This Is Skullflower

Back in print! Evolving out of Pure and then Total, Skullflower coalesced in 1987 and debuted in 1988 with a self-titled EP on Broken Flag. Over the next decade, a large assortment of characters (including guitarist Matthew Bower and drummer Stuart Dennison, the only members to appear on all their releases) would generate a truly amazing amount of loud noise masquerading as music (or vice versa) before going on indefinite hiatus after 1996's This Is Skullflower, a release that confounded expectation by taking a quieter tack (not necessarily more minimal), away from the extreme noise for which Skullflower was known. "Lounge" balances steady feedback with throbbing rhythm. On "Glider," piano provides steadiness while swirling guitar offers a strong contrast. "Creaky Rigging," with an entrancing, soft psych-jam guitar line, makes its way over an increasingly discordant drone arrangement as Dennison's viola adds an unearthly element. The final song, with Richard Youngs in on guitar, is the monster: "The Pirate Ship of Reality Is Moving Out," a nearly-40-minute piece recorded at a live club date in 1995. The sheets of white noise and feedback on top of feedback return with a vengeance as the song progresses - by twelve minutes in, the damage level is near indescribable, yet a strong undercurrent of soft melancholy strips back to almost nothing - a balance of abuse and restraint carefully performed.