Markus Mehr "On" – Igloo Magazine

“This is the second installment in a trilogy slated for completion in January. While In opened with a fog lifting to reveal a romantic vista, On bursts out of the gate like a bolting horse pulling a cart with a broken back wheel. “I’m Gonna Make You Love Me” is a promise to the listener Mehr intends to work hard to keep. Only two minutes long and bold and abrasive as it is, it´s immediately apparent that there is much more going on than first meets the ear, that the arrangement is full of delicate particulars behind the bashing. “Flaming Youth” deposits us in an easy-listening Bacharachian paradise, just as “Komo” did on In, while “Barcelona Waltz” obscures a really sweet song with thick curtains of static, only pulled aside once or twice. Mehr often returns to string orchestra samples to construct the lushest of his loops, and “Only for a While” is the loveliest of these. On the following track, Mehr casts lightening bolts of electricity, before more trumpet-led lounge music loops in and out of earshot. As the record heads toward its conclusion, the dust-up with Greek folk music is just annoying and I think we’ve all heard enough Gregorian chanting to last us a lifetime, even if this choir of monks is surrounded by happy-go-lucky beachgoers. The album too ends with a piano coda, whose blissful self-indulgence he can’t help but torture with occasional, and brutal, shocks. This reviewer found Mehr’s ambient-noise schizophrenia on In only partly successful. While On feels more symmetrical and logically integrated, it too requires the most engaged and open-minded listener to elicit unconditional love.”

–Igloo Magazine