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.

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 - 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.