123Mrk hails from Marsaille, defining his genre of music as ‘Future Garage Post Dubstep Hip Hop Electro’, a bill that it fits exceptionally well. The young dj and producer caught our attention back in August of last year as his first release – the No Name EP – blew us away, and we’re pleased to say that he has well and truly done it again with the Refined Madness EP released on the 23rd January.
Signed to the independent label Infinite Machine – a label that very much works within the realms of the post-dubstep future garage scence – 123Mrk has been causing a stir with his bass fuelled highly original take on this genre. On top of this, 123Mrk cites a selection of his favoured musicians, featuring the likes of Julio Bashmore, xxxy and Mosca amongst others. It is this musical style, along with a great dose of originality, that has led him to produce an astoundingly good selection of tracks over the past year.
His latest offering features 5 tracks, two of which are remixes by Borussia and Kastle respectively. The first track ‘Untroubled’ boasts a cavernous bass line mixed up with what can only be described as a bizarre yet beautiful selection of samples and sound bites, to create a sound that is somehow jumpy yet melodic; it’s no wonder he has given it the title of Refined Madness.
The second track ‘Weird’, is just that, but in oh such a good way. 123Mrk continues the theme of punchy sound bites and interesting vocals here, providing yet another very listenable track.
Moving on to ‘Thrill’, this one is mildly reminiscent of something James Blake might produce. It throws you from high to low as it progresses from an almost soulful downbeat intro in which you are engulfed by the vocal samples – telling you to “get up on it” – to a perfectly cut up, beat filled mid section, in which you very much do find yourself getting up on it. What’s more, it takes you back to the same soulful vocals, meaning you get to do it all over again.
Both of these offerings are very much worth a purchase for anyone who isn’t looking for predictability in music, or doesn’t like Skrillex. And if you haven’t yet been persuaded then check out the ‘Rebel Podcast’ below, which you can download from 123Mrk’s SoundCloud and provide yourself with over an hour of his completely individual sound mixed together, and a track list that is brimming with seriously good tunes.