Scorn – Logghi Barogghi

Music is the Art in Time and here the Music lets stand still Time sometimes. Infinite grooves in empty spaces. For me one of his most pure minimal albums, an extreme dub experience.
A vinyl edition would be fantastique !!

For me, this is where Scorn becomes an exercise, when it looses the early romantic aspect that made it so amazing. Gyral already was close to loosing it, but managed to keep the spirit. I guess you would also say that this is where the bass takes over the drums. Not that it is a problem in itself, but, Mick Haris is a drummer, and his basslines here, well... they don't do it for me anymore.
A real disappoimtment at the time, and still today.

I’m also on the hunt for this record. Hit me up!

Someone please sell me a copy of this vinyl .msg me!

Stepping away from the formatted "Ambient Dub" which had been the SCORN lynch pin since their post-GODFLESH incarnation, the now-solo Mick Harris delves into the realms of unsettling, fragmentary rhythms. For a field of music which calls itself 'experimental', there are definite expectations among the people who listen to this music. The question should be asked - should an artist create for his (or her) public, or for h(er)(im)self. Should the artist go to the audience or vice versa. On this album MICK created for himself - stripping the sound down to a (deceptive) simplicity and concentrating on changes within the structure rather than 'music'. Which is probably why he got such an overall lukewarm reception from this point on in his SCORN career. The commerciality of previous albums is mostly absent here, with bassless rhythms stripped and naked. What replaces it is a tendency towards experimentalism which often seems to relect a strange sense of humour (the flatulent balloon-deflating noise which forms the centre of "Spongie"; the sudden unaccompanied singing of the title; the album title itself) which HARRIS had hitherto hidden in his myth building - humourless Brummie Isolationist be buggered - here is a man who loves the understated soft human humour of MIKE LEIGH films and finds amusement in the antics of his children and the family cat! (Sorry MICK, but I've gotta destroy this myth - it does you no good!). Hell, Brummies make you smile without even trying!
But don't get the impression that he is any the less of a serious musician - since the split with BULLEN he has been getting up at the crack of dawn, travelling into the city (when his studio is not in his own home) and not coming back until the evening. Walk into the studio and you'll find him listening like a bird for a worm, trying to spot the glitch which - inaudible to you or me - is as intrusive as the pea in that fairy tale about testing a Princess.

The humour (I feel) also extends to the playfulness of the drum programming - broken deliberately to confuse the listener in it's strange refusal to stick to 4:4 logic.

And perhaps it's this lighter approach which won him some bad reviews - people were expecting the muscular persistant / insistant onslaught of "Silver Rain Fell" and it just wasn't going to happen. As mentioned earlier, this is an album you have to go to - it just isn't going to make things easy for the listener. I admit I had to work at it, but stick with it - it's a worthwhile journey, and makes for an album which will last for years, rather than an instant fix which wears off in all too short a while.

And the ultimate joke? The title? As the artist who painted the cover I guess I have a certain licence to tell you. MICK overheard a couple of American tourists planning where to go the next day. "We'll visit Lie Sester, then drive on to Logghi Barogghi". Or to put it another way "We'll visit Leicester (pronounced Lester), then drive on to Loughborough (pronounced Luff Buhruh)". Gems like this are too good to miss - unless of course you are a humourless Midlands musician.

Point made?

Originally reviewed for Soft Watch.

A master piece from Scorn, as is allready writing. But I think the album is a bit long, like many album of electonic music.
Otherwise it's very well conducting especially in the psycho-acoustic way, your ears can have a rest between tracks. Alternance of heavy dynamic and pianissimo or long fade out.
That the reason why is a masterpiece and Scorn is a great composer.

There's also a Double Vinyl TP ltd. to 10 copies. Maybe someone who knows how to likes to add this.

And YES, it's one of his best 90's releases!

i think this is the best mick harris album from the middle of the 90's. Dark, Minimal and Agressive in a perfect combination.