist Phil Bashford decided to do what many musicians threaten to do after three beers – fix the songs they got wrong.
First things first, the elephant in the gas mask. The first track in the EP, ‘Cleanse/Repeat,’ immediately establishes that MERCERS are not a band playing covers and having fun. It is about Gaza, the place where democracy quietly walks out of the back door while everyone debates whether or not it should leave through the front door. The meaning of the title speaks for itself – cleanse and repeat; imagine the instructions on your shampoo bottle, except instead of making your hair smoother and silkier, it kills several thousand people and creates another resolution no one bothered reading. The texture of the guitars resembles that of a smashed window – complex and there primarily for allowing coldness inside.
Speaking of the songs that will elicit a comment from people with some type of mental condition on social media, New Stockholm. The song is an exploration of the connection between the problems with free speech and mental well-being. While discussing how difficult it is in today’s society to speak freely without fear of your pain being acknowledged until it becomes inconvenient, MERCERS managed to create a house built around an idea. In other words, this song is a metaphor. A house with a load-bearing wall as its front door. And we are all aware that when you get the chorus right, you feel a little bit guilty.
And then the archaeology. ‘A Satire for the World’ and ‘January Zen’ are songs from FONY that received better treatment and have been sent to do the job again. They are not relics of the past brought back as a token of a nostalgia tour; they have finally received the much-needed haircuts from fifteen years ago. January Zen particularly radiates the eeriness that follows the calm before a terrible storm – a conversation taking place before someone goes totally insane.
And what brings this album above and beyond a decent breakup record from a band that has not officially broken up with anything except their old name? A solid rhythm section in the form of Richard Titheradge and Simon Glover. Instead of filling the spaces that need to be filled with music, the two give MERCERS the vibe of an actual band with actual opinions on the dynamics.
Where FONY was raw and intuitive, MERCERS became precise and planned. And they are dark in the only meaningful way possible.
TRACKLISTING:
01. Cleanse/Repeat
02. New Stockholm
03. A Satire for the World
04. January Zen
LINKS:
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