Lightning Bug

It’s back. The debut album that blew up the ’90s blues scene. The songs that announced the touchdown of a major new talent. In modern times, as an established solo star and former member of the globally acclaimed Royal Southern Brotherhood, Mike Zito’s reputation precedes him. But turn back the clocks. Rewind the film reels. Slip through the wormhole to 1998, when a 27-year-old punk kid took his first shot in the studio. “Blue Room,” he reflects, “is the beginning of me becoming an artist.” By 1998, Zito had been around the block. Raised at the sharp end in St. Louis, Missouri, he’d witnessed the lean years of the ’70s, as his father – a union employee at the local Anheuser-Busch brewery – grafted to support five kids in a cramped apartment.

Peter Mergener is one of the artists you might like to refer to if you want to prove that the music business is unfair. His first formation Software was musically equally groundbreaking as German compatriots Tangerine Dream and their 80s output possibly better than that of direct inspiration Klaus Schulze. Still, even though they did manage to become an underground sensation, their music never made it to those big concert halls and only occasionly to the radio. After the breakup of his band, Mergener continued as an acclaimed solo artist, who again won the hearts of a dedicated group of music lovers with a prolific body of works. It would be well deserved, for if you haven't heard of Peter Mergener, you haven't heard of electronic music!