Photograph courtesy of Derision Cult
Mercenary Notes Pt. 2 is the second EP from Derision Cult, launched by way of Glitch Mode Recordings this previous March. Produced by Sean Payne at Glitch Mode Studios, the EP options tracks written and recorded over the course of three years. Derision Cult, identified for mixing industrial, rock, and experimental sounds, continues to push sonic boundaries with this newest launch, delivering an introspective but aggressive physique of labor. Right here’s what they needed to say about every tune from the document.
Monitor 1: The place Are You Now?
Heavy thrasher with heavy guitar riffs/solos and aggressive beats. Options vocals from each Dave McAnally and Sean Payne. That is the quickest monitor on the album.
The lyrics deal with the state of affairs people are within the face of the rise of AI.
This was the final monitor written for Mercenary Notes Pt. 2 and serves as a lyrical sequel to “12 months Hope Failed,” the opening monitor of Pt. 1. “12 months Hope Failed” was based mostly on quotes from a Microsoft engineer warning in regards to the potential financial penalties of latest AI know-how. “The place Are You Now” flips the main target to humanity’s present state within the face of this doubtlessly society-altering tech. The monitor’s anxious and aggressive tone displays the dire ramifications of this looming shift.
Monitor 2: Joker’s Wild (Kings Are Useless)
This monitor truly incorporates a Chicago blues-style name/response amped as much as 11 with huge industrial beats. It options two company, together with Chicago cowpunk legend Pete Berwick delivering a gonzo-style beat rap for the refrain, and Brazilian organist Ronaldo Rodrigues, who lays down a Uriah Heep/Deep Purple-style organ solo harkening again to experimental sounds within the ’90s from industrial artists resembling Sister Machine Gun.
The narrator is wrestling with the that means of their existence, caught between revolt and submission, readability and confusion. It talks about revolutions within the sense that the narrative desires change or escape from these limitations. Phrases like “drowning within the doubt I sweat” and “pumps the blood proper via my veins” mirror the wrestle to keep up private integrity in a world that continually tries to outline or misread actuality. Within the context of Mercenary Notes, it’s type of addressing the psychological affect all of the overstimulation from social media and digital content material has on an individual. The narrator desires to confront illusions, false narratives, and inner contradictions.
This can be a tune that I initially demoed 10 years in the past and it sat on a shelf. Once I introduced it to Sean, he instantly noticed the place larger drums might flesh out the sound. It wasn’t intentional, however we acknowledged that the monitor type of has the identical name/response that blues legends like Buddy Man and Albert King tended to write down with. We’d already explored some outlaw nation flavors on different tracks and determined to discover some conventional blues sounds, and somewhat than a guitar, we tracked down Ronaldo to put down an organ solo. We met Pete Berwick final 12 months when he starred within the video for “Slaves Rebuild.” Pete is a little bit of a Chicago legend, pioneering loads of the cowpunk sounds that labels like Bloodshot have been identified for. Pete can also be a prolific writer, having not too long ago written type of a gonzo-style biography of the ’70s Illinois band The Boyz. Within the curiosity of pulling in outdoors influences, we had Pete are available and do type of a beat poet rap that we included into the monitor. His lyrics spherical out the general really feel of the monitor.
Monitor 3: Warning Indicators
Industrial rockabilly-style monitor within the vein of “Jesus Constructed My Hotrod,” “Blackshine,” or Sister Machine Gun’s “White Lightning.” It options jackhammer guitars, heavy beats, and spoken phrase vocals. This monitor additionally options intense guitar leads from Reeves Gabrels paying homage to his work with Tin Machine (early David Bowie collaboration). The monitor is accompanied by an animated video which serves as type of a sequel to “Deaf Blood,” which was on Mercenary Notes Pt. 1.
Lyrically, the monitor displays on our present cultural local weather and means that warnings of what could possibly be coming are throughout us. The refrain line “Is it getting actual sufficient but?” was impressed by a real story from Dave McAnally’s brother, a Naval EOD officer deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Throughout a raid, a Hollywood director was allowed to watch the aftermath of a firefight. As a Navy SEAL carried the corpse of a Taliban member previous the visibly shaken director, he remarked, “Oh, is it getting actual sufficient but?” This intense expertise serves as the muse for the monitor, emphasizing the peril of ignoring warnings till they develop into plain.
We knew we wished to launch this monitor first as a result of it’d been so lengthy since rockabilly and industrial had been intertwined (this was a typical factor within the late ’80s/early ’90s with KMFDM, Ministry, White Zombie, Screw, and many others.).
Monitor 4: Radiation Blues
Gradual, virtually Tom Waits-inspired beat poet monitor with heavy beats. This monitor is the non secular sequel to the monitor “Slaves Rebuild,” which seems on Mercenary Notes Pt. 1 (it even weaves in a few of the similar samples—“What it’s, what it shall be, what it was”). It expands and goes into locations sonically that “Slaves” had not, nevertheless, including extra introspective lyrics. As soon as once more, as with Slaves, Reeves is again to supply an unsettling bombast of guitar pyrotechnics.
