SCORN

courtesy of the New Empire website

Mick Harris, being a member of various projects, is now focusing on Scorn. Redifining ambient dub with latent hip-hop beats, drum-n-bass, industrial and other non-conformist combinations of sounds, Greetings From Birmingham continues the ongoing saga of slow-motion grooves and heavy beats. Oddly enough this combination of sounds and styles creates a distinctly relaxing, ethereal and hypnotic tone. Scorn takes the listener into the depths of groove, in the subconscious space of Mick Harris. all the styles of music used to create the sound that is only Scorn are all used in very untraditional combinations and blends. sub bass and big beats message your mind. Minimal yet not simplistic. Very untraditional dub!

im rhythmus bleiben (courtesy of the Black Universe website)

hymen delivers this brand new album by the very popular dub / drum and bass act scorn. mick harris (scorn, amongst a slew of many many other projects and even a label) may have put out his most enjoyable album yet. right from the first intro track "soon come" you know you are in for a chilled out and very bass heavy listen. "can but try" takes on the typical scorn fashion with interesting background sounds with the trademark heavy as hell bass lines driving slow funky snares. "still on" bubbles with a buzzy background and percussion reminiscent of slow hip hop with many changes in the drum sounds and sequencing. high end sounds seem to fly by and pan around from time to time. "told you can tell" picks up the pace and adds a tamberine like sound with some of the most brutal bass i have heard in his material. "flap" goes right for frantic drum programming then steadys out the rhythm with fading tones dominating the high end atmosphere. "soon come" is a longer more interesting version of the intro track. "told you can tell (part 2)" is so quiet it barely exists. "closedown" is one of the best and harder hitting tracks. nice tonal arrangements with a catchy beat, random distorted kicks with the addition of flowy high end sounds at random with a snare sneaking in to break up the beat. "part of" plays with the drum sounds a bit adding a quacky sounding snare, a harp tearing through the rhythm and various drum progressions. "flap (part 2)" is blatent ambient tones. "that don't" drones in with random tones then a tapping cymbal takes on a clangy d&b rhythm with and nice phasing bass line that gurgles throughout and drives into a crunchy ending with random breaks. "can but try (back on itself)" is 11 seconds of ear torture ow! "melt" lets the high end with a less driving rhythm fade the album to a close. its hard to describe scorn for someone that has never heard it. fairly chill, always bass heavy and not *too* hard on the ears. i recommend this album for a long drive or sitting down and listening to it with some headphones as this gives the best listening result. pick up this fun and interesting album and check it out for yourself, it is my favorite work from scorn yet.

kaiju (courtesy of the elektronic serveillance website)

Mick Harris (Quoit, Painkiller, Lull, Napalm Death, etc.) is behind the deep, pulsating bass and killer ambient-dub music of Scorn's latest release, Greetings From Birmingham. Mick Harris showcases a mastery of percussion on this album as he jumps from one break to the next and intertwines various percussions into a tranquil flow. while a lot of the tracks remain similar throughout, the constant groove and mystery of each track holds you in a calm trance. I think this is how Harris intended the album to be, not as individual tracks, but one long, flowing masterpiece. Building on enough bass to make your windows shake, Harris fuses electronic creepiness, minimal ambient dub and a surprisingly fresh arsenal of hip-hop drum beats and rhythms. no track really stands out from the rest, but all are continuously entertaining. recommended to those looking for something a little more calm and relaxing.

kaiju (courtesy of the wet-works electrozine website)

There's life yet in this dead body. A year or so ago, Mick Harris said Scorn was dead; and, after witnessing the label-hopping that he went through to release the last few Scorn albums, it didn't come as much of a surprise. Harris, in turn, left the body where it fell and moved on to other projects. it comes, then, as a bit of a shock to find this shambling revenant at the door with some pulse still in it. Greetings From Birmingham is like the last ten minutes in night of the living dead. You've boarded up the windows and blocked the doors. you're out of shotgun shells, nails, baseball bats, dishware, and all you can do is cower in the tiny cupboard under the stairs as the zombies bang and bang at the wooden walls. They're going to get in sooner or later; it's just a matter of time. Listening to a Scorn album is a similar assault--a relentless pounding and tearing at your ears and brain until you collapse. but harris doesn't come at you like a lot of the current noise terrorists who have found home at Ant-Zen and the Hymen sister label; Scorn drags itself ponderously across the floor at you, making a noisy approach like inevitable thunder. every subsonic basso thud is an ever-widening hole in your defenses. The screeches and whines and groans are the sound of your body breaking down--your defenses fragmenting. Greetings From Birmingham has a musty miasma to it--a "been there, done that" sort of smell. but don't turn your back on Scorn yet; there's still life here--blasted rhythms from tracks like "told you can tell" and "closedown" have a ragged funkiness hanging from them. the clattering sense of hip-hop rhythms and deranged metallic melodies may just be the sight of something fresh growing in the once-still body.

courtesy of the Ear Pollution website