Burial - Young Death / Nightmarket

Another thing that slipped unrecognised under my nose in 2016 was the new Burial EP. It appears that the urbanism-as-sound mastermind continues to favour the EP format over releasing another full length for us, although there is something beautiful about one of these EPs dropping every so often, offering us a glimpse into the modern, concrete existence of Burial's world through a drizzly, fractured lens.

It may sound a bit frightful if I tell you that I find this 12" to be more of the same, but I promise you that this is just as excellent as anything the elusive producer has ever dropped. This is London put to wax. 10/10. 

Data Shit - Reconstruction Deformation

Now this is really nice - imagine combining the sounds of gabba techno drum programming (but slowed down a touch) with the random ambience of early Warp Records electronic music like The Aphex Twin. It's kinda like a drum'n'bassy Venetian Snares making sweet, sweet love to Optimus Prime, at varying BPM.

"Time Is A Disease" is a beast of an opener, with moody synths and epic piano lines, before it bursts this EP open with a flurry of garbled electronica and blasting 909 beats. "At Least We Have McDonalds" is a scatterfuck of a track, incorporating elements of dubstep into an already chaotic sound. "The Ghost Of My Girlfriend's House" is as close to straight-up Snares worship Data Shit can get, before closer "Hypertrophy" is a simmering mirage of operatic samples and grindcore-grade drum programming. What more do you need?

I've tried looking up more about Data Shit but have so far been unsuccessful. You can stream and download the entire EP over on Torn Flesh Records. 

Scorn - Logghi Barhogghi

This album was the final recording that Mick did with any connections to Earache. The album itself was produced and "marketed" by Earache Records, but released by Mick's own label, Scorn Recordings. Logghi Barhogghi is only the second Scorn album after the departure of Nik Bullen, and still sounds a bit bare and unsteady on it's feet, just like it's predecessor, Gyral. Although, unlike Gyral, LB is much more straight forward and was a definite sign of what was to come with Scorn from this point on. The name Logghi Barhogghi came from when Mick Harris over-heard an American tourist trying to pronounce the town Loughborough; that's fecking highlarious!

From start to finish, LB is a stripped-back affair of clanking percussion and heavy beats. The moody synths and unusual atmospheres are held right back. LB is all about the beat! On the first few listens through, this took some getting used to. I thought this was a remix album or some sort of experimental spin-off project, but this is a fully-canon Scorn album, despite it's very basic approach. Some tracks are stompers; heavy programmed percussion looped over and over until your brain just can't take it no more, other songs are a bit more laid back; some even barely audible, with just a purring bass line and ticking beat. Every now and then the phatter-than-your-mudda bass lines come in, scarily pre-dating all this dubstep stuff by well over a decade. That's fucking incredible!

I will say though the basic beats make this record a great buy for rappers to practice / freestyle / write tunes to. However, for most folk this Scorn album is definitely going to remain a challenging listen, and sadly will more than likely remain unknown to the festering masses. But, despite its awkwardness, LB is so goddamn far ahead of it's time it's literally frightening.

JK Flesh - Posthuman

Seeing Justin Broadrick performing live as JK Flesh in Roadburn 2012 really opened up my eyes; it was like a dream coming true, the dirgy rhythms, haunting vocals and nasty guitar sound of Godflesh mashed head on into dubstep-style heavy bass and programmed drums. I didn't really know wether I should dance or punch somebody in the face. To be true, I did neither; I just stood there bobbing my head as the awesomeness washed over me, pummelling me into a pulp of useless flesh and deafening me past the point of ever comprehending music ever again. A slight overstatement, but a fantastic experience nonetheless. 

When I heard that his debut LP under this name would be coming out a short-while later, I almost jumped for joy. When the record dropped I was skint as fuck so I didn't get it initially, but I picked it up a few months later on my birthday. The true depth of the vinyl format is needed for something that sounds as massive as this; the pressing is excellent and does a cracking job of portraying the full bottomless sound of JK Flesh's aural assault. Things get off to a slow and creepy start with "Knuckledragger", but then "Idle Hands" chugs things up in true JK style. 

It's a fairly long record, considering the simplicity of the subject matter, but it doesn't make for a tiring listen; every song is perfect. Honestly, it doesn't get spun as much as my Godflesh records, but it's still pretty damn awesome. Released in 2012 by 3BY3 Records, and seemingly still available at a decent price (about £20, which isn't bad considering they are fairly limited (500 only)). Check it out and get one!

Burial - Burial

Some of you might remember my enlightening conversion to the ways of Burial when I picked up the Traunt / Rough Sleeper 12" not so long ago; what an uplifting yet sorrowful journey that 12" was, and how it made me long for more Burial records! But, due to the overwhelming amount of shit that I'm into it's taken me quite a while to get around to buying another Burial record, but I finally picked up the self-titled double LP in Spillers earlier this week (24th November edit: "earlier this week" was fecking months ago haha).

The first thing I notice (other than the lush tunes) is how fast this thing goes for a double LP spinning at 33rpm per side...the needle literally slides across the wax like a graceful ice-skater...this shit lasts nowhere near long enough! Again I am already longing for more material from the excellent Burial. Ambient passages mash awkwardly, yet peacefully, with minimal synth work and jarring, broken beats, resulting in a soundscape that is reminiscent of both urban decay and human futility rolled into one bittersweet ball. Yet, at the same time you get that odd uplifting feeling of knowing joyfulness; that those two negative things have contributed to help mould something so beautiful.