“Slaves Rebuild” was intentionally summary in its lyrics. The place “Warning Indicators” means that ignoring warning indicators in our social cloth till it’s too late is a hazard, the narrator ponders on this monitor how a lot of these warning indicators are deliberate (at one level truly saying “The warning indicators are by design and that’s gnawing on my thoughts”). It addresses residing in a tradition the place every part is communicated in soundbites and short-form, eliminating nuance and context. The narrator on this monitor is older and extra road-weary, telling the listener, “In case you’re nobody will inform ya, gonna be the miles that kill ya.” (I took a while away from music within the 00’s to compete in endurance sports activities and Ironmans and at any time when we did races in notably steep terrain, I had a coach that’d say “the climbs are robust, nevertheless it’s the miles that’ll kill ya” (the implication was to journey in such a approach that you simply weren’t burning all of your power climbing the hills as a result of Ironmans have 112-mile bike legs in them!). That analogy appeared to suit this monitor as effectively!)
We wrestled with what to name this monitor, and it was truly the artwork designer Jim Marcus who advised a blues theme. “Radiation Blues” is a line from an previous Chemlab tune and it undoubtedly match the vibe!
Monitor 5: Affect
Hypnotic bass line solely interrupted by a tough rock Rob Zombie-style refrain. The monitor has a psychedelic vibe. As soon as once more Pete Berwick lays down some beat poet strains on the false life we current on social media. The monitor, just like “Joker’s Wild,” was an previous demo and one of many earliest tracks Sean and I labored on (alongside all of the Mercenary Notes Pt. 1 materials).
The lyrics deal with the false narratives created on social media. As a dad or mum of two youngsters rising up in a world dominated by social media, they haven’t any idea of life earlier than the web. The tune was closely impressed by a narrative a couple of personal jet firm in LA that rents out planes by the minute for social media influencers to stage pictures, portraying a life-style that isn’t actual. With my 10-year-old daughter, I fear in regards to the affect of filters and unrealistic physique expectations on her self-image. This monitor calls out the rise of phony influencers and the dangerous impact they’ve on youthful generations coming of age on this period.
This monitor has gone via many iterations earlier than this model. We experimented with quite a few beats and feels earlier than honing in on this extra psychedelic really feel. Its groove makes it a terrific monitor to play mid-set!
Monitor 6: Abdication Day
Frenetic rocker with virtually a Judas Priest-style guitar riff, with heavy stay drum beats and a number of vocal kinds from virtually robotic Skinny Pet to laborious metallic to excessive octaves. Heavy guitars are pervasive all through.
The lyrics are about not going quietly into that good night time and the challenges of staying true to your self amid on a regular basis pressures in addition to all of the overstimulation and media manipulation we’re confronted with. The lyrics truly stemmed from a dialog I had with my stepson flying again from Eire a few years in the past. He was 15 on the time, and we bought into speaking about how robust it will get to comply with your passions when issues like automobile funds, mortgages, and careers get in the way in which. I distinctly bear in mind saying to him that “It’s as much as you to outline how folks see you, so personal it,” and that grew to become a central theme of the lyrics.
This was one other demo from possibly 8 years in the past. Of all of the tracks on each Pt. 1 and Pt. 2 of Mercenary Notes, it’s in all probability the one that’s truest to the unique demo. I do some solo acoustic reveals right here within the Chicago space, and this monitor is one which I play acoustic, and it interprets very very like an previous Kris Kristofferson tune on a guitar.
Conclusion
Mercenary Notes Pt. 2 is a becoming companion to Pt. 1. We set out engaged on 10 tracks and realized fairly shortly it might make extra sense to separate these up with a few remixes added on (Mercenary Notes Pt. 2 incorporates a remix of “Warning Indicators” by Justin Broadrick/Godflesh and “Radiation Blues” by Cyanotic). Once we did that, it grew to become necessary that these tracks had continuity. A number of the tracks actually operate as sequels like “Radiation Blues” or “The place Are You Now,” whereas others resembling “Affect” and “Abdication Day” develop on the concepts we explored in Pt. 1.
We got down to make an album that celebrated our influences, regardless if they’re overtly industrial. I really feel this was taken a step additional on Pt. 2 than Pt. 1 … notably on tracks like “Joker’s Wild” (and “Kings Are Useless”) the place we’ve introduced in full-on blues organ solos. We flirted with thrash metallic on “12 months Hope Failed,” however with “The place Are You Now,” we went whole-heartedly into that style. The tracks all deal with sure themes and considerations, nevertheless it caps off with “Abdication Day,” which is actually the “Effectively, right here’s what you do to outlive” handbook. All of it ends on a constructive be aware, which was our intention all alongside.
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