After the release of
Refuse; Start Fires in 2010,
Mick Harris announced that he had put his earth-shaking
Scorn project to bed after two decades of activity. He seemed to drop out of the music scene entirely until he reactivated his long-dormant techno alias
Fret in 2017, and
Scorn unexpectedly returned in 2019 with the
Feather EP. Full-length
Café Mor, sharing zero tracks with the EP, is another essential burst of diseased dub from an artist who helped pave the way for dark, damaged bass music back in the '90s. The sluggish rhythms and groaning, groggy bass eruptions of past
Scorn releases are still present, but here it's pushed even further into the realm of dislodged discomfort, with blearier dub effects and an even bleaker attitude. "Who Are They Which One" has the album's most pile-driving kick drum, yet it doesn't smother all the way, and "Dulse" is a bludgeoning doom-rave monster.
Sleaford Mods'
Jason Williamson stops by for "Talk Whiff,"
Scorn's first vocal track in eons, and he sounds fittingly fed up with the repulsive state of things. Another relentless onslaught of booming low-end and shattering delay,
Café Mor is as deadly and speaker-demolishing as anything else
Scorn has done.