A Bitter Harvest track appeared on the Nice + Smooth compilation “Slonice” which was released in 2004.  I had intended to do a third album in this dubby minimal style but got severely sidetracked.  Any minimal dubby stuff I do now will more than likely be released under the name “Babylon Rising”, to distinguish it from the more ‘ethnic’ sounding Bitter Harvest material.

This is an electronic ritual piece in the style of say, The Hafler Trio.  The ethnic percussion was replaced with raw electronics for this one.

This was going to be the follow up Bitter Harvest CD.
The music is now quite old (recorded in 2000) but I think it still holds up.

Franz (of Stalplaat) for Vital Weekly, January 1998.

By now you know me: I’m slightly allergic to all things that are either ‘ritual’ or ‘magick’, let alone ‘… and …’. It connects my mind to so many things in music that I particularly don’t like: it brings to mind a dark crowd of grim looking youngsters that are neither performing rituals or into magic deeply. Having said this, the CD by Bitter Harvest is not bad at all. Many of the eight pieces are indeed dark and rhythmical, like a computerized Crash Worship. But the humming voices and ditto strings, that are commonly found on this sort of release, are kept to a minimum. Therefore this CD is more enjoyable, well at least for me, then say the average Hybryds CD. But I doubt whether I will be a big fan of the genre anyway.

VITAL WEEKLY,,,,,,STAALPLAAT JANUARY 1998

Greg Clow for Chart Magazine, December 1997.

After several years and several cassette demos, Scott Righteous has finally given his Bitter Harvest project a full-length release. An occasional member of Montreal-based media terrorists, Phycus, Righteous has carried some of that project’s sound exploration into his solo effort, although the absurd humour often found in the work of the collective is absent here. In it’s place is a solemn intensity and a sense of the mysticism suggested by the album’s title. Electronic washes and drones float through the mix while various percussive elements — hand drums, gongs, bells — build upon each other to produce a magical and hypnotic soundscape. A fine release that rivals the output of such “dark music” labels as World Serpent and Soleilmoon.

G.C.——–Chart Magazine review.

Steven Hubbard for Network Magazine, December 1997.

On the far side of techno’s frenzied beats, there’s a point where ambient and industrial music meet. This album, by Toronto-based Bitter Harvest, mines that territory — and takes it in interesting new directions. Featuring a strong undercurrent of what might be described as tribal ritual rhythms, Ritual Music For Broken Magick is instrumental music that’s compelling, sensual, and exotic; it’s cool music to trip on, chill out to, or to have sex to.

G.L. ……network magazine, and canada campus magazine

Photos taken live at Mitzi’s Sister, August 2008.  These photos are courtesy of Rockphoto.ca

This was the first Bitter Harvest CD, released in 1998 on Silver Records.  It had distribution throughout Europe and the U.S.