Scissorgun is an electronic trio comprised of Dave Clarkson (synths, rhythms, tapes, percussion), Alan Hempsall (vocals, treated guitar, samples, loops) and Adrian Ball (light show and projections).
Formed in Manchester in 2016, their musical scope is varied; one minute pastoral dreams, the next crashing swathes of noise chased down with a dub twist.
Three previous album releases – ‘Assault Two’ (2017), ‘All You Love Is Need’ (2020) and ‘Psychological Colouring Book’ (2021) – have been promoted with frequent live appearances opening for the likes of Wrangler, Wolfgang Flur and Eric Random.
Hempsall and Clarkson had initially met in 2007 when the latter’s band Triclops supported Biting Tongues at a show in Manchester. Hempsall was enthralled and showed his appreciation afterwards, whereupon a friendship was struck up. The two bonded over a mutual weakness for early industrial, rock and modern jazz, but it wasn’t until both Triclops and Hempsall’s own band Crispy Ambulance went on hiatus almost a decade later that they organised a few jam sessions.
Scissorgun (named after a 2002 album by Crispy Ambulance) was the result, their premise being that everything must stem from improvisation and that whether the music is then worked on further or simply replicated is a matter for that moment.
Their brand new album, ‘Scream If You Wanna Go Faster’, can be described as urban electronica mixed with fuzz/wah guitar, and is a mix of songs and abstract soundscapes. “We always operate on instinct and improvisation is the key starting point,” the group insist. “The bizarre accidents and serendipity that occur are the parts we keep, when it feels like we’re merely the vessel that the music is transmitted through. Some ideas become structured songs, but others remain as first recorded, with the music finding us and not vice versa. Our albums seem to take on their own identity as they are being made, something else we appear to have little influence on. There is an element of Praxis at work here, in that we do it because we want to and think up the reasons why later.”
As for the album title, they add that “it is a soft attempt at social comment. We’re good with that so long as it is inferred or implied and not overt.”
Dave Clarkson started out in White Cube, followed by Triclops from 2000 to 2015. He also boasts an extensive catalogue of solo work in the electronic and experimental music realms.
Alan Hempsall was the vocalist in Crispy Ambulance, who were signed to Factory Records in the early ’80s. He famously appeared on stage with Joy Division in April 1980, standing in for Ian Curtis at a show in Bury that descended into a riot. He also spent five years in the mid ‘80’s playing percussion in a Brazilian Samba band.
