Sam Mehran (Test Icicles, Outer Limits Recordings) Has Died

Sam Mehran, a founding member of Test Icicles who went on to document as Outer Limits Recordings and Outer Limitz, amongst different aliases, has died. Gunk TV Records proprietor Zak Mering, who launched Outer Limits Recordings’ Birds, Bees, Babys, Bacteria (GTVR Edition) in 2016, broke the information on Instagram this morning. No reason for loss of life has been made public.

Born in America, Mehran co-founded Test Icicles with Rory Attwell in London within the mid-2000s. They enlisted Dev Hynes (who would later document as Blood Orange) and rose to prominence with For Screening Purposes Only, a sprawling dance-punk document that infiltrated the UK’s indie-rock-dominated scene. Test Icicles break up in 2006, and Mehran started recording dreamier pop songs beneath aliases together with Matrix Metals, the Sweethearts, and, most prominently, Outer Limits Recordings (later Outer Limitz). The venture launched a pair of albums and several other singles on labels similar to True Panther, Weird World, and Olde English Spelling Bee, together with the Ariel Pink collaboration “Suicide Mission.” Mehran later co-produced music by Samantha Urbani and, earlier this yr, Ssion’s album O. A consultant for Ssion confirmed Mehran’s loss of life to Pitchfork.