Scorn is an English

electronic music Electronic music broadly is a group of music genres that employ electronic musical instruments, circuitry-based music technology and software, or general-purpose electronics (such as personal computers) in its creation. It includes both music ...

project. The group was formed in the early 1990s as a project of former

Napalm Death Napalm Death are an English grindcore band formed in Meriden, West Midlands, in 1981. None of the band's original members have been in the group since 1986, but since ''Utopia Banished'' (1992), the lineup of bassist Shane Embury, guitarist Mi ...

members Mick Harris and Nic Bullen. Bullen left the group in 1995, and the project continued on a solo project for Harris until 1997. Scorn was relaunched in 2000 and operated until the end of 2011. Harris restarted the project, once again, in 2019, but stopped it in late 2022.

History

Scorn was formed in 1991 in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

by drummer Mick Harris and vocalist/bassist Nic Bullen, former members of the

grindcore Grindcore is an extreme metal, extreme fusion genre of heavy metal music, heavy metal and hardcore punk that originated in the mid-1980s, drawing inspiration from abrasive-sounding musical styles, such as thrashcore, crust punk, hardcore punk, e ...

band

. Upon Bullen's departure in April 1995, Harris remained the only member of the project. Scorn has often been associated with industrial and

experimental music Experimental music is a general label for any music or music genre that pushes existing boundaries and genre definitions. Experimental compositional practice is defined broadly by exploratory sensibilities radically opposed to, and questioning of, ...

, particularly with their

Earache Records Earache Records is a British independent record label, music publisher and management company founded by Digby Pearson in 1985, based in Nottingham, England, with offices in London and New York. The label helped to pioneer extreme metal by r ...

-era output between 1991 until 1994. Since the departure of Bullen in 1995, much of the output has been minimalist beats with an emphasis on very deep bass lines, often resembling dub and

trip hop Trip hop is a musical genre that has been described as a psychedelic music, psychedelic fusion of hip hop music, hip hop and electronica with slow tempos and an atmospheric sound. The style emerged as a more experimental music, experimental var ...

in structure.

Justin Broadrick Justin Karl Michael Broadrick (born 15 August 1969) is an English musician, singer and songwriter. He is best known as the lead singer and a founding member of the band Godflesh, one of the first bands to combine elements of extreme metal and i ...

(also a former Napalm Death member) provided guitar for the first LP, '' Vae Solis''. The EP ''Lick Forever Dog'' was formed of remixes from the album. ''

Evanescence Evanescence is an American Rock music, rock band founded in 1994 by singer and keyboardist Amy Lee and guitarist Ben Moody in Little Rock, Arkansas. After releasing independent extended play, EPs and a Origin (Evanescence demo album), demo ...

'' featured

James Plotkin James Plotkin is an American guitarist and producer known for his role in bands such as Khanate and OLD but with an extensive catalogue outside these bands. He has played guitar for Phantomsmasher and Scorn and continues to remix tracks for ba ...

on guitar and was followed by the remix album ''

Ellipsis The ellipsis (, plural ellipses; from , , ), rendered , alternatively described as suspension points/dots, points/periods of ellipsis, or ellipsis points, or colloquially, dot-dot-dot,. According to Toner it is difficult to establish when t ...

'' which featured reworkings by

Autechre Autechre ( ) are an English electronic music duo consisting of Rob Brown and Sean Booth, both from Rochdale, Greater Manchester. Formed in 1987, they are among the best known acts signed to UK electronic label Warp Records, through which all o ...

, Coil,

Bill Laswell William Otis Laswell (born February 12, 1955) is an American bass guitarist, record producer, and record label owner. He has been involved in thousands of recordings with many collaborators from all over the world. His music draws from funk, wo ...

Meat Beat Manifesto Meat Beat Manifesto, often shortened as Meat Beat, Manifesto or MBM, is an electronic music group originally consisting of Jack Dangers and Jonny Stephens that was formed in 1987 in Swindon, United Kingdom. The band, fronted by Dangers (the only ...

and

Robin Rimbaud Robin Rimbaud (born 6 May 1964) is a British electronic musician who works under the name Scanner due to his use of cell phone and police scanners in live performance. He is also a member of the band Githead with Wire's Colin Newman and Malka ...

. Harris parted ways with Earache after the '' Logghi Barogghi'' release, both sides having been unhappy with how the project was being handled. Many fans of his drumming were confused by the contrast in musical style between Napalm Death and Scorn, but Harris saw it as a natural progression, telling ''

Decibel The decibel (symbol: dB) is a relative unit of measurement equal to one tenth of a bel (B). It expresses the ratio of two values of a Power, root-power, and field quantities, power or root-power quantity on a logarithmic scale. Two signals whos ...

