Underground house and disco maestro Mark E makes a welcome return to Delusions following hot on the heels of last years Leaning Into The Light EP. The revered producer has been steadily doing his thing for almost two decades now, racking up releases on Running Back, Golf Channel and Spectral Sound to name just a few. His sound is a unique, sublime vision of US deep house which transcends the dance floor and he proves his salt once again on the four new tracks that make up this stunning EP. Title track Enchantment Under The Sea sets the mood with a minimal, low slung drum machine groove laying the foundation for layers of Rhodes and synth chords conjuring up images of a sub-aquatic vision of depth and beauty. Up next we have Zone Tonight, the epitome of a late night city scape driving track utilising heavily saturated drums, subtle acid line, distant piano melody and moody Detroit pads to draw you into its deep confines. Flipping over we have Vertigo which treads a similar sonic path as Mark effortlessly fuses rich harmonies and entrancing melodies, inviting listeners to lose themselves in its depths. Closing out this blissful journey we have Bodymap which drops the BPM a little more with simple understated drums, melancholic string line and pulsating bassline. The Zone Tonight EP is a testament to Mark E's unparalleled prowess in crafting immersive, uncompromising and emotive soundscapes for your aural pleasure. He also created the original artwork for this release. More

We’ve been loving underground UK house hero Mark E for time so it’s a great pleasure to welcome him to Delusions Of Grandeur for his debut release for the label. With killer edits and sublime releases on esteemed labels such as Running Back, Golf Channel, Ghostly/Spectral and his own MERC, Mark E has crafted a distinct and original sound that is uniquely blue collar and utilitarian classic, deep house, with a tinge of disco warmth. The Leaning Into The Light EP has more an LP feel and is definitely one for the heads, taking us on a deep trip across five stunning and expansive productions which will leave you well and truly spellbound. From the opener Swimming Through A Diamond with its raw and minimal groove, glacial FM electric Piano and naive synth melodies you know you’re in for a real deep treat with what’s to come. Compact Object treads a similarly subtle yet captivating path with a stripped back groove and entrancing synth pads and stabs which intertwine and bounce off of each other like light refracting through a prism. Heartaches loops up a live electric bassline and jazzy piano chords to brilliant effect, creating a blissed out mood and feeling of being suspended in the air, at once muted, otherworldly and contemplative. The title track follows taking us deeper still with majestic chords and a tone palette which calls to mind Larry Heard and the inimitable sounds of Black Dog, B12 and the golden era of ambient techno and IDM. Closing out this incredible collection of tracks we have Mirrored Cube, another example of Mark E’s mastery of his craft, everything sitting perfectly in its own space and perfect pace rewarding you with its simple beauty. Mark E also created the original artwork for this release. More

The third release on 18437 features one of UK's finest producers and DJs, Mark E.

While many struggle to find their sound or try to reinvent themselves Mark keeps on doing what he does best, deep and atmospheric house music, full of synth pads and warm chords.
It's never been about fast tempos or high energy with Mark, each track is good enough to stand on its own.

Patrice Scott, who always brings a huge amount of passion and soul into his music, provided a remix of Rain that's beautiful.

Excellent late night listening music...

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The 12-inch starts on a bone-chilling note with the titular track, a spartan warm-up that’s a creeping bass on the low end, wispy pads in the mids, and a scratchy looped vox sample on top designed to haunt your dreams. A freaky intro that unnerves as it allures. On the move now, Mark burrows deeper into a hypnotic groove with “Shelter,” a midtempo cyborg cut, half round, warm, organic percussion, half cold-tothe-touch synth chord sustains. The energy and urgency feels like new territory, but the execution is signature Mark E. On the reverse is a pair of more melodious tunes, the shuf?ing cyberpunk groove that is “M-54,” then the prickly “Shinkansen,” which has a sputtered and bleary-eyed thrust to make feet jitter and hips shake. A twist on the man's disciplined studio workmanship that we've come to know—arrow-straight arrangements, celery-crisp drums—that’s spiced with a few pinches of psychedelic, inside-out wickedness, devilishness to keep you wired, buzzing More

