Michael John Harris (commonly known and
credited as Mick Harris) is a prolific British
musician. He first came to attention in the 1980s as a drummer working
with various punk
rock and grindcore
bands (most notably pioneering grindcore band Napalm
Death) but since the mid-1990s, has worked primarily in electronic
and ambient
music, his main projects being Scorn and Lull. According to the All
Music Guide, Harris's "genre-spanning activities have done much to jar
the minds, expectations, and record collections of audiences previously
kept aggressively opposed." He is generally credited with the invention
of the blast
beat, which has since become a key component of much of extreme
metal and grindcore.
Biography
Harris' recording debut was as Napalm
Death's second drummer, joining after founding member Miles
"The Rat" Ratledge left the band in November 1985. His first live
appearance with the band was on January 18, 1986, opening for Amebix.
Harris was the sole band member who remained in the tumultuous group
through many line-up changes, eventually leaving in 1991, just after
the tour for Harmony Corruption.
While in Napalm Death, Harris also played drums for Doom and
Extreme Noise Terror, and
participated in a side project with Mitch Harris called Defecation, which
produced one record, Purity Dilution, through Nuclear
Blast.
After leaving Napalm Death, Harris founded Scorn
with Napalm Death's original bassist/lead singer Nic
Bullen. Scorn released several well-received albums and EPs
in the early 1990s, creating a unique fusion of experimental heavy
metal, electronic music, and dark dub music. Bullen left Scorn in 1995, but
Harris continued to release albums under the Scorn moniker, exploring
dark and minimalist dub/trip hop
territory, with a focus on extremely low and loud bass frequencies.
Harris' work presaged the grittier aspects of the dubstep craze of
the mid-2000s.
Harris was involved in many other projects in addition to
Scorn, including Lull
(his beatless dark ambient project) and Painkiller,
and has collaborated with John Zorn, James
Plotkin, Justin Broadrick, Bill
Laswell, Mark Spybey, and many others.
Harris also produced a string of drum and bass releases under the name
Quoit, and ran his own experimental drum and bass label, Possible, from
1996-1998. Hed Nod, a sub-label of Disques
Hushush, was devoted exclusively to a series of Harris' solo sessions
from 1999-2001.
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