Scar Tissue were an American

electro-industrial Electro-industrial is a music genre that emerged from industrial music in the early 1980s. While EBM (electronic body music) has a minimal structure and clean production, electro-industrial tends to have a grittier, complex and layered sound ...

group formed in

Oakland, California Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, California, Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major We ...

, United States with Philip Caldwell and Steve Watkins forming the band's creative nucleus. They released three albums for

21st Circuitry 21st Circuitry was a record label based in San Francisco, California, that was founded in early 1991. The label released music from genres, such as electro-industrial, industrial rock, and other similar styles of music. The label signed a number ...

: '' Separator'' (1996), '' TMOTD'' (1997) and '' Rebuild'' (1998). After a ten-year hiatus, Scar Tissue reunited in 2008 to release the dark electronic album ''

Potential Potential generally refers to a currently unrealized ability. The term is used in a wide variety of fields, from physics to the social sciences to indicate things that are in a state where they are able to change in ways ranging from the simple r ...

'', which they followed up on two years later with 2010's '' Obscurity''.

History

Scar Tissue was formed in 1990 by multi-instrumentalist Steve Watkins and vocalist Sean "Dofino" Vowell. Vowell soon departed from the band after a series of misfortunes left him homeless for awhile. Watkins was joined by guitarist Philip Caldwell and the pair released a demo in 1995 that experimented mixing

ambient dub Dub is a musical style that grew out of reggae in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It is commonly considered a subgenre of reggae, though it has developed to extend beyond that style.Dub: soundscapes and shattered songs in Jamaican reggae, p.&nb ...

, dance electronics and guitars. Scar Tissue signed to

in 1996. Label president Don Blanchard had been sent the tape around four years previously but it is uncertain if he listened to it. The band released their 1996 debut album '' Separator'', which charted at twentieth on CMJ's Dance Top 25. A year later they followed with their second album '' TMOTD'' which continued to draw from the recording sessions that produced their previous album. The album increased the band's use of vocal samples and keyboard rhythms and received praise for its dynamic use of subtlety. Tom Schulte of

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

called the band "among the most elaborate and schizophrenic representatives of the

darkwave Dark wave, or darkwave, is a music genre that emerged from the new wave and post-punk movement of the late 1970s. Dark wave compositions are largely based on minor key tonality and introspective lyrics and have been perceived as being dark, ro ...

genre." Scar Tissue was joined by

turntablist Turntablism is the art of manipulating sounds and creating new music, sound effects, mixes and other creative sounds and beats, typically by using two or more turntables and a cross fader-equipped DJ mixer. The mixer is plugged into a PA syste ...

Tao Gurnoe for their third and final album for 21st Circuitry '' Rebuild'', released in 1998. It comprises ten remixes made from songs appearing on previous albums and six previously unreleased tracks. The duo of Philip Caldwell and Steve Watkins started Form/Alkaline to produce other music. The self-released albums ''

'' and '' Obscurity'' were released in 2008 and 2010 respectively and appeared on Scar Tissue's

Bandcamp Bandcamp is an American online music distribution platform founded in 2008 by Oddpost co-founder Ethan Diamond and programmers Shawn Grunberger, Joe Holt and Neal Tucker, with an office and record store in Oakland, California. Acquired by Epic ...

Discography

Studio albums *'' Separator'' (1996,

) *'' TMOTD'' (1997, 21st Circuitry) *'' Rebuild'' (1998, 21st Circuitry) *'' Form/Alkaline'' (2008) *''

'' (2008) *'' Obscurity'' (2010)

References

External links

*
Scar Tissue
at

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Scar Tissue Musical groups established in 1990 1990 establishments in California American electro-industrial music groups 21st Circuitry artists