The last of Public Release’s single-digit records is the first from the British West Midlands’ most famous DJ and producer, Mark E. This shouldn’t come as a surprise. If anything, the fact it didn’t happen earlier should; Mark appeared as a remixer on Jeffrey Brodsky’s 2014 Public Release EP, which has earned him the status of esteemed member of the outfit’s inner circle and prime candidate for an extended play of his own. That little bit of context behind us, let’s move on to the actual music that’s been pressed to Sky Horn. The 12” kicks off with the titular track, an abrasive number built around a meaty, sawtoothed synth line that sits snugly atop a hypnotic beat. Happy Family’s remix—Happy Family, for the uninitiated, is Eric Duncan and Justin Van Der Volgen—is a more psychedelic reimagining of the original cut that’ll knock you into an exhilarating stupor. Speedy and demented, it’s an explosive, tantalizing cap to the first record. The second begins with “Midnight Equatic,” a tense yet propulsive number that’s somehow paranoid industrial, tropical disco, and prototypical synthwave all at once. The duo comprised of Dennis McNany and LCD Soundsystem’s Pat Mahoney, Museum of Love, wrap the four-tracker with their remix of the song, which zeroes in on the electro component so elemental to the original and runs with it, taking it into Depeche Mode Violator territories—before making a sharp left turn and exploring the wild sounds of the early 90s UK rave scene. A final hoorah for the party that is this record. More

Mark E has a vivid imagination and everybody knows it. This is his first offering for the ESP Institute. Laurentian Abyss undoubtably conjures narrative images from the depths of a man's soul, trudging through an array of rhythmic pulse, percussion and arpeggiation that resembles the inner workings of a grandfather clock, based on a disorienting 5/4 timing yet culminating in a singular stroke. On the flip side, the title track Emergency begins with the formula for which we know Mark E best, the ultimate tease winding us up for the big payoff, yet here we're forced into a cyclical trance which diverts our attention so effectively that we never actually receive what we've been waiting for, Mark's elusive drop. When a limitless producer such as Mark E, who's spread his talents widely across the face of dance music, seeks a home away from home in the ESP Institute, we consider it an honor to open our doors and present works that stray from not only his celebrated repertoire, but from reality in general.
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Producer Mark E hails from the West Midlands, an area of the UK that was at the heart of the industrial revolution and was also hit hardest by the decline of UK industry in the 1970s, and again by the economic crisis of our own time. It's an area with a distinct sound and atmosphere, one that manifests in the music of artists as diverse as Black Sabbath and The Specials, and one that plays into many of the ideas behind Mark E's 2014 full-length, Product Of Industry. Following that release, Mark E presents a late-year surprise with AVION EP. Featuring two new tracks from the producer plus remixes on two Product Of Industry highlights: "Bog Dance" and "Being Hiding". First up, White Material affiliate Alvin Aronson brings his minimal ambient productions to "Bog Dance" while the collaborate duo of Leon Vynehall and Christian Piers aka Laszlo Dancehall fire things up on "Being Hiding" to close out the EP. More

As the Autumnal nights draw in, Futureboogie show off a slightly darker edge to their ever expanding roster of artists, welcoming re-edit king Mark E to the fold. The Birmingham based DJ and producer has risen steadily through the musical ranks over the last few years, cropping up on a multitude of top drawer labels like Sonar Kollectiv, Running Back, Golf Channel, his own Merc imprint, and most recently a brace of albums for the US label Spectral Sound (home to Matthew Dear, Osborne et al). Title track, 'Activity' chugs at a house music pace but with plenty of techno swagger, bridging the gap between the two genres with ease. A simple and minimal beat is doused in a pacey acid bassline riff that's constantly morphing and transposing, layers of synths join in the infectious melody whilst soaring pads rise up with all the familiarity of a Detroit techno classic.

