SCORN

ANAMNESIS - RARITIES 1994-1997

  1/  Almost Human                               (Harris,Bullen)               9.50
  2/  Maker Of Angels                            (Harris,Bullen)               7.19
  3/  Scorpionic                                 (Harris,Bullen)               5.39
  4/  Geeked (original)                          (Harris)                      7.22
  5/  Get Up                                     (Harris)                      5.07
  6/  Wallpaper Dub                              (Harris)                      6.10
  7/  Trap                                       (Harris)                      5.02
  8/  Tamper                                     (Harris)                      4.50
  9/  Beat 2 Version                             (Harris)                      4.48
  10/ State Of That                              (Harris)                      6.32
  11/ Dreamscape                                 (Harris)                      5.08
      (Unstable Sidereal Oneiroscopic mix)

          Recorded and mixed by Mick Harris in The Box
          Tracks 1-3 recorded at The BBC Studios, Mardivale, London, July 1994

Nik Bullen (1-3): bass, vocals; Mick Harris: beats, loops, drums, samples, noises.

          1999 - Possible Recs/Invisible (USA), INV-POS  8005 (CD)

REVIEWS :

This is maybe best seen as collector's piece, or a retrospective of sorts, although it misses much of the great post-Colossus Scorn material. The first three tracks from the Peel Sessions could easily be added as B-sides for Evanescence era releases, and they demonstrate the direction Scorn was taking around that time. The later tracks sound more like the Gyral or Zander material, and there is a lot of it available. Tracks like "Beat 2 Version" might begin to sound like a lot of other things to the casual listener. Still, there is some great, moody material here, not to mention the additional Coil remix of Dreamspace that was previously only available in the limited edition vinyl boxed set of Ellipses.

mjeanes

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Anamnesis is kind of a "B-side" album, if you know what I mean. Each of these tracks were previously released, but very obscure. For example, tracks 1, 2, and 3 are from the BBC's "John Peel Sessions" (a live radio show), and tracks 6 and 8 were from CDs that came in magazines from Belgium and France. I was very impressed with this album, as is usual with Scorn material I liked every song. Highlights include the excellent "Trap" and the Peel Session version of "Scorpionic" (which is quite different from the studio version).

Fleshpile

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Anamnesis : the recollection or rememberance of the past. (Hey, I had to look it up.) These eleven tracks are, essentially, the lost Scorn tracks from the period of 1994-1997. Well, they weren't that lost,just relatively unavailable, scattered across compilations and distant foreign releases. Invisible, which is doing a great job of bringing industrial-tinged electronic music to the US from overseas, has collected these lost children and, together with a previously unreleased Peel Session, gifted unto us the last remnants of the Old Republic. Mick Harris has claimed that Scorn as an entity is dead and here is our last glimpse of a mighty beautiful corpse.

The Peel Session ("Almost Human," "Maker of Angels," and "Scorpionic") is from late 1993 and contains some of the last work that Nik Bullen did with Mick before Scorn became a one man show. These three tracks are the last whispers of vocal tracks one will hear from Scorn as Mick began to delve deeper into the darker abyss of reverb and throbbing bass after Bullen's departure from the band. The tracks chart the successive plunge of low-end sound that the band became known for, deep rumbling bass lines that shake the windows in their frames.

There are albums that force you to consider upgrading or expanding your stereo system. This is one of them. If you don't have a subwoofer, you will start thinking about buying one. Scorn communicates on a subsonic level with the base of your spine. I'm listening to the album on the stereo in my office as I write this and it sounds anemic, empty of punch and that bowel-rattling snarl which I heard earlier today when I annoyed the neighbors from the living room.

The last track is the "Unstable Sidereal Oneiroscopic Mix" of "Dreamscape" and was previously only available on a Japanese version of Ellipsis. Translation: it's a Coil remix, and is a departure from the rest of the album (probably placed out of historical sequence at the end for that very reason), oddly precognitive of some of the textures adopted by Mick as he ventures beyond Scorn into other projects. Anamnesis is an excellent starting point for anyone looking to ease their way into the vast range of Mick Harris' work, highlighting the dark beat-infested subsonic atmospheres which have come from The Box.

Mark Teppo (courtesy of the Ear Pollution website)