My Merka album review for Metro newspaper on November 10th. Quite why I was asked to review it I'm not really sure, it's not my place to reason why, just do what I'm told as a humble freelancer: personally I think Buraka Som Sistema's LP is far more interesting. My review of that for the Independent is soon come...
CD
Merka: Make & Do (THREE STARS)
Fat
Australian producer Merka’s long been associated with breaks - he’s signed to the one of the genre’s leading labels (Fat). However, like so much dance music in late 2008, Make & Do draws on a kaleidoscopic range of sounds – often in one track: Back Home leaps from deep house to playful electro and is topped with pianos and a disco chorus; Lucky Strike is a collision of Michael Jackson-esque pop, film score strings and electro-bass; early rave’s shuffling breakbeats, euphoric bleeps and hands in the air vocals, and edgy hardcore as it morphed into jungle, also feature. Make & Do blends 20 years of dance music without feeling incongruous, and is simultaneously nostalgic, future facing, and a sign of the times.
