LP Walkthru: NERVE - Meridian Blaze

Naarm/Melbourne-based producer takes us through his deep, dark & diverse new record of bass heavy explorations.

Joshua Wells has been plying his trade as a musician, engineer and producer in Melbourne for years across a number of projects and genres. As NERVE, Wells crafts tight, intricate productions that take elements from drum & bass/jungle, electro, industrial, techno and noise music, resulting in epic and engrossing cuts that are as suited to the dancefloor as they are a good pair of headphones.

On his new record, Meridian Blaze, NERVE has injected a little bit of his hometown into his wild analogue productions, with the inclusion of “spine-tingling melodic sonorities of Melbourne’s extraordinary public sound sculpture: the Federation Bells”. Across four epic cuts, Meridian Blaze sees Wells fuse the electronic and acoustic in a unique and absorbing manner.

To celebrate the release of the record, NERVE was kind enough to talk us through each of the cuts on his new record - have a listen and get to know!

Embedded Content

Mirrorwise (E.F Version)

Mirrorwise was created as a live drum machine recording that became the first track to incorporate the Federation Bells when writing Meridian Blaze. This track explores minimalistic sub-bass & bells melodies - approaching both elements in a similar manner.

Akimbo

Akimbo focuses on breaks as the driving rhythmic element with a combination of distorted sub bass, synths and percussion. On this production, the bells are used to add melodic and percussive timbres that have not been experimented with before on previous Nerve recordings.

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Zendo

Zendo is a blend of both live drum programming, breaks and sub-bass, and is perhaps a deeper rhythm exploration than both Mirrorwise & Akimbo. Melodic ideas are similar to Mirrorwise, featuring 1-3 note repetition where the bells compliment this melody similarly.

Montempo Simulacra

Montempo Simulacra was influenced by drill & 90’s death metal, particularly the melodic choices and modes used by groups such as Immolation or Morbid Angel. This track originally was originally sitting around the 140 tempo, although found its way to be at half speed, allowing the melodies, sub bass & percussion to slowly turn and develop.

- NERVE, February 2023