Mrcy – Vol. 1 [LP]

MRCY are producer Barney Lister and vocalist Kojo Degraft-Johnson.Hailing from different ends of England and disparate cultures, theirsis a space of soulful self-expression that combines the timelessmusical warmth and social consciousness of Marvin Gaye with thegenre-melding, modern sensibility of Anderson.Paak and SAULT.”It’s like hearing a distant memory,” Barney says. “But one thatspeaks to where you are now.”MRCY first connected over Instagram in the pandemic beforemeeting up IRL in Brixton, where they immediately found commonground in their time spent hustling behind the scenes. Hailing fromHuddersfield’s thriving soundsystem culture, Barney has establishedhimself as one of the UK’s most in-demand producers, withcollaborations ranging from Ivor-Award-winning work withObongjayar to Mercury-nominated records with Joy Crookes andOlivia Dean. South London-raised Kojo, meanwhile, earned hisstripes in church as well as singing with equally-illustrioush