Big and chaotic; Grief Dodger is both extrospective and introspective, reflecting the tumultuous nature both of the world in recent months and the emotional journey of the artist. A true warehouse weapon, designed to bump up the intensity levels of any setting, there is a tangible, gnarly anger throughout.
Artist:
From debuting at FLY Open Air last year and supporting Kettama at FLY Club, Edinburgh- based Jack Mercer began his electronic-musical quest as a punter, a regular at reputable venues such as Cabaret Voltaire, Mash House, Sneaky Pete’s and La Belle. His love for the scene took him down a route familiar to a lot of us, hogging the aux and pre-drinks and eventually buying his first set of decks for his second year uni house. From there, Jack cemented himself as a pillar of the capital’s nightlife scene, getting involved with the likes of HYBiD, Overground, FLY Club and Pulse. The Edinburgh Disco Lovers co-founder also runs regular, non-profit events supporting anti-racist, pro-refugee, LGBTQ+ and anti-austerity causes. The Jon Krieger moniker was created to explore darker sides of the musical spectrum, quite fitting for life these days…
When the pandemic hit, Jack, like a lot of us, found himself with a lot more time on his hands and a sudden disappearance of a creative outlet in the form of DJing. Production went from being something he never thought he would have enough time to master, to his go-to as a therapeutic mechanism, both as an emotional / creative outlet and a much needed distraction from the general chaos of 2020.
A lifetime fan of The Prodigy and Enter Shikari, Jack recalls being ‘slightly afraid but totally mesmerized by Keith Flint dancing about in those abandoned London tubes’. (Weren’t we all?) These two bands became an inspiration, not only in terms of musical pioneering but also their positioning within politics and current affairs. “I’ve always been a fan of music with meaning, a recent example of that has been listening to Run The Jewels’ newest album - it’s bloody marvelous.” That being said, Mr. Krieger’s inspiration is not only drawn from scene heavyweights, but importantly from the local scene, calling out his standout artists as, James Wright (Overground) and Darrell Harding (Pulse) who are champions of the scene themselves “as well as being unreal DJs”.
This hammering slab of dark techno comes to wax at last, with its deep grooves and body-wrecking beats as potent as ever. Bandcamp New & Notable Aug 3, 2020