Poetic description aside, this really is a great record. I have read it described on one Amazon review as the perfect soundtrack to taking the night-bus around London (and I'm pretty sure they weren't talking about Trafalgar Sqaure and all that shit). I think that sums it up nicely. I can't really pick a favourite song here because this thing flows so well and I tend to see the record as a whole rather than a collection of songs. Well worth a listen! Out on Hyperdub.

Burial - Truant / Rough Sleeper

Welcome to what is quite possibly one of the most chilled out things in the world. I'm not talking that lovey-dovey "ambient" chill out shit that comes in box sets of 5 CDs, I'm talking about modern, chillax-to-the-max experimental dub. After being recommended Burial by about 40,000 different people I decided to actually check out some of his tunes on Spotify and I was an instant convert. One thing I don't agree with here though is the insistence on the dubstep tag; sure this will appeal to thousands of dubstep fans but I do not think that it really falls in with the genre. It is simply too laid back and experimental. 

"Truant" is a 12 minute masterpiece of sonic sub-bass bliss that simultaenously shakes my house and gives my brain the cerebral break it so desperately needs. What more can you want from music? Switch it on, switch yourself off. Job done. The B side, "Rough Sleeper", is a bit different. It is a bit longer, clocking in at just under 15 minutes, but it seems to be comprised of several songs (or should I say "vibes") mashed together rather than one 15 minute long trip. It's still goddamn awesome though!

This 12" was put out December past by Hyperdub. Check it out in the link below (although it won't do the sub-bass justice)

Scorn - Stealth

What better way to see in the new year than with some head-pounding Scorn music? Stealth is probably one of my favourite Scorn records and it is the record that I recommend to people that are new to Mick's work and who are familiar with the concept of dubstep. Stealth is very similar to the album that followed it (Refuse; Start Fires), but unlike Refuse and its exploration of the one-dimensional sound by using real drumming, Stealth sticks to the straight and narrow floor-shaking bass and mind-shattering drum programming that Scorn is so damned good at.

 

There simply isn't a bad song on this record; each song is as stonking as the last. For all the slowed down, repetitive as fuck "dubstep" accompanied by eery atmospheres you really need look no further. And considering I got this for £6 and it's a double LP I literally consider it the steal of 2012. Hours of scouring Discogs has finally paid off! Ha ha! So welcome back to Lines In Wax, I hope you had a good new year. Let's start the new year with some pure and positive music; turn this all the way up and feel the vibe! This has the Ohm Resistance logo on the back but the record was put on by Ad Noiseam and Jarring Effects. 

 

Scorn - Yozza

Sadly, Yozza (released in the arse-end of 2011) was to be the last thing that Mick Harris would put out under the Scorn moniker after 20 long years of pushing the boundaries of underground electronic music. Looking back now, it is hard to believe how far ahead of the times Scorn was; playing something that was the blueprints for the dubstep sound years before any silly cunt with a fucking Adidas cap decided it should be a genre. Oh, the injustice! But never mind, because in the right circles Mr. Harris is known for being a true innovator and leader in music, from his involvement in birthing Napalm Death and the grindcore genre right through to his ambient, experimental, noise and prolific collaborative efforts with over 9000 different artists, producers and musicians. Holy mother of fuck! You can head over to the man's own website to try and get your head around his discography. Best of luck!

Yozza opens with what seems like real drumming (a theme explored on the previous record Refuse; Start Fires), mixing dirty and distorted bass with the usual anxious soundscapes and devastating lows. If I can be so bold I will suggest that side B is superior; opener "Shake Hands" is Scorn at it's best, and "Name's Not Down, Not Coming In" will warble your intestines to muck, in a good way. Cut on a 12", the songs are phat as fuck and the mix is huge. Although this is a great EP, this isn't the way I imagined Scorn to go out, but it's not my fucking band and I don't make the decisions so I'll shut up. I will miss Scorn, but at least the music will live on his in records (not to mention the 160 other projects Mick has on the go). I'm just glad I managed to catch him live in 2011. What a fluke! Out on Ohm Resistance.

Scorn - Refuse; Start Fires

As far as dubstep goes I'm still pretty inexperienced, but as my musical tastes somehow mutate drastically I find myself listening more and more to this genre. Scorn for me were the in-road into this electronic genre I would have maybe never touched otherwise, despite the fact a lot of types of dubstep (or gorestep) mimmic the structure and heaviness of metal music. This double 12" by Ohm Resistance however, does not strike any resemblance to the psuedo-dub-metal that Scorn once shat out many moons ago.

I have heard this style of music described as both darkstep and dungeon dubstep; and I can see how the slow, clanking, echoic and vividly dark vibe lends itself excellently to these well deserved tags. A lot of Mick Harris' later Scorn stuff tends to blend together, but Refuse; Start Fires stands out from the later offerings by incorporating a real drumming performance alongside the usual ear-drum piercing sampled snares and bass hits. This adds a strange dynamic to the otherwise rather clinical and menacing Scorn sound that hasn't been seen since the days of Colossus when Harris performed drums himself.

My one criticism is that if you are actively listening then the songs can drag on a bit too long at times and can be a bit repetative, but if your listening as background music (which I often do with Scorn due to its eery but chilled out nature), you won't notice. Refuse seems void of typical 'drops' as it were but still gets heavy now and then with nizzling bass and the odd bangin' fuckin' wup wups, if you get my drift, yo.