Skullflower

[jesusfaggotchrist]

I've noticed their Crucial Blast releases have little to no drumming, besides IIIrd Gatekeeper, which are some easily obtainable releases by them that actual feature percussion along with the drones?

[HongKongGoolagong]

There has occasionally been some drumming in Skullflower of recent years but it tends to be buried in the mix when it's there. A kind of 'metal' incarnation with blastbeat drumming did some shows last year but I don't think there are any recordings out of that stuff yet.

From the 90s, the Carved Into Roses/Infinityland stuff on VHF (recently repackaged) has drums and drones and is great music.

Their earliest albums Form Destroyer/Xaman were extremely powerful 'rock' type material and a lavish reissue is planned for these and the singles/EPs and outtakes. The label involved has asked for no announcements yet but I do know it's happening.

[Jordan]

Can't think of any albums that fit the original posters specifications, besides maybe that Noiseville lp from 2009 or so, which features drumming on one side I think, but as mentioned, it's quite buried in the mix, only listened to it a couple of times when it came out though. Then there is that White Medal split, but I may me way off there, I believe I only listened once.

Excited for those reissues though.

Skullflower is a longtime favorite of mine, and I really love them in nearly every incarnation, though some Matthew Bower solo Skullflower albums aren't that good, I still love most of his output under his various monikers.

COME TO THINK OF IT: there is that song, I think it's on the Evel Knievel 7", and I think it's called Diamond Bullet. I'm away from my records/stereo for the night, so I could be way off. That song is the one with the synth drone by former Pure member Alex Binnie, so I'm pretty sure that it is the one, but if it's not, maybe it's something on Ponyland then?

[HongKongGoolagong]

Someone on rateyourmusic has written a not yet complete but trustworthy list of the music of Skullflower which is an excellent guide to the very confusing catalogue: http://rateyourmusic.com/list/nightwrath/the_power_of_skullflower/

I'm one of the few people who has heard that Sorties cassette he mentions, in fact I turned on Matthew's walkman to help record some of it. Do I get to put 'Broken Flag recording engineer' on my noise CV?

Diamond Bullet is a wild fifteen-minute rhythmic track with Apocalypse Now sample on the RRR 'Obsidian' album, also in short edited version on Evel Knievel 7". Last Shot At Heaven is also pretty rhythmic but hard to find nowadays I would imagine. Likewise the gorgeous Transformer, my very favourite Skullflower album ever, although with Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane and Syd Barrett covers it's probably not for strict harsh noise fans.

[Jordan]

Diamond Bullet is a wild fifteen-minute rhythmic track with Apocalypse Now sample on the RRR 'Obsidian' album, also in short edited version on Evel Knievel 7".

I didn't remember that song being on Obsidian Shaking Codex so I had to pull it out, lots of longer songs I guess. I guess the CD doesn't mention Alex Binnie, but the 7" does.

And not really like Skullflower drone stuff, but has a drone part throughout.

I always mix up Evel Knievel and Ponyland 7"'s, don't know why. I really like and have listened to them a lot too.

[HongKongGoolagong]

Check http://www.dirter.co.uk/ soon for availability of:

SKULLFLOWER - KINO I:
BIRTHDEATH
SX031/DPROMCD95

Anaphora*
Like a Disease*
Slaves I*
Shit Strasse*
Marilyn Burns*
Birthdeath
Grub Song
Timebomb
Blood Harvest
Language + Trance*

*previously unreleased


SKULLFLOWER - KINO II:
FORM DESTROYER
SX032/DPROMCD96

Serve No Master*
Serve No Purpose*
Eat the Stars
Black Ass Bone
Elephant's Graveyard
Big Muff
Thirsty Animal
Woodland Death March
Solar Anus
Procession of Eternity

*previously unreleased


SKULLFLOWER - KINO III:
XAMAN
SX033/DPROMCD97

Slaves
Sunset
Xaman
What Did You Expect?
The Shit Hits the Fan
Barbed Wire Animal
Wave

SKULLFLOWER - KINO IV: 
BLACK SUN RISING
SX034/DPROMCD99

Night Tripper*
Kasso's Blues*
Rift
Avalanche
Slaves
Hoof**
Black Lizard*
I Live in the Bottomless Pit
Bo Diddley's Shitpump
Against Everything***
March of the Lemmings*
Thank You and Good Night*
The Punk Rock Song*

* previously unreleased
** previously titled "Satan" My Black Ass