‘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 Mark Rae’s London base.

“We wanted to make British songs so spent time exploring the early 70’s folk scene and lent heavily on local UK talent for the guest vocalists. The song writing is varied with a broad base of subjects ranging from female Russian snipers, monkeys who attack, commuting and redemption” – Mark Rae. In London a song writing bond was formed with Ed Harcourt and Gita Langley who make excellent contributions with vocals, songs, strings & 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 some time 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.

Since 2002, Mark has released two solo albums and moved to Los Angeles and back, with Steve working for jazz behemoth Verve. The duo reconvened four years ago to begin work on ‘Mercury Rising’. Rae & Christian’s ‘Mercury Rising’ is the first studio album release by Late Night Tales, best known for their renowned artist-curated compilation series featuring editions by Groove Armada, Friendly Fires, Belle & Sebastian, The Cinematic Orchestra, Midlake and MGMT.