Scissorgun \ All You Love Is Need [AAR 003]

Scissorgun came together in the summer of 2016 with a view to creating spontaneous music, and the following year unveiled debut release Assault Two. An album of beats, fractured ambiance and spoken word, Electronic Sound magazine discerned an "attractive spell of narcotic delirium", while Mojo praised "Northern electronic shanties and sound collages that feel like snapshots of a city at night, moving from drunken chaos to minicab grime reveries to a new dawn electronic beauty."

Written and recorded in stages over an 18 month period, their second album All You Love Is Need is a combination of cinematic and experimental landscapes led by bright, treated guitar.
"The album reflects a subliminal shift in people’s perceptions of global events over the course of that time," explains Alan Hempsall. "The ability to translate new sensations into the act of creating is a state worth striving for. To do this we tried new ways (to us) of hearing, of listening. We work to subvert the narrative whilst keeping close to the one thing that unites us all. Hope."

Recent support slots have included dates with Wolfgang Flur (ex-Kraftwerk), Wrangler and Marconi Union. Scissorgun are due to perform at the Subliminal Impulse Festival launch party in Manchester on 17 June 2020. There will be further live performances to support this new release in 2020/2021.


REVIEWS:

"A tremendously successful mix of cold wave, post punk and industrial electronic music that has nothing to envy to the duo's first album, Assault Two. It is intelligent, complex and very harmonious and an excellent example of a sophisticated and melodic electro".
Benjamin Berton, Sun Burns Out, France, 04 Jun 20.

"Psychedelic post-industrialists Scissorgun have just one previous release to their name, a 10" EP and (coincidentally) an album by Crispy Ambulance. Founder Alan Hempsall of said former Factory band is one-half of this duo alongside synthesist Dave Clarkson of Spectral Bazaar and the noise they make is as engaging as it is occasionally disorientating, beautiful and cacophonous.
All You Love Is Need is something of a statement. As the enclosed notes confirm, "the album refects a subliminal shift in people's perceptions of global events... we work to subvert the narrative, whilst keeping close to the one thing that unites us all - hope." Thus, All You Love Is Need is reliant on mood, very few lyrics and a latent energy just boiling over on occasion or at least never far from the surface.
Opener Terminal Velocity (Syncing) and elegaic mid-set thumper Bruise sound like Dua Lipa or Nicki Minaj on quaaludes with 808 State acting as chemists, a sort of Kraft-Twerk for the disenfranchised straight from the hips. Elsewhere there's funereal post-rock and groove in the form of highlight Hybrid Threat and the sub-sonic ambient Dark Routines, interspersed with shorter atmospheric trinkets Station Drift pts 1 and 2 and the squally quadrophonic Forensic Dub.
If they unearth a chunk of portentous Black Mirror outtakes anytime soon, you wouldn't bet against Scissorgun being the main soundtrack protagonists. The tracks here are by turns disturbing, insistent, trancelike and downright odd - but that's Hempsall and Clarkson's charm, their u.s.p., their modus operandi. In these times, all you might need is All You Love Is Need. 8/10".
Paul Pledger, Flipside Reviews, 06 Jun 20.

