Catalog Number: JNR479LP Color: Black Format: LP UPC: 602309899899 RIYL: Model/Actriz, Nick Cave, cowboy Laurie Anderson, Scott Walker, Claire Rousay, The Space Lady, one person experimental pedal-steel music. On Bull Market on Corn, New Orthodox (Nicholas Merz) makes music that responds to the American expanse with plain-spoken thought. The pedal steel player's songs paint pictures of the fractured ideologies that shape life in this country through the melodic haze of his instrument, the comedy of his lyrics, and the surreal choreography that accompanies his performances. The music is both personal and grand, intimate and vast, taking the tools of country and transforming them into his own spun-out sound. Bull Market on Corn marks the debut of the project New Orthodox, but represents a continuation of many of the themes that have coloured Merz's songwriting. The album was recorded with Steve Albini, whose musical output, principled ethic, and honest production served as an early inspiration for Merz. With Bull Market, he wanted to keep in extraneous sounds to provide perspective to the recording space; like the click of his foot as he plays, almost nod to some Shellac tracks. That attention to detail lends to the album's intimacy, the close range from which it explores Merz's playing and American life. Bull Market on Corn also offers a deep exploration of the rich sound and history of the pedal steel. Pedal steel has been primarily used in country music -- the tradition of the cradle of America. In his music, Merz takes this history and flips it on its head, transforming his instrument's gentle twang into a resonant, echoing hum, or a growling, swarming buzz. His vocals, too, reimagine history, taking a forthright style of singing and filling it out with echoing melismas. It's Merz's way of playing with American musical idioms, putting a new spin on them to match the stark nature of his songwriting. Merz developed these songs while on tour, writing fragments and then discovering variations each night as he travelled. The performance is an important counterpart to the music itself. When he plays, he moves in dramatic yet constrained jolts, stilted yet completely choreographed and in-sync. It's another way of conveying the surreal absurdity of his music, derived from the mechanics of the pedal steel. Bull Market on Corn marks Merz' debut under the moniker New Orthodox, but represents a continuation of many of the themes that have coloured his songwriting and his personal relationship to the pedal steel through his father, who also played. The album was recorded with Steve Albini, whose musical output, principled ethic, and honest production served as an early inspiration for Merz. It also offers a deep exploration of the rich sound and history of the pedal steel, taking the tradition of country music and abstracting it. Each of these songs takes on a different fragment of the American experience, traversing both the personal and political. It is vast territory to cover, but Merz's work is in connecting the dots through the bellowing drone and long tail of history of his pedal steel, using the instrument to tell the story of the present through the lens of the past.