
Scorn - Stealth [Ad Noiseam - 2007]Stealth rather fits its name with its throbbing, buzzing & eerier dub bass lines under jack-knife sleek beat patterns, swirled by ambient and dark harmonics. It brings to mind a first person shoot game stalking through a boiling jungle gun primed and ready to obliterate anything that dare moves- it’s edgy, sleek and darkly cinematic. I have to admit I’d rather lost interest in Scorn some years back say his second or third album- I found the albums didn’t date very well due to the electronic sounds used, were lined with often hit ‘n’ miss film samples & had a tendency to lack much sound depth after the first listen through. Thankfully the samples are all gone and though this still feels somewhat barren on the first feel plays, over time sonic details and depth appears more and more- he’s really manged to create a great feel of tension and atmospherics. The eight tracks stay pretty constant in their beat speed hovering towards murky upbeat and grim head nodding; this gives the album as a whole album a gritty uniformity, though this of course also means it does sound a little samey in places- but if you’re in the mood for it it’s highly effective. A dark and shadowy collection of edgy beatscapes- built with tension, gritty cimatics and a great mean ‘n’ moody vibe. It’s great to see a long standing project such as this(15 years and counting) coming out with such an constituent, sleek and dark record that can easily do battle with younger beat-bound projects      Roger Batty
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