Music
Press
Someone's been doing their homework. Let's take a short trip down the road of evolution shall we? Stockhausen tinkers with a few analog tape loops and electronic tone generators, creating a fledgling ground upon which people can't quite comprehend, because it imposes the inhumanity of electronics into the humanity of music. A paradox - an oxymoron. The teeming listeners are shaken.
Years later, a little known group of artists struggle to form an amalgam of blip and bleep electronics into the cold steely atmospherics of the German industrial landscapes. Gleaming with innovation, Kraftwerk shakes the foundation of electronica. About the same time, Tangerine Dream is elevating the stakes even higher, by introducing advanced polyphonic and polymorphic synthesizers blended with virtuosic guitar work. The teeming listeners ears glaze over in a soliloquy of rich, symbiotic artificial intelligence.
Just a few years ago, a man named Moby attempts to mix the early 30's and 40's blues into a slender pastiche of electronica. This works so well, that it encapsulates well close to 70 years of music and human progress into one compact disc. The teeming listeners are overwhelmed with gratitude.
Evolution takes another twist - The Thievery Corporation successfully expands upon every influence of techno-electronica with a beautified smattering of lounge vocals by sultry vixens. The earth doesn't shake, it sways. Enter MRDC. We now can experience the next level of evolutionary visionaries right here in our own time and space.
"Lust" presents the beauty and subtlety of the female voice in the best regard - no words needed, the vocal passages simply swing the track along, while swirling vectors of synthesizers sweep back and forth through the sonic field. --- break ---
Piano, with its limitless potential to escalate the feeling and nuance of any work gently opens and states its purpose. Not too heavy, not too light. It's just enough to carry the track into a perfect bridge. MRDC then throws in another few 1000 in chips, with a very tight and visceral guitar stream that is effected to a golden brown.
This track really speaks for itself. "Lust" is a very elusive word to actually explain, due to the many roles it can play in any conversation or train of thought, but here, in this track of the same name, it represents itself exactly as it should. I hate to say it, but it does have the connotation of the sexual lust. It also has the quality of the lust of want. Thirst. Need.
Beautifully orchestrated, quantified in every regard, "Lust" is an invaluable trek into the more friendly regions of the huge forest of musical styles. So many styles are crammed into this track I'm almost at an impasse to go through them all. Sensitive, floral, sparkling, energetic and definitely worth many listens, as is the rest of MRDC's catalog. This is one talented and certainly gifted herald of the ages.
- By David M. Bossmara
Discography
Timecode
Available here:
www.magnatune.com/artists/mrdc
New album on the way = "Plethora" contains "Open Roads" currently in my EPK.
Photos
Feeling a bit camera shy
Bio
Born into a family of art and music, Martin showed his musical talent early, playing the piano by ear at the age of 5. Martin’s mother, a classically-trained pianist, gave him piano lessons until he was 12, at which point he convinced his parents to buy him a guitar. Before long he was teaching other kids to play Van Halen licks and forming his school’s guitar club. His style has evolved since those early days, but his passion for making music remains as strong as ever.
Richmond is an eclectic musician known for his ability to blend multiple diverse musical elements to compose something entirely new. He likens this intuitive music-making process to an electronic canvas, saying “anyone can throw paint on the wall and call it art, but a true artist instinctively chooses the best colors, shapes and textures... I don’t follow formulas and yet my music works because I know how to blend the right beats with original sounds.”
An accomplished musician, Richmond plays keyboards, guitar and bass, & is also an exceptional rhythm programmer. Early in his career, he had the good fortune to work with one of LA’s top engineers, the Record Plant’s Gordon Fordyce (Motley Crue, P’Diddy, Tone Loc, TLC and Seal). Fordyce took Martin under his wing and encouraged his interest in computers to create innovative music.
In 2003 Richmond released his first album under the name MRDC. He composed, recorded and produced Timecode, which is an eclectic combination of old meets new, with sweet vocal samples delivered in a hypnotic mix. The album was soon licensed by Magnatune Records and reached #5 on the college and Internet radio charts.
In addition to his solo career, Martin is a successful independent sound designer, musician and composer, with credits including TV, movies and promotional films. He has also built three sound studios, overseeing all aspects of sound treatment, facility construction and hardware / software set-up. As MRDC, he is currently working on a new album and is also contributing to the work of other artists as a professional engineer and re-mixer.
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