'' in 2012: "For the ideas that I had, I needed to make that move. Some people think that it was a crazy move, just as grind was maybe starting to go places, do something, but I've always been an experimenter, still am; I’m someone who just loves sound." Having left Earache Records, the project kept pushing the heavy bass sound, subtly changing with each release. The downtempo sound gained Harris an underground following and he was seen as an early originator of

dubstep Dubstep is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in South London in the early 2000s. The style emerged as a UK garage offshoot that blended 2-step rhythms and sparse dub production, as well as incorporating elements of broken ...

. In May 1997, Harris decided to end the project in order to finish relations with KK Records, after they refused to fund a collaboration EP with

as mixing engineer and a rapper Kalil. After pursuing other projects, Harris returned with two critically acclaimed Scorn albums on Hymen Records, '' Greetings from Birmingham'' and '' Plan B''. Scorn then released a one track live mix called '' List of Takers'' in 2004 on Vivo Records. Scorn returned in 2007 with ''

Stealth Stealth may refer to: Military *Stealth technology, technology used to conceal ships, aircraft, and missiles **Stealth aircraft, aircraft which use stealth technology ** Stealth ground vehicle, ground vehicles which use stealth technology ** Ste ...

'' on

Ad Noiseam Ad Noiseam is an independent record label that has from 2001 onwards published electronic music in the form of (breakcore, drum'n'bass, IDM, dubstep) as well as hip-hop and jazz based in Berlin, Germany. Ad Noiseam was founded in April of 2001 ...

with the CD version released on Kurt Gluck's Ohm Resistance label. Scorn then released 12" records on

Combat Records Combat Records was an American independent record label founded in 1982 and based in New York City. The label was made specifically for heavy metal and punk rock acts. Notable artists include: Megadeth, Circle Jerks, Nuclear Assault, OZ, ...

and Record Label Records in 2008. Another full-length album entitled ''Refuse; Start Fires'', again was released on Ohm Resistance in 2010. This album also marked the first time since Bullen left the project that Harris has worked full-on with another musician (excluding the unreleased EP with rapper Kalil from 1997 and a track Scorn did with David Knight on the "Rise, Converge" compilation in 2000), drummer Yan Treasey. On the heels of this full-length, Harris returned with the "Yozza" EP in 2011, again with Treasey. In November 2011, Harris stated the Scorn project was "put to bed". On 17 January 2019, the Ohm Resistance label announced that Scorn was back and would release an EP in early 2019, with an album to follow. The EP of four new tracks, was called ''Feather''. The full-length album, '' Cafe Mor,'' was released in November and featured a collaboration with Jason Williamson of

Sleaford Mods Sleaford Mods are an English post-punk music duo, formed in 2007 in Nottingham. The band features vocalist Jason Williamson and, since 2012, instrumentalist Andrew Fearn. They are known for their abrasive, minimalist musical style and embittere ...

. Daniele Antezza of Dadub mastered the album. Harris intended to tour in 2020 with a new

Akai MPC The Akai MPC (originally MIDI Production Center, now Music Production Center) is a series of Music workstation#Third generation music workstations, music workstations produced by Akai from 1988 onwards. MPCs combine Sampler (musical instrument), ...

liveset but was forced to cancel due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. He then released a studio album, '' The Only Place'' in 2021, with one track featuring a collaboration with

Kool Keith Keith Matthew Thornton (born October 7, 1963), known professionally as Kool Keith, is an American rapper and record producer known for his surreal, abstract, and often profane or incomprehensible lyrics. Kool Keith has recorded prolifically both ...

. In June 2022 Mick Harris teased new upcoming Scorn album with guitars by

plus contributions from

Shane Embury Shane Thomas Embury (born 27 November 1967) is a British musician, who is primarily known as the bassist of the grindcore and death metal band Napalm Death since 1987—the longest-serving member of the band. Career Napalm Death While not ...

. But in August 2023 Mick Harris posted an update that "Scorn is dead" again since late 2022 and "it was a bad mistake bringing it back after I stopped it in 2012". The final Scorn performance was in October 2022 at Kirkgate Centre, Shipley, England.

Members

Former members

* Mick Harris - electronics (1991–1997, 2000–2011, 2019–2022), drums (1991–1994), backing vocals (1991–1992) * Nic Bullen - vocals, bass, electronics (1991–1995), guitar (1992–1994)

Former session/touring musicians

- guitar (1991–1992, 2022) (on " Vae Solis" album (1992), unreleased 2022 album) * Pat McCahan - guitar (1992) (live) *

Paul Neville Paul Neville may refer to: *Paul Neville (politician) (1940–2019), Australian politician *Paul Neville (musician) Paul Neville is an underground experimental guitarist and musician from Birmingham, England. He is best known as the second guit ...

