Thursday, May 31, 2007

Lull - Continue (1996) & Moments (1998)

Closely allied with post-industrial dub terrorists such as Bill Laswell, Techno Animal, James Plotkin, Robert Musso, and Anton Fier, Birmingham-based artist Mick Harris is something of a study in extremes. A drummer with noted death metal outfit Napalm Death through the group's late-'80s/early-'90s heyday, Harris began experimenting with monochrome ambient and dub styles toward the tail end of his association with that group. Releasing material through Earache as Scorn (his ambient dub aegis) and through Sentrax as Lull, in addition to other sporadic projects, his genre-spanning activities have done much to jar the minds, expectations, and record collections of audiences previously kept aggressively opposed. To the present, Scorn and Lull, along with John Zorn's experimental jazz-dubcore outfit Painkiller have remained Harris' primary ongoing projects, although one-off collaborations with the likes of James Plotkin, Nicholas Bullen, Bill Laswell, and Martyn Bates are common. Harris formed Scorn in 1991 in collaboration with bassist Nick Bullen, incorporating elements of ambient, industrial, dub, rock, and hip-hop. The group (though pared back to just Harris following Evanescence) have released a number of increasingly well-received full-length recordings, including the remix LP Ellipsis, which features outbound reworkings by the likes of Coil, Autechre, Laswell, and Germ. Harris' solo work as Lull focuses on darker, more "isolationist" ambient soundscapes, some of which have been reissued domestically by Laswell's now-defunct Subharmonic imprint; a move to Relapse yielded 1996's Continue and 1998's Moments.
Click titles to download.


Continue (1996)


mp3 - 192kbps - rar - 83mb
Lull is exactly what its name would seem to imply -- ambient noise with a surprisingly hypnotic effect. Consisting of a one-hour-long track that unfolds excruciatingly slowly, Continue could be the soundtrack for a '90s version of 2001: A Space Odyssey, which was equally unnerving for its vast expanses of nothingness. Where Scorn can be the horrific equivalent of a musical Freddy Krueger -- getting in your face to tell you how badly he's gonna mess you up -- Lull's approach is more subtle and seductive, soothing your nerves before slitting your throat while you sleep. Spooky stuff.

Moments (1998)

mp3 - 192kbps - rar - 90 mb
Reportedly inspired by Mick Harris' deep affection for the soundtrack to the classic David Lynch film Eraserhead, Lull's fifth full-length effort is utterly hypnotic stuff. Digitally edited from 33 separate sections to form one continuous soundscape pattern, its ebb and flow makes for transfixing listening.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Cool blog. Cool music. Cool links. Hot stuff!

H. said...

Thanks for the comment code!

Lots more to come!
Enjoy.

P M X said...

ditto on that comment. Lull was an awesome project - we had gotten a Lull cd at my college radio station that was 99 tracks of air conditioning hum. but it was still creepy somehow.

Anonymous said...

...downloaded/listened to "continue" for the first time today. thanx!
j.

Anonymous said...

Never heard of Lull before, but description sounds interesting and knowing what Mick Harris did with Scorn, well, I assume this is worth checking out. Your blog's a good place for discoveries! Thanks a lot.

H. said...

Sermo: Thanks for the add, got you linked up as well. If you like Harris' stuff you no doubt like Lull!

Everyone: Thx for the comments, I appreciate! Feel free to email me personally, it's beneficial to YOU! :)

hfigurine@hotmail.com

flic said...

Excellent! Relaxing music to play chess or perform surgery by.

Anonymous said...

I was looking for "Moments" for ages...

Thank you very much

Very cool stuff

Jorgon Gorgon said...

Brilliant and thanks!

Anonymous said...

I personally think this is just as good if not better.

http://www.mediafire.com/?mtzztz0nm1n

Areskelian said...

Hey, looks like both the links are down... Could you reupload them? Also, do you have 99 track version of Moments? That's what I'm looking for, I have it all as one track but I want the real version.

Thanks so much!