Sam Mehran, a founding member of Test Icicles who went on to record as Outer Limits Recordings and Outer Limitz, among other aliases, has died. His body was found Sunday morning at his home in Hollywood, where he had taken his own life, his friend Cory Nitta tells Pitchfork. Gunk TV Records owner Zak Mering, who released Outer Limits Recordings’ Birds, Bees, Babys, Bacteria (GTVR Edition) in 2016, broke the news on Instagram Monday morning.
Born in America, Mehran co-founded Test Icicles with Rory Attwell in London in the mid-2000s. They enlisted Dev Hynes (who would later record as Blood Orange) and rose to prominence with For Screening Purposes Only, a sprawling dance-punk record that infiltrated the UK’s indie-rock-dominated scene. Test Icicles split in 2006, and Mehran began recording dreamier pop songs under aliases including Matrix Metals, the Sweethearts, and, most prominently, Outer Limits Recordings (later Outer Limitz). The project released a pair of albums and several singles on labels such as True Panther, Weird World, and Olde English Spelling Bee, including the Ariel Pink collaboration “Suicide Mission.” Mehran later co-produced music by Samantha Urbani and, earlier this year, Ssion’s album O. (A representative for Ssion confirmed Mehran’s death to Pitchfork.)
Shortly before his death, Mehran completed work on a solo album that had been in progress for years, Nitta tells Pitchfork. Nitta, a songwriter and producer himself, plans to oversee the record’s release, along with other material Mehran stockpiled. “I am excited that the world now will have a chance to finally hear the genius I have been hearing for all these years,” Nitta says.