- guitar (1992) (on "Peel Session 1992" and "Lament" (1993) EP (track "Lament"))) *

- guitar, guitar synthesizer (1994) (on "

" (1994) album, "Dutch Radio Live Studio Session" archive live EP (2021, recorded 1994), "Peel Session 1994" and live) * Nick Garnett - didgeridoo (1994) (on "

" (1994) album (track "Exodus")) *

Umar Bin Hassan Umar Bin Hassan (born Gilbert Jerome Huling in Akron, Ohio, 1948) is an American poet and recording artist, associated with The Last Poets. He sold his younger sister's record player to purchase a bus ticket to New York City, where he joined the L ...

- rap (1997) (on unreleased 1997 EP) * David Knight - guitar (2000) (on track "Stinger" from "Rise, Converge" (2000) compilation) * Ian Treacy - drums (2009–2011) (on "Refuse;Start Fires" album (2010) (almost all tracks) and "Yozza" (2011) EP (track "Piper")) * Jason Williamson - rap (2019) (on " Cafe Mor" (2019) album (track "Talk Whiff")) *

- rap (2021) (on "Distortion" (2021) single and " The Only Place" (2021) album (track "Distortion")) * Kurt Gluck aka Submerged - bass (2021) (on "Distortion" (2021) single and " The Only Place" (2021) album (track "Distortion")) *

- bass (2022) (on unreleased 2022 album)

Timeline

Discography

Albums

*1992 - '' Vae Solis'' ( Earache) *1993 - ''

Colossus Colossus, Colossos, or the plural Colossi or Colossuses, may refer to: Statues * Any exceptionally large statue; colossal statues, are generally taken to mean a statue at least twice life-size ** List of tallest statues ** :Colossal statues * ...

'' (Earache) *1994 - ''

'' (Earache) *1995 - '' Gyral'' (Earache) *1996 - '' Logghi Barogghi'' (Earache) *1997 - ''

Zander The zander (''Sander lucioperca''), sander or pikeperch, is a species of ray-finned fish from the Family (biology), family Percidae, which also includes perch, Gymnocephalus, ruffe and Darter (fish), darter. It is found in freshwater and brackis ...

'' (

Invisible Invisibility is the state of an object that cannot be seen. An object in this state is said to be ''invisible'' (literally, "not visible"). The phenomenon is studied by physics and perceptual psychology. Since objects can be seen by light fr ...

) *2000 - '' Greetings from Birmingham'' (Hymen Records) *2002 - '' Plan B'' (Hymen Records) *2004 - '' List of Takers'' (Vivo) *2007 - ''

'' (

, Ohm Resistance) *2010 - ''Refuse; Start Fires'' (Ohm Resistance) *2019 - '' Cafe Mor'' (Ohm Resistance) *2021 - '' The Only Place'' (Ohm Resistance)

Live albums

*1997 - ''

Whine ''Whine'' is a live album by Scorn, released on October 21, 1997, through Invisible Records. Track listing Personnel * Eraldo Bernocchi – guitar (2-8) *Anthony Burnham – photography *Chris Greene – mastering * Mick ...

'' (Invisible)

Remix albums

*1995 - ''

'' (Earache)

Compilation albums

*1999 - '' Anamnesis: 1994-97'' (Invisible)

Singles & EPs

*1992 - ''Lick Forever Dog'' (Earache) *1992 - ''Deliverance'' (Earache) *1993 - ''White Irises Blind'' (Earache) *1993 - ''Lament'' (Dying Earth Records) *1994 - ''Silver Rain Fell'' (Earache) *1995 - ''Falling / The End (Remixes)'' (Scorn Recordings) *1995 - ''Stairway'' (Scorn Recordings) *1996 - ''Leave It Out'' (Possible) *2000 - ''Imaginaria Award'' (Hymen Records) *2002 - ''Governor'' (Hymen Records) *2007 - ''Whistle for It'' (ÜNE (r)ecords) *2008 - ''Super Mantis'' (Combat Recordings) *2008 - ''Super Mantis Remixes'' (Combat Recordings) *2009 - ''In The Margins'' (Record Label Records) *2009 - ''Gravel Bed'' (Combat Recordings) *2010 - ''Super Mantis / Gravel Bed (Remixes)'' (Combat Recordings) *2011 - ''Yozza'' (Ohm Resistance) *2019 - ''Feather'' (Ohm Resistance) *2021 - ''Distortion'' (

+ Scorn + Submerged, Ohm Resistance) *2021 - ''Dutch Radio Live Studio Session'' (recorded 5 September 1994)

References

External links

Scorn discography at

Discogs.com Discogs ( ; short for "discographies") is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. Database contents are user-generated, and described in ''The N ...

Scorn Video Report on OC-TV.net
{{DEFAULTSORT:Scorn English electronic music duos English industrial music groups Musical groups from Birmingham, West Midlands One-man bands Earache Records artists Musical groups established in 1991 British industrial metal musical groups