Tracklisting: 1. Activity 2. Night Heart 3. Shapes
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Producer Mark E hails from the West Midlands, an area of the UK that was at the heart of the industrial revolution and was also hit hardest by the decline of UK industry in the 1970s, and again by the economic crisis of our own time. It's an area with a distinct sound and atmosphere, one that manifests in the music of artists as diverse as Black Sabbath and The Specials, and one that plays into many of the ideas behind Mark E's new record Product of Industry. The album's title is a subtle nod to the producer's past and heritage. He explains, "The name lies in the manufacturing past of the area I grew up, [and] the manufacturing past of my family. [It references] how the decline of industry in the Midlands UK changed the landscape physically and socially — I'm now a music producer and DJ, and this is totally different to my grandparents who were truck drivers and sheet metal workers. [The title discusses] how things have changed, and it's also about how I came to be in this position, due to the current global financial situation. I lost my job due to it, [which led to me] trying out music — and here I am, a product of industry, both currently and historically." As befitting its genesis, there's something distinctly mechanistic to the music on Product of Industry — as Mark E says, "The music is grinding, continuous, heavy, relentless." You can hear this idea in the industrial clatter that underpins "Kultra Kafe," the grinding rhythm of "Bog Dance," the pounding beat of "Eganix." Part of this sound is generated by the album's reliance on classic machinery of a musical kind: "My approach was very different on Product of Industry compared to Stonebreaker," Mark E explains. "I approached it with an album in mind. The technique is [also] different — this is majority analogue, whereas Stonebreaker was 100% digital." But just as importantly, this reliance on classic analogue synths also means that the sound of Product of Industry is shot through with a certain warmth, a reminder that there's humanity at the heart of this industrial environment and this industrial sound.. The music, explains the producer, was designed to be "soulful and delicate," and in many ways its abiding warmth is a throwback to the classic sounds of Chicago house. They're firmly located on the other side of the Atlantic, though, and several tracks incorporate "vocal snippets of the language and accent of the West Midlands." The result is an album that's steeped in history — both musical and social — but also sounds utterly contemporary. It's a testament to the way the creative spirit can flourish even in the most adverse of circumstances, and also an album-long evocation of the idea that the machines we build are ultimately expressions and extensions of ourselves. More

MERC return with the latest instalment in their celebrated E-Versions series. No. 8 is classic Mark E business, proven king, as he is, of the 'slow-burner' 'Train Tunnel' is a beautifully unhurried deconstruction of a Jazz classic, upright bass, piano flourishes and horns picked fresh from the speakeasy and popped in the slow-cooker for a deeper, mesmerising flavour On the flip 'Give It Time' is a glorious celestial and atmospheric workout, which - as the title would suggest - implores you to ignore the demands of accelerated culture and pace your journey to dancefloor nirvana accordingly. Merc to the future ! More

MERC is very proud to welcome Mark Seven as guest editor on E-Versions 7. It took a long time, a lot of telephone conversations, a lot of pleading, digging, sweat and tears to simply find out what TONY'S SLICE was after hearing it on Mark's Parkway Mastermix. Turns out its MKVIIs attempt at recreating a live mix by Tony Humphries he heard on Kiss cutting 2 copies of the phone conversation back and forward forever. With EV#7 looming we knew this would be a perfect opportunity to have a guest on the series, so we persisted and broke him down and he finally gave in to the pressure. In addition to TONYS SLICE, MKVII has turned in a superb acid work out in the form of CASE STUDY 9. "I WANT TO KNOW IF YOU HAVE ANY PLANS FOR THIS WEEKEND" More

Merc return with the second in the next phase of E-Versions ! As ever, MARK E's best selling and precision club jams project delivers big things for discerning dancers Here we have a reload of easily one of Mark's finest moments. The Womack & Womack rework which made his name, certainly with the likes of Giles Peterson introducing a bright new star to a wider audience appears again here for the first time since its original release back in 2005. A bona fide classic !
Plastic People has never been available on vinyl (only as a bonus cut on his 2010 'Works' CD Comp) So it's a fitting addition to this majestic platter ! More

