Browse by Artist: SCOTT, SIMON

Artist:	SCOTT, SIMON
Title:	Traba
Label:	IMMUNE
Format:	LP
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	IMMUNE 009LP

"Traba is a brand new mini-LP from the UK's Simon Scott. 2009 saw the release of Scott's debut solo album Navigare released on Miasmah Recordings (run by Erik Skodvin of Svarte Greiner/Deaf Center). Traba contains four tracks that were written at the end of the sessions for Navigare. When the deadline for completion of the album came and went these compositions were unfinished, but over the course of the summer and autumn of 2009 they were completed in Scott's o3o3o Studio in Cambridge. Traba continues and expands on the themes of submergence, being lost at sea, and intoxication. Opening track 'She Came From The Sea', with its distant swirling brush stroke drumming, haunting vocals and deep processed textures, captures the almost overwhelming physicality of being at sea, miles from home, yearning for loved ones and a physical embrace. Though this is the first track on the record it was the last one to be written and completed after the Navigare sessions. 'The Water Loop' tackles themes of addiction, obsession and urban decay via a Max/MSP manipulated loop that initially feels warmly narcoleptic but grows into something anxious and intimidating. The music evokes warmth and adventure but slowly unfolds into a dark tone of emotional weakness and paranoia. An influence of Stanley Kubrick shines out here as this is a musical landscape occupied by Droogs on Molotov cocktails threatening to impose themselves on you."

Artist:	SCOTT, SIMON
Title:	Navigare
Label:	MIASMAH (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	MIA 011CD

This is the debut full-length release by the UK's Simon Scott. Scott has had a notable musical past: in the early '90s he was the drummer for the renowned shoegaze band Slowdive. Upon leaving Slowdive, he formed the more electronic-based group Televise. He also set up his own label, Kesh Recordings, and has so far released titles by the likes of Hannu, Sebastian Roux, Aus and Mark Templeton. More recently, Scott has been involved in several diverse projects, including his work as a member of Seavault (with Antony Ryan from Isan), and collaborations with Machinefabriek, Jasper TX and Emanuele Errante. With Navigare, there are shades of Scott's previous output and musical interests, but as a whole, the album marks a bold new direction. Navigare opens with "Introduction Of Cambridge," a shimmering wall of sound, its ethereal tones and slow-burning drones gradually drawing closer and closer, creating gorgeous uplifting melodies and textures. The processed guitar combined with gentle swathes of interference and underlying rhythms echoes the processes of Chain Reaction's productions as much as it does the screeching, arcing feedback lines of Kevin Shield's guitar work. Navigare shares an affinity with the melodic content of Fennesz's work, the dark beauty of Tim Hecker's sound, and houses elements of the restraint found in Andrew Chalk's drone compositions. What really devastates here is Scott's ability to merge ambient passages with such memorable melodic cycles, taking the simplest of ideas and building on them, generating murky hooks and submerged "riffs." Scott explores textures using a variety of instruments including sitar, violin, cello, and flute, merging them with excerpts from field recordings; it all sounds so effortless. The looping rhythms and slow guitars rise and grow, at times approaching something oppressive; select pieces such as "Flood Inn" house an underlying weight, comparable to Justin K. Broderick's Jesu and Final projects. Perhaps the hazy drums, bass and guitar drift of "The ACC" presents the most recognizable of stylistic qualities from Scott's back catalog; a groove that recalls the Souvlaki-era sound in all its glory, re-imagined in a new, darker and more expansive form. Additionally, a guest appearance from label mate Jasper TX, a vocal contribution from Moskitoo, and a track co-written with Rafael Anton Irisarri, adds even more depth to Scott's already ambitious vision.

Artist:	SCOTT, SIMON
Title:	Bunny
Label:	MIASMAH (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	MIA 017CD

This is UK multi-instrumentalist Simon Scott's second album for Miasmah. He might still be best known for his tenure as the backbone of influential shoegazers Slowdive, but after his debut solo effort Navigare in 2009, he showed that there was far more to his oeuvre. With an ease and fluidity that eschews the usual trappings of the genre, he injected Slowdive's freeflowing bliss into the kind of blackened soundscapes the Miasmah label has made its calling card and gave the sound a rich, multi-layered quality that was effortlessly enticing. Bunny sees him take on a plethora of themes and ideas, distilling them into a coherent, well-defined narrative. The overall premise of the record is apparent from the very beginning, and might surprise some with its inspired take on the blackened jazz and smokey Americana heard in Paris, Texas or Mulholland Dr.. It would do Scott a disservice to simply label the music as Lynchian however; his success is to treat the layers of instrumentation (drums, guitars, cello, synthesizers) with a masterful fluidity, allowing the influences to melt into a delicate and delectable whole. Occasionally Scott acknowledges his shoegazing past, nudging the sound towards the blurred haze of his former band, but even these moments are cavernous enough for us to imagine them oozing from a Midwestern jukebox in an abandoned suburban diner. Bunny is an ambitious and daring journey for an artist who refuses to stay still; and it might just be the best road trip you've never taken.

Artist:	SCOTT, SIMON
Title:	Bunny
Label:	MIASMAH (UK)
Format:	LP
Price:	$20.00
Catalog #:	MIA 017LP

LP version, including a download code for the full album and bonus material. This is UK multi-instrumentalist Simon Scott's second album for Miasmah. He might still be best known for his tenure as the backbone of influential shoegazers Slowdive, but after his debut solo effort Navigare in 2009, he showed that there was far more to his oeuvre. With an ease and fluidity that eschews the usual trappings of the genre, he injected Slowdive's freeflowing bliss into the kind of blackened soundscapes the Miasmah label has made its calling card and gave the sound a rich, multi-layered quality that was effortlessly enticing. Bunny sees him take on a plethora of themes and ideas, distilling them into a coherent, well-defined narrative. The overall premise of the record is apparent from the very beginning, and might surprise some with its inspired take on the blackened jazz and smokey Americana heard in Paris, Texas or Mulholland Dr.. It would do Scott a disservice to simply label the music as Lynchian however; his success is to treat the layers of instrumentation (drums, guitars, cello, synthesizers) with a masterful fluidity, allowing the influences to melt into a delicate and delectable whole. Occasionally Scott acknowledges his shoegazing past, nudging the sound towards the blurred haze of his former band, but even these moments are cavernous enough for us to imagine them oozing from a Midwestern jukebox in an abandoned suburban diner. Bunny is an ambitious and daring journey for an artist who refuses to stay still; and it might just be the best road trip you've never taken.

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