Mercury Rising

Mercury Rising is the third studio album to be released by Rae & Christian. The duo weave together exceptional musicianship paired with a British song writing sensibility and the finest elements of studio production. Mercury Rising was created at producer/musician Steve Christian’s studio in Yorkshire with additional recording at songwriter/vo­calist/DJ Mark Rae’s London base. In London a song writing bond was formed with Ed Harcourt and Gita Langley who make excellent contributions with vocals, songs, strings and keys. Sam Genders of Diagrams threads a story of redemption lost on the Ubahn on ‘1975’, Kate Rogers is on imperious form and rising star Jake Emlyn unravels a whole new level of microphone skills on ‘Favourite Game’.
The international guests include the one-and-only Jazzy Jeff and Australia’s Agent 86 dealing out world class scratch treatments on ‘Check The Technique’ (Tony D’s vocals taken from a session recorded at the birth of Grand Central Records), Brooklyn rapper Masta Ace and Mark Foster of Foster The People, a collaboration born from Mark’s L.A. excursion.

Mercury Rising is the first new material in many years from R&C. Their 1998 Mercury Music Prize nominated debut ‘Northern Sulphuric Soul’ (“Vitally fresh and timelessly classic…deserving a place alongside Massive Attack’s Blue Lines” Uncut) and 2002’s ‘Sleepwalking’ (“Another triumph, brimming with soulful, languid grooves, deft samples and well-chosen guest singers” Q Magazine) were both released on their Grand Central Records label (Aim, Riton, Boca 45, Only Child), a defining imprint of the late 90s soul/funk/hip-hop/beats scene. Guest vocalists over the two albums included Bobby Womack, Texas, The Congos, The Pharcyde, The Jungle Brothes and Jeru The Damaja.