Merc return with the first in the next phase of E-Versions ! As ever, MARK E's best selling and precision club jams project delivers big things for discerning dancers We've witnessed first-hand the damage that A Side cut 'Horn Jam' visits on a sweaty dancefloor, with its insistent frug and layers of rising synths - a hypnotic bomb as only Mark can deliver On the flip Sanctified makes a meal out of a killer soul sample, working the arrangement into waves of subtle frenzy
A masterclass, as ever. Merc to the future ! More

Mark E makes a rapid return after the hugely successful E-Versions series, we now embark E-Work ! While E-Versions celebrated the full, dazzling shimmer of the Disco ball lit dancefloor, E-Work turns down the lights, and turns up the system for some pared down sonic sorcery Mark channels his years of experience, digging, DJing and producing to distill the essence of the Chicago House blueprint & divert into an altogether more 21st century destination
Emotive, muscular machine jams then, in Vocal and Instrumental versions Let's Work ! More

Number four in this much loved series & proof, if proof were needed that no one flips a track like Mark E ! Two more overlooked and underplayed staples get the E-Versions treatment, weaving an extended and irresistible groove that's tailor made to cause trouble One press - vinyl only More

Chicago Damn marks his second release on Merc ! Capturing the labels twisted house aesthetic with his own take on looped out house jams with 4 new workouts Sounding like a sonic sunset playlist, the EP drifts between Balearic beatdown, Chicago House & Brazillian Carnival but with added North Eastern England grit. The simplictiy of the continuous loop carved expertly across the whole release. Merc to the future !
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Two unreleased edits emerge from Mark E's Merc label starting the E-version series. Kahn turns a classic disco track into an expertly extended, peak-time puncher adding percussion and persistent loops. While Mingo stretches a drum laden ethnicity around its Techno foundations. Already being played by Gilles Peterson, Daniel Avery & Dixon. More

Mark E's collaborative PROJECT E series continues with the follow up to the excellent Megacity EP. On this 12, Mark teams up with Keyboardist Nat Woodcock & vocalist Greg Bird to piece together another excellent EP, combining the influences from both producers ranging through 80's synth pop, classical avant garde, Italo disco & detroit techno. A departure from previous MERC releases which have relied on sample heavy driven deep house, PROJECT E holds tight to the deep house direction but takes it into distinctive cosmic territory.
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Project E is Mark E's first collaboration since his Good Times release on Prins Thomas' Internasjonal label some 4 years ago with "Dragon" This time Mark teams up with Keyboardist Nat Woodcock. The result of this can be heard on the "MEGACITY" EP . A 3 track 12" combining the influences from both producers ranging through 80's synth pop, classical avant garde, Italo disco & detroit techno. A departure from previous MERC releases which have relied on sample heavy driven deep house, PROJECT E holds tight to the deep house direction but takes it into strange cosmic territory. The Megacity EP is the first in a series of releases due over the coming months. More

The artist formerly known as Edward returns to Merc for his second release. "Burning" burrows a deep distorted bongo led, deep disco march into you head for a day, topped with dramatic stabs keeping it other worldly. On the B-Side " Counterfeit Paradise " highlights the plight of South America's Rain forests with a Mark E deep house interpretation. More

Referencing his formative years spent listening to Prince and The Egyptian Lover and filtered via the deeper side of Detroit - the result is irrepressible machine funk.'. More

MERC 009 sees another Mark E 2 tracker with SNOW WALKER & ENVIRONMENT. Snow walker combines an uptempo relentless percussive hard nosed rolling drum rhythm, running parallel with shimmering disco lights, synth blobs and a messed up yeti vocal nag, nestling comfortably somewhere between the black country and the black forest. Environment however pushes itself all deepness and glory with electronic female vox, looping sub bass boogie and a slow Sasquatch techno sensibility. More

Merc Music proudly presents new Artist "Edward", a new light emerging from the Black Country underground. Having passed Mark E a CD full of left field house music Maxa & Naxa finally make their way onto vinyl with Merc. Here lies deep distorted driving 4/4 beats and looped disco monotony, following in the vein of previous Merc releases this pushes the sound even further. More