Nicholas Bullen
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Nicholas James Bullen (Nic) has had a varied history as a musician working in the broad field of experimental music.
He is one of the founding members of Napalm Death, along with Miles Ratledge (Rat). The duo had collaborated on fanzines and played together in a number of 'bedroom' bands from 1980 onwards and formed the first line-up of Napalm Death at the end of 1981 (when they were 13 and 14 years old).
Bullen was initially the vocalist in the group, but later began to play bass and vocals after Justin Broadrick (Godflesh and Jesu) was invited to join the group on guitar in 1985. Bullen had previously been a collaborator with Broadrick in the 'Power Electronics' project Final in 1983). Bullen left Napalm Death at the end of 1986 (after recording the A-side of the bands debut album Scum which is credited with being the release which initiated the 'Grindcore' genre) due to an increasing dissatisfaction with the direction of the group and a desire to pursue his studies at university (where he studied English Literature and Philosophy).
Bullen was invited to join Mick Harris (a fellow ex-member of Napalm Death) in Scorn in 1991: - a more experimental project that moved away from the members previous work to explore dark breakbeat-driven rhythmic mantras informed by avant-garde modern composition, the reflective spaces of Dub and dark drone-based ambience. The core duo released 3 albums on the Earache label along with a number of 12" singles featuring radically deconstructed remixes of album material and appearances on compilation albums (including the 'Isolationism' and 'Macro Dub Infection' compilations on Virgin Records). The group also released an album of remixes featuring artists such as Bill Laswell, Scanner, Coil and Autechre, and recorded 2 sessions for the John Peel radio show. The group featured a revolving roster of temporary members including Paul Neville Godflesh and James Plotkin (of Khanate) in an ancillary role as guitarist. Bullen left the group in March 1995.
Bullen continued to be involved in other projects during his tenure in Scorn: he worked with the avant-garde techno group Germ, the experimental soundscape project Umbilical Limbo and released material under his own name including an album called Bass Terror with bassist and avant-garde producer Bill Laswell.
Bullen remained silent for the best part of a decade (during which time he gained another university degree in Computer Science) before returning to live performing in 2003 with the experimental electronic collective Black Galaxy. Black Galaxy operate in a variety of fields from distorted breakbeats to non-rhythmic soundscapes, live improvised film soundtracking to a regular collaboration with electro-acoustic musicians kREEPA with a focus on live performance and improvisation.
Bullen continues to pursue other projects including sound art and an ongoing interest in Super 8 film-making.
He is based in Birmingham, England.
