Incident at Cima is the 1995 debut album from SCENIC, the group formed by SAVAGE REPUBLIC and IPR founder Bruce Licher. Conceived as an all-instrumental soundtrack for the East Mojave Desert, Licher is joined by former SHIVA BURLESQUE bassist James Brenner and drummer Brock Wirtz, with guest musicians Jeffrey Clark (SHIVA BURLESQUE vocalist), Robert Loveless (former SAVAGE REPUBLIC and 17 PYGMIES member), Chris Manecke (from the ABECEDARIANS) and John Ganem. Together, they have created an aural masterpiece which has received serious critical acclaim. David Fricke in ROLLING STONE magazine writes that SCENIC's music "suggests Ennio Morricone dune-surfing in Death Valley." Robert Levine in huH magazine describes the album as "a sweeping, swirling (sound) that's full of both darkness and wonder." Grant Alden in RAYGUN says "Incident At Cima plays like futuristic chamber music. It is like nothing else on the landscape." And that sums it up pretty well. SCENIC's music is like nothing else on the landscape, and while there is definitely a relation to some of the sounds explored by SAVAGE REPUBLIC during their eight-year existence, SCENIC have created a mature and focused album which is a great leap forward. Incident at Cima is an evocative aural journey, a quite listenable and incredibly honest piece of music, and as such it has the potential to be appreciated by a wide range of listeners. The packaging for Incident at Cima includes a series of photographs Licher has taken in the East Mojave Desert which relate to the various pieces of music on the album, creating a complete audio/visual experience. Four of the songs on Incident At Cima are prominently featured in Stuart Swezey's 2019 feature-length documentary film Desolation Center, including the track Carrying On To Cadiz as heard in the main title sequence.
Newly-packaged expanded Compact Disc edition includes the original album CD plus a bonus CD featuring 50 minutes of previously unreleased early demo recordings from 1992, both packaged in a numbered, oversized letterpress-printed folder with folding perforated insert.
CD Track Listing
1. The Shifting Sand
2. The Kelso Run
3. Incident At Cima
4. East Mojave Shuffle
5. Hole In The Wall
6. Carrying On To Cadiz
7. The Mid Hills
8. Down Black Canyon Road
9. Chiriaco Summit
10. Around Sundown
11. Bossa Dune
12. Predawn
13. On The Dune
14. The Road To Ivanpah
15. Cima Dome
Bonus CD Track Listing
1. The Kelso Run (Early Demo Recording)
2. Incident At Cima (Early Demo Recording)
3. Sage (Early Demo Recording)
4. Chiriaco Summit (Early Demo Recording)
5. Blind Fire (Early Demo Recording)
6. When The Time Comes (Early Demo Recording)
7. First Time On The Dune (Bruce Licher Solo Demo)8. Approaching Chiriaco Summit (Bruce Licher Solo Demo)
9. A Glimpse From A Long Forgotten Time (Bruce Licher Solo Demo)
10. A Fragment Of Reality From Another Era (Bruce Licher Solo Demo)
11. Something For Karen (Bruce Licher Solo Demo)
SCENIC - Incident At Cima Expanded CD
"Non-vocal in orientation and specializing in cinematic vistas (think Morricone, but with a smart avoidance of pasta-oater twang), Scenic debuted with the 7-inch EP 'The Kelso Run' in late ’93, but all three of its songs appear on Incident at Cima, a 15-track set augmented by 11 demo cuts on the bonus CD... Incident at Cima reinforces Scenic as a very strong early example of post-rock. The music has held up extremely well."
—Joseph Neff, The Vinyl District
"The instrumentation is basically electric and acoustic guitars, bass and drums with occasional Vox organ and harmonica, guests joining for the odd track on the likes of mandolin, accordion and autoharp. Starting life as acoustic guitar demos, they were built up first with the addition of a 12-string before taking final shape with the line-up that became the band Scenic. The concept evolved with Licher's panoramic photography of the East Mojave Desert and now comes in this super-deluxe LP-with-CD presentation of just 500 copies. There are a couple of longer tracks but with 15 in 40 minutes there's enough going on to hold the attention or else act as a scene-setting medium for relaxation."
—Alan Taylor, Pipeline