Dear Parents

Merge continues its 20th anniversary festivities with a comp of non-label artists– Bright Eyes, Shins, New Pornos– covering songs from its catalog.
Merge Records doesn't look its age. Originally formed as an outlet for Superchunk material, the Durham, N.C.-based label has grown into an indie institution, but only gradually– year by year, release by release. It never allied itself with a scene or a sound, so the mind doesn't automatically tether it to a specific place or time, the way Sub Pop, despite its strong roster this decade, will be most closely associated with Seattle in the late 1980s and early 90s. So it's hard to believe Merge is already 20 years old, an occasion the label is marking with a big birthday bash– the five-day XX Merge fest in July– and a subscription-only series of commemorative retrospectives and remixes. Perhaps the most intriguing party favor is Score! Twenty Years of Merge Records: The Covers, a choppy but oddly endearing compilation that enlists 20 non-Merge acts to cover Merge songs.

The String Quartet that Weinberg completed in May 1937 bears no resemblance to the music that young Warsaw composers were fascinated with at that time. It is devoid of any clear echoes of Szymanowskis style or of neoclassicism, the latter being most appealing to the younger generation of composers at the time. It seems that Weinberg was writing from the perspective of a pianist. The result was a three-movement cycle with a slow central movement and a dance-like finale that brings back themes from the beginning of the piece. Weinberg wrote his String Quartet No. 16 (completed in January 1981) at the same time he was working on his Symphony No. 16. While the Symphony was penned in memory of his mother, the Quartet was composed with his sister in mind. He had parted with his loved ones forever in September 1939. His parents and sister were unable to get out of Warsaw in time and four years later they perished in Trawniki concentration camp. 'Many of my works refer to the war' explained Weinberg. 'But it wasnt me who chose that topic. It was dictated by fate, the tragic fate of those who were dear to me. I believe its my moral obligation to write about the war and the terrible suffering that our century brought upon people.'

Ricky Warwick comments: “As we get older, sadly we start to lose the ones around us who we love, having lost both my parents and some dear friends in the last few years I’ve started to question and look at my feelings on my own mortality and morality. I’ve come to realise that death is a part of life and even in the darkest days (that we all get sometimes), I’ve come to understand that every aspect of life should be an intensified experience and never taken for granted.”

This album is dedicated to family: my childhood family, the family that I have built, and the family that came into my life as a self-evidence.

"If you grew up in the ‘80s and had even the smallest of passing interest in music, particularly club music, chances are you were very familiar, albeit unwittingly, with the work of John Morales. On the radio, in the record racks and most importantly on the dancefloor John’s work (predominately with studio partner Sergio Munzibai) helped define an era and influence future generations of DJs, producers and artists.
Born into a hard working Puerto Rican household in the Bronx, New York, at the start of the rock ‘n’ roll era, Morales, like many children of the era, was fascinated by this new art-form that was saturating the airwaves and rebelling parents everywhere. So in love with the music he heard, as a 12-year old he persuaded his local record store to give him a part-time job with payment not in dollars, but in 45s. By the time he was old enough to get a full-time job his burgeoning record collection had helped land him one of his first DJ gig at the influential Stardust Ballroom in the Bronx (his father had early owned a bar in Jersey City where John had first got the DJ bug). As his reputation grew Morales was invited downtown to Manhattan to play guest spots at the likes of Pippins, Bentleys, 1018, Limelight and the infamous Studio 54.