Scorn – Gyral (1995)

April 13, 2020

Gyral was Scorn’s first studio album without Mr. Bullen on bass and vocals. If you are listening chronologically, it becomes wholly apparent that he is missing; there is a vocal-shaped hole in the music after a while. Scorn have never been lyrically dense, but those washed out, tired, effect-laden bars were just as much a part of the early works as the big beats.

That doesn’t make Gyral boring however. The record is sparse and minimal (not as stripped back as the record which would follow it) but still sparkling and alive, with ticking beats and meandering synth loops and samples. Coupled with the old, vintage looking artwork, and Gyral seems melancholic, nostalgic almost; its as if it is holding a fractured mirror up at the Scorn of the past, where through the cracks in said mirror, the Scorn of the future is beating its way through. Things would start to change more drastically after this.