SCORN

mjeanes

Deliverance is the third release from Scorn, and probably their strangest. The 5 tracks that make up this 40 minute album all are basically different parts in one epic song. The bizarre timbre of the beats and the vocal effects used make me think of floating underwater while listening to this album. Everything seems to have a strange acoustic to it which enhances this watery effect. The dreamy guitars even seem to swim in and out of the speakers. Continuing on through the album we see some excellent dubs of the first track that sink even deeper into this sensation. Throughout the whole album you still feel as though each of the five parts of the song flow directly into the beginning of the next, making this my favorite Scorn album to go to sleep to. The three extra tracks are actually the long-lost album "The Weatherall Remixes" of which there were only 8 test pressings ever made.

Fleshpile

Although this passes itself off as a single, I have heard shorter albums (running time is 39'59"). The promo sheet compares their Dub leanings to CAN & early PIL, with the more Rocky comparisons to SWANS & YOUNG GODS. This is so, especially with the previous "Lick Forever Dog" single which, after the title track which was a bright, colourful GODFLESH-sounding thing with GIRA-like voice, tended towards dark, meandering but always adventurous Dub sounds with the JAH WOBBLE-like bass being the only steady motif. Afriend of mine compared them to a slightly evil ORB, darker, more sombre, maybe even deadlier, but along similar tracks - steady bass-end rhythms held tight while the environment & atmosphere forever shape shift in changing shapes & hues. The single is quite a different kettle of fish. I had expected the same sound, perhaps advanced a little, but along the same lines. Judging by the titles, I also expected it - rather foolishly in hindsight - to consist of several remixes. Wrong! Instead this might easily pass for a short, dark & grisly concept album, using a single set of feelings as the leaping-off point. Play opens with the acoustically-weird drumming of the title track "Deliverance", seemingly recorded in a cardboard box, then 'excited' by hall reverb. This acts as cursor for the dark, brooding bass, the strange, other-dimension synthetics & fleecy guitar which move in gluey slowness - not so much dream-state as CLIVE BARKER nightmare-state. The music inspires images in the same colour as the cover - a midnight, metallic blue. Vocals are delivered through thick FX, it's humanity drained off & the remains vacuum sealed into a cybernetic shell. It doesn't try & create a tune so much as a disturbing 'feel'. "Deliverance Through Dub" takes the same track & uses creative echoes, 'dead' gates & interesting stereophonic panning to give the mood an even stranger feel. If the title track was darkly dehumanised, this takes a step or two further into arctic strangeness. It takes more or less every element from the title track & mutates to an extreme point, always interesting despite it's linear structure. "Delivered" opens on a clattering cascade of sharp drums, before collapsing into a drifting, amorphous non-beat piece which washes out of the speakers, susurrating like waves washing moon-lit rocks on a cold, potentially stormy night. This might make good incidental music to a film along the lines of "Tough Guys Don't Dance" or "Blood Simple" - chillingly gravid with potential danger. "To High Heaven" resurrects the "Deliverance" theme, pushing needles into the red with an exploding, up-front instrumental version existing in a state of frozen explosion. A noisier, larger, more dense & possibly shorter mix. And the single closes with "Black Sun Rising" - the title already used in the second track - which again is a shapeless, non-beat thing, a disturbing cacophony of voices repeating the title in never-ending downward helices, all combining to create twisted coils of Industrial noise. This shows just what can be done with voice and a few effects! And for those who are interested in the LULL project [...] "Delivered" & "Black Sun Rising" should give you a little taste of what lies on that album.

Antony Burnham (courtesy of the Metamorphic Journeyman website)

The first five tracks on this have already been reviewed elsewhere, leaving us just the last three to review. Three versions of the same track, which had already appeared on "Evanescence" and "Ellipsis" in more straight versions. These three are all remixed by ANDREW WEATHERALL, who uses a much more airy and ambient approach than that of the originals. Indeed, you might be mistaken for thinking that THE ORB themselves had some bearing on the first version which floats on the air delicately. The second, though, is a much darker and more evil interpretation, more akin to LULL or the "Murder Ballads" ambience, with lighter keyboards added to make it not nearly so Satanic. Only the third one seems to have any particular bearing to the original track with the percussion (mostly hi hats and cymbals) setting the pace for various bub bling synths and orchestral punctuations. I gather not everyone was happy with this release and you can see why. I'm not saying the music's bad - far from it - but SCORN it ain't! Nice tunes, a little like THE THE in a spatial, ambient mood, but having none of the muscle of the other, older pieces here. Still, it's a good investment if you haven't already got a copy of the original.

Antony Burnham (courtesy of the Metamorphic Journeyman website)

SCORN comprise ex NAPALM DEATH member(s) MICK HARRIS and NICK BULLEN. This is a new thing for me, and really didn't know what to expect. The main track opens with a sampled drum-beat which sounds like a lift from a FUNKADELIC record. This is then shattered by thumping bass, drums, guitar and metallic percussion. The vocals are different too, the nearest point of reference are the phased / chorused vocal style of the early WHITEHOUSE records. This carries on for the whole of the track's 8 minute duration. The remaining 4 tracks are all remixes of the title track. The 12 minute dub version, "Delivered", is a more metallic / industrial version, "To High Heavens" is distorted to hell and "Black Sun Rising" is the only track that is really any different. All over this I hear hints of SWANS, NEUBAUTEN, etc. etc. and fans of them will be fans of SCORN.

Review from IMPULSE #4

At long last the Noise-Guitar bands have embraced the Avant Garde Noisemakers. Whether its JOHN ZORN and NAKED CITY / PAINKILLER, or projects like TECHNO-ANIMAL and SCORN, there seems to have been a revolution in attitude amongst the EARACHE / PATHOLOGICAL crowd over the last couple of years. "Deliverance" is a slow, drawn-out Dub-Rock plod, very lethargic and definitely too long. "Delivered" takes us into more ambient realms, abstract waves of noise seemingly produced with guitars and samplers, languid yet menacing, definitely not easy listening. Meanwhile, "To High Heaven" brings in a thumping, dirty beat over the same background to produce quite a different effect, and "Black Sun Rising" adapts a phrase from the title track to produce the CD's highlight, swirling noise lurking behind the circling vocals, repetition proving very hypnotic. It's a promising but hardly startling CD - it'll be interesting to see where SCORN go next.ReviewerEST 4IR is not the magazine for Death Metal / Grunge Rock, but this is the best piece that I've received as promotions, maybe for large part of readers, too. Feedback guitar & bass on the rhythm track taken from "Funky Drummer" (by JAMES BROWN, you too much see among dance-music), and many samples, junk percussions & weak vocals.

The effects of guitar is a bit too echoed, little softer than common level eg. early SWANS. The treatment of drums, deep echo & sharp gate sounds little old-fashioned. Includes 5 diversions of a number, but 2nd - 5th tracks seem as like trial / unfinished mixtures, do they want DJs to record their own mix?

Review from Industrial Revolution #2

SCORN are NAPALM DEATH escapees who have traded in their Speed Metal psychosis for hash-fuelled dub paranoia. This 40 minute CD single (five mixes) started life as a proposed cover of BLACK SABBATH's "The Wizard" before being wilfully wrecked en route to wind up as this twisted creation. The varispeed madness of the alien, accapella "Black Sun Rising" mix is out weirded by the dark hearted whirlpool of delayed cymbals on the "Delivered" version, the percussion tracks reversing into a glittering, blissed-out oblivion. Kevin Martin from THE WIRE 108