So it was Summer 2004. I had just finished my Sophomore year at Ithaca College and I was spending my free time gathering music for the eventual return of electronicons in September.

I still don't know how it happened, but soon my milk crates were getting packed with records from Merck, a unique and rather eclectic label that really caught my changing tastes and desire to make my turntable sets more varied.

In addition to Merck, I was listening to a lot of Ceephax Acid Crew and for the first time really running through the discographies that Rephlex and Planet-Mu had to offer (Mu-Ziq also recorded as the Frost Jockey? Who knew?). I was also listening to a lot of !!!, but thats a different story...

My good friend and fellow VIC DJ, Jay Kantor contacted me back in Ithaca to let me know that WICB was looking to beef up the amount of electronic music on their alternate format, City Rhythms. Jay volunteered my services without asking me, on the condition that we would co-host a 2 hour show, 1 hour electronic, 1 hour goth/industrial. I was psyched to finally be able to do mix sets as VIC had put the turntables away long ago.

We did about 3 episodes (the first one was 4am-6am) to prove that we had the stuff to be on REAL college radio. Needless to say, we didn't have the stuff, but I had the opportunity to DJ the way I really wanted to, and the switch back to cds and minidiscs on VIC was boring to say the least. Eventually, I turned electronicons into a digitally mixed showcase that I probably never would have attempted unless I had all that fun on Modern Times (and yes I did think of that name).

So recently I dug out the old playlists and this one caught my eye and I've recently been listening to the 2003/2004 merck summer mix compilations and though there are only two Merck records in this mix, the label really shifted my taste in music over the past two years and it saddens me to hear they are closing down. So make sure you head over to m3rck.net and pick up anything they have in stock. Believe me, it's worth it.

Thanks to my co-host Jay Kantor for getting me into this and to ICB's Elan Danziger for taking a chance with us.

Enjoy! (click the pic).

[photo by Emily Gladstone]