“Manchester-based Scissorgun is a duo of multi-disciplinary electronic artist Dave Clarkson and guitarist / vocalist Alan Hempsall, both stalwarts of the Manchester music scene. Clarkson has divided his recent time between projects like Spectral Bazaar, whose electronic re-imagining of Holst’s Planet Suite produced one of last year’s finest records, and his ongoing processed field recording projects for the Linear Obsessional label. Hempsall was one of the founding members of the legendary post-punk group Crispy Ambulance, part of the early Factory Records roster and a band that were the first local group to own a drum machine.
The pair met in the early 2000s at a gig by Triclops, a trio that Clarkson was then a member of, and promptly hit it off. Their Scissorgun project was named after a 2002 Crispy Ambulance album, released some twenty years after the band originally split up and following their tentative reforming in the late 1990s. Hempsall and Clarkson’s first release was Assault Two, released in 2016, its name again referencing an earlier Crispy Ambulance release (their debut single, 1980’s ‘From The Cradle To The Grave’, had the catalogue reference Assault One). The coded references suggested this was, if not an extension of Hempsall’s band, then certainly inextricably linked.
And so we arrive at this year’s follow-up, the wryly-titled All You Love Is Need. Recorded following a period in which the band toured with Wrangler, you can hear some of that group’s rough electronic edges rubbing off on the eleven songs presented here. ‘Forensic Dub’ and ‘Hybrid Threat’ echo Wrangler’s focus on punishing electronic rhythms fused with a lysergic, mantra-like vocal style, but the Scissorgun sound is arguably more robust, more rocky, less overtly beholden to alien electronics: ‘Hybrid Threat’ features brilliant guitar work from Hempsall, running from a sort of evocative, emotive blues to an angry, distorted nod in the direction of punk, while ‘Forensic Dub’ takes a provocative dubstep bassline and hitches it to textural guitar shapes, an insistent industrial beat and acidic gurgling. “You can hear both of our influences coming through on Scissorgun,” Clarkson explained to me last year. “Alan was a big Throbbing Gristle fan, and I was as well. We bring those influences out on the Scissorgun recordings. It’s a kind of melting pot of all kinds of things.”
Opening track ‘Terminal Velocity (Syncing)’ sets the uncompromising scene for the record, Hempsall delivering the vocal as a hypnotic, cautionary chant over a machine-like groove of heavy bass, fractured synths and howling guitars. The rhythm is key here, sounding like a throwback to the post-punk jazz-funk swing of a group like A Certain Ratio yet carrying a sort of ritualistic, tribal energy. From there we move through tracks like ‘Salvia’, full of dreamy guitar, space-era launchpad samples and a general sense of fragile serenity, like looking upward at an untroubled sky from a terminal beach.
‘Bruise’ is one of the album’s many highlights, wherein the duo throw themselves into a sort of hypnotic, techno-inflected pop, all nagging synths and an unswerving grid of 4/4 beats. Here you find Hempsall delivering a wordless stream of vocal utterances, almost like he’s reading a Hugo Ball sound poem. ‘Dark Routines’ is another standout moment, being a beatific sequence of delicate, semi-ambient electronic passages, while the frantic ‘Pumpkin Face’ has all the force and thrust of an Empirion live industrial techno set from the mid-1990s, its relentless focus on a rolling, urgent bassline acting as the perfect foil for Hempsall’s feisty guitar work.
The long-form closing track ‘Double Agent’ begins with the sound of rushing water, familiar to followers of Clarkson’s work recording in Cornish caves and on the Wirral coast near where he grew up. From there we hear snatches of sinister radio transmissions, an unfolding suite of bass sounds that sound like they belong in an especially tense scene in Stranger Things, a fluttering Morse-code pattern and ominous guitars that sound like Hempsall is playing determinedly at the centre of a pentagram. That the piece eventually coalesces into a sort of ethereal beauty highlights what this duo do best: subverting expectations.”
Mat Smith, Gated Canal Community, 20 Jun 20.

“There’s not enough malice in electronic music. Not these days. Not enough spite. Not enough threat. Not enough close combat. Not enough records like ‘All You Love Is Need’. Everything here - guitars, synths, beats - are piled high with effects. From mechanical stomps to creepy-crawly dubs to foreboding soundscapes; this is electronics-battered post-punk with 2020 vision. It’s an intense experience, that’s for sure, and it’s great. The mech-funk tracks, the likes of Terminal Velocity (Syncing) and Bruise, are the iron girders of the album. Forget dreaming of wires and feel those rivets. There’s plenty of metal and mettle in the slower, stripped-down stuff too, though Sub-Continent sounds like Blanck Mass covering Rema Rema, whilst the lengthy Double Agent weaves sharp-as-needles guitars and endlessly circling synths into a potentially deadly tale. Never mind that it doesn’t have any lyrics. Live dangerously. Armour up. Get stuck in”.
Electronic Sound magazine, August 2020.

