I first discovered the industrial techno of Scalping when I found a few of their singles on Soundcloud around 2019 (some of them now long gone), and I thought that they were worth keeping an eye on. The band hail from Bristol, and are made up of Isaac Jones on drums, James Rushforth on bass guitar, Nick Berthoud on guitar and Alex Hill on electronics. For the last five years they've been writing, recording and performing music together, trying to answer the question that guides their work "How can a band bridge the gap between live guitar music and live electronic music?" After forming, they played live for two years, almost exclusively in Bristol, before releasing any music, and by sourcing band-centred equipment that pushes boundaries, that music incorporates bass-amplifying techno elements into their repertoire. After releasing some of their music on Soundcloud, they finally issued their debut album 'Void' in April last year, and is was as good as I'd hoped it would be from what I'd already heard. The sound of the album is moody, distorted and rhythmic, but the use of electronic techniques gives the finer details room to breathe. As I still have all the Soundcloud stuff, there's the equivalent of another album's worth of material available for fans to listen to, so here it is, named after the suitably heavy sounding 'Monolithium', and housed in a cover that pretty much sums up what you're about to hear.
Track listing
01 Chamber
02 Satan II
03 Monolithium
04 The Perimeter
05 Cloudburst
06 Empty Cascade
07 Ruptured
08 Deadlock
