A Reminiscent Drive – Mercy Street

When Jay Alansky was writing his first Top 10 hits, at least half of today’s generation of electronic musicians was not even born, let alone making music. When, after two decades in music, he signed with Laurent Garnier’s famous F Communications in the mid-Nineties, Jay was taking a break from the mainstream hit business and going back to his avantgarde roots. The result was nothing short of amazing and Eric Morand, co-founder and manager of the now defunct label, said many years later that „Mercy Street“ was the best album F Com had ever released, and the Future Vintage Blog called it „one of the the best electronic albums of the 90’s.“ Of course this must be taken with the proverbial grain of salt, but the truth is that the album has fascinated a generation of fans and fellow musicians. Now, finally Mercy Streetis back, available in all digital shops, marking just the beginning of a series of A Reminiscent Drive re-releases as well as a double CD anthology later this year.

One critic in Germany described it as a blend of „danceable TripHop, airy Electro-Ambient, elegiac Lounge-Score, melancholic Techno-Blues and avantgardistic Cinemascope-Pop“. While any description is bound to fall short of understanding this album as the unique, timeless and beautiful work of art that it is, the artful description hints at the album’s eclectic, yet highly innovative quality. What Jay Alansky accomplished here, perhaps without even trying too hard, was nothing less than an aural „exhibition“ of immortal musical miniatures which reflect as much on the artists inner life as on the musical environment which has inspired him for as long as he can remember. He invites us to share his own curiosity and sheer amazement in the face of this multi-faceted musical microcosm.

By combining elements of Minimal Music („Mercy Street“), improvised and sometimes meditative piano not unlike the music of Keith Jarrett („Footprints“), dark ambient (compare: Boards of Canada) and highly elegant electronica with a tinge of „retro“ feeling (listen to the venerable 808 cowbell sounds in „Serenade“!), fragments of historical speech (e.g. Martin Luther King), Jay Alansky had transcended the Nineties’ neatly laid-out genre cartography of TripHop, Downtempo, Lounge, Techno and Ambient, lighting out for new and unchartered musical territories. Fifteen years after its original release in 1997, this amazing album has lost none of its appeal, on the contrary: It feels as though time has just barely caught up with – or returned to – the beautiful places in the musical landscape which A Reminiscent Drivehas laid out for us. Actually, tracks like „N.Y.C. Dharma“, „New Jerusalem“, „Codes of Silence“ and „Serenade (to the sound of Peace)“ were part of the reason why peacelounge recordings – the label and publisher – came into being ten years ago.

Now, a decade after ARD stopped releasing music, Jay is back with a vengeance – and it feels a bit like he’s coming home. In closing, let me quote once again, the Future Vintage Blog: „I said it before and I say it again: I envy anyone who will listen to this album for the first time.“

Christian Arndt (peacelounge rec)

Releasedate: 2012-03-30

A REMINISCENT DRIVE: MERCY STREET

1 Life Is Beautiful

2 Leg Show

3 N.Y.C. Dharma

4 Serenade (to the sound of peace)

5 The King And The Elephant

6 True Love…

7 Like Twins

8 Back To Morocco

9 Mercy St

10 Codes Of Silence

11 There’s Always Somebody To Say You’re Wrong!

12 Footprints

13 Two Sides To Every Story

14 New Jerusalem

15 Dawn man introducing I want to remember this moment always

16 Relief

All titles written and composed by Jay Alansky | Published by ed. peacelounge c/o Melodie der Welt | performed, mixed & produced by A REMINISCENT DRIVE

* (p) & © 2012 peacelounge recordings

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