“Scissorgun were formed in 2016 by the pairing of David Clarkson and Alan Hempsall and first impressed me with their mini-LP Assault Two (reviewed here). Definitely a trip through a wide range of sound, the record was successful in that whilst being very experimental, it was also engaging and enthralling for the listener too. In the time since that record they have supported both the mighty Wrangler and Wolfgang Flur (ex-Kraftwerk) in concert. Those two will give you a fair idea of where Scissorgun’s intentions lay, that is electronics with heart and soul. Now Scissorgun are back with a full length album with the detourned Beatle-punning title of All You Love Is Need. This record is again on their Aural Assault label, which also issued the first Crispy Ambulance single way back in 1980. Of course Alan Hempsall was/is a mainstay of CA and though. Scissorgun got their name from one of that band’s LPs, they are a different kettle of fish entirely. The electro big beats of Terminal Velocity sees us into All You Love Is Need, this is very much an intense dance number that shares a little with Cabaret Voltaire’s mid-80s output. The paranoia and sense of claustrophobia in the refrain “No no no you never make a getaway” is compulsive and set is against a groove that gets one’s feet moving. We’re off to what can be termed a flying start. Terminal Velocity segues into straight into Salvia, an austere synth atmosphere lightened with glistening guitar notes, before a busy beatbox ups the pace. An instrumental with samples that is as filmic as anything on Assault Two, it harks back to that record’s wide spaces and meditative feel. Sub-Continent follows the outro wobble and whistles of Salvia, again going into the next song so there is a feeling of continuity in the first three tracks. This mean the opening trio of tunes do come over as part of a whole, rather than separate songs. Gentle swirls and stepping electro percussion is again offset by an echoing, spiky guitar. There’s a sense of stillness despite movement, as the rhythm propels ever-onwards, until it reaches a treated voice/church organ fade. Next comes Station Drift Pt 1, which is followed later on by its second section. These are shorter pieces, with the first ensuing with a Morse code buzz and machine noise, before a chiming drive emerges and then drops out to the noises again. It comes back with a wordless chant buried deep down, before checking out again. Then comes Forensic Dub, with sirens and a muffled voice, again the Cabs come to mind on another piece of near-industrial electronic dance. There are though some agreeable Keith Levene-type guitar squalls, but Scissorgun always put their own stamp on things quite clearly, easily transcending any influences. This one seems to take Assault Two’s more dance-orientated material a stage further. Bruise is again very dance-orientated, almost commercial. Again they add a scat singing hook amongst distortion and electro bleeps, it is very pleasingly accomplished and memorable too. Moving onto the second half of All You Love Is Need, Hybrid Threat has a slower rhythmic whirl and is very percussive. Synth lines bounce off each other as the vocal seems to have a touch of blues about it in an odd way, as does the guitar work which comes in mid-song. This is excellent, being moving and addictive, a real highlight of the LP. Then we have Station Drift Pt 2, which goes back to the same Morse/radio interference as the first part, but there is a bit of a more bassy sound here though, with the fragments of the song going in and out. Dark Routines take us into the final third of the album with gentle clicks and synth drones and a robot voice and soaring guitar join in too. This is a slow and restful Scissorgun effort that shows their more reflective side, some lovely bell sounds smoothing things along. Next Pumpkin Face ratchets things up again, a fast moving acid dance number with that guitar again taking the place of vocals. Finally Double Agent brings things to an end, an eight minute epic which begins with what sounds like footsteps and water flows. Soon a delicate electronica develops, with deep unintelligible growls. Again the guitar is key here, sitting atop the static beat and providing direction amidst percussive flutters. It’s a bit like a very deconstructed, electro version of Joy Division’s Transmission and sends the album out on a high note. On All You Love Is Need Scissorgun adeptly flesh out the themes of Assault Two in a natural and absorbing way. Here there is a consistency with what they have already done, but not in a way that is samey in any respect. They have simply built on the strengths of their previous recordings in an intriguing way and by increasing the dance element, made their offerings surprisingly accessible. All You Love Is Need deserves to be loved”.
Ian Canty, Louder Than War, July 2020.

“Scissorgun used to be an integral part of the factory cosmos as Crispy Ambulance, which has certainly left its mark on the beautifully beat-heavy ChillOutAmbientRave with strange sample loops on "All You Love Is Need" (Aural Assault). Also suitable for new order fans. 5/5”
Westzeit online magazine, Germany, August 2020


BROADCASTS:
'Terminal Velocity (syncing)' - Lippy Kid / Radio Free Matlock - 07 May 20.
'Station Drift Part 1' - Reform Radio / Jazz Cruise Lifeboat Assembly - 01 Jun 20.
'Station Drift Part 1' & 'Terminal Velocity' - SpizzFM, ResonanceFM - 10 Jun 20.
‘Dark Routines’ - Shaun Blezard / Space is the Place / Radio Cumbria - 19 Jun 20.
'Bruise' plus interview with Alan Hempsall - Lippy Kid / Radio Free Matlock - 25 Jun 20.
'Dark Routines' - Reform Radio / Jazz Cruise Lifeboat Assembly - 29 Jun 20.
‘Terminal Velocity (Syncing)’ - Book of Lies podcast, Radio Lies, 04 Aug 20.
‘Forensic Dub’ - Steve Barker, On the Wire, BBC Radio Lancashire - 08 Aug 20.
‘Forensic Dub’ - Reform Radio / Jazz Cruise Lifeboat Assembly - 16 Nov 20.
'Dark Routines' - Seance Podcast - 08 Mar 21.