SCOTTRIGHTEOUS.COM - The home of music/art/opinions of Scott Righteous

I wanted to do something where the words came first and the music second.  This idea was really appealing because I find that so many lyrics out there are just afterthoughts.  Most of my own songs start as music, with the hopes that some of my existing lyrics will fit, but they almost never do, so I write new lyrics, which takes weeks because I want them to be able to stand on their own.

This brings me to the second seductive idea – I wanted faster results.  I wanted to do a project that would be quick and easy, that I would be able to finish in a few weeks.  I was sick of spending months on one song, which is my normal rate of output.  I wanted to take a break from my usual working methods and do a quick project, just for my ears, that would provide instant gratification.

It would be faster to use existing lyrics, so I dug into the boxes of stuff that I had written over the years.  However, the writing that I found most interesting was not all lyrical in nature.  There were transcriptions of dreams, diary type rough notes, observational stuff.  So, I figured I would make a spoken word album.  What could be faster than that?  Compose some interesting ambient music and read this stuff over top of it.  I also recognized that much of this writing had a theme to it, and that I could, with very little editing, make that theme more concrete.  So the writing came from various points in my past, the introduction was a piece written around 1993, and the rest was written between then and now.  Some of the writing that I felt would work in this project was rough and unfinished, so I took the time to finish it.  Sketches from 1995 were now deemed complete in 2009.

The nature of self observational writing, is that it makes for self indulgent art, something I try to steer clear of.  However this was only going to be for my ears, a break, a vanity project to clear my mind, so I wasn’t worried about it being too self centered.  In fact, seeing how far I could elaborate on my inner most quirks made the whole thing humorously interesting for me.  It’s all sincere, but you have to laugh at a song about snot dripping down the back of your throat!

In the end, the project consumed a year of my life.  So, the idea of instant gratification clearly got lost somewhere along the way.  Also lost, was was the idea of the project being entirely spoken word.  Songs evolved in various forms, some more traditional than others.  But one idea did last throughout the entire project.  In every case, the words were the first and foremost starting point, and the reason for these songs to exist.

This project was completed in August of 2009.  As a CD the tracks all flow into each other seamlessly, something these MP3’s won’t do.  This makes me want to post a disk image or something that will allow people to hear this music as it was meant to be heard.

(side one)                                                                 (side two)

This gives you an idea of what you might hear at a Sick Signal show. 

This is a project that never quite made it to where I wanted it to go.
These songs were recorded on and off over a period of 10 years with the idea that I would eventually have a full set of “Acid Lounge” music –  most of which would have vocals.  I had envisioned lots of xylophones with space echo and me in a red sequined jacket crooning over dub beats.  Some of that happened, but I think this might still be a work in progress.

For obvious reasons, thanks are due to Dave Howard for the positive influence he has on my music.

(guitar on tracks 5 & 7 by Amanda Holmes)

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