Mark Archer – Ring Of Gyges EP
MATE002 | Mutate Records 2009 | www.mutaterecords.co.uk
In these very trying times, most of us lesser mortals often look for inspiration from another, usually from someone who stands head and shoulders above the rest of us, a hero that laughs in the face of danger and throws sand in the face of adversity, someone not dissimilar to that iconic stalwart of the Underground House Music Movement: Mark Archer.
Mark’s forced entry into the music business was way, way back at the beginning of House Music’s birth, in the 80’s – As a young student, desperate to pay his way through Naval Officer Training College, Mark, bedecked in crisply ironed navy bell bottoms and glazed canvas cap, was lured into the murky world of the embryonic, underground drug culture,
Quickly becoming a test pilot for the new Class ‘A’ concoctions that were being secreted across our fine country’s borders, from far off mystical lands and peddled to our young and impressionable, Mark became one of those impressionables, losing plot after plot and spending most of the late 80’s & early 90’s living in the shadows, on the run from the authorities, melting into the background of society and evading capture, thinly disguised as a nuclear reactor inspector.
In a single moment of clarity, around 1995, Mark’s self induced masked hysteria wore off, ever so briefly and he realised, to his own astonishment, that not only was he a schoolgirl’s pin up or that he’d spawned a whole new fashion craze in safety work wear clothing & gas mask sales but also that he’d been a big hit in the music world & had scored several hits along the way on record labels, including: Blue Chip, Network Records, R&S, KMS, Dansa, and TCR as: Altern 8, Nexus 21, Bizarre Inc. Slo Moshun and Mr Nex.
Having come to terms with his addiction to afro-euro-centric synthesizer based music, Mark Archer made further progress in the study of himself, finally entering the witness protection program and in 2007 from his art-deco-esque secret re-housing maisonette near the Stafford Balti Restaurant, just off the M6 in the Midlands, Mark was able to, at last, discard his world famous disguise, that he’d been forced to hide behind since the early days of Rave and to show his manly, rugged looks & fine facial topiary to a long awaiting world.
To celebrate his ‘coming out’ Mark produced and released ‘Songs For Einna’ EP on DS:93 Records, a fond glance back at the music that truly inspired him in the late eighties, his first musical love: Detroit Techno.
Back to the present and the second release on new musical upstart label Mutate Records: Mark Archer – Ring Of Gyges EP is a triad of especial tracks dedicated by Mark to a very few ’special people’, without whom, these tracks would have remained unreleased. Contained in the complex programming of these tracks it’s claimed that the secrets of his time in the shadows and the names and whereabouts of those, still at large, can be found.
‘Trinity’ – A quietly haunting masterpiece that warps an acid tinged synthetic palette of electronic sounds tightly around a groovy as fuck dance floor killer. Young Mr Archer draws from all his multi varied pseudonyms and adds the best elements of all his previous creations. Stick this on, turn it up LOUD & remember just how it was that we got here.
‘The Way’ – Our host moans his way across this sinisterly stripped down and very pure in nature programmed track. You can almost share the darkness in the writer’s pain as you’re instantly transported back in time to Belleville High and to the dark industrial soundscapes of Detroit Michigan.
An instant future classic.
‘Riser’ – Dark, smooth, and perfectly downbeat, Riser drags a willing you into a spatial place in time, a place of fond memories, raves of yester-year, a moment when all sense of time and space had long since sailed from your twisted mind, a time when the only journey that you were capable of taking was the only one on offer in front of you: to catch the wave of this tune swirling beautifully right now inside your head. No thoughts of tomorrow, just of right now.
Ring of Gyges is due out on the 14th February – To preview the tracks go to Mark’s myspace page – www.myspace.com/markaaronarcher
Visit the Mutate Records Website to find your nearest stockist and place your back orders, this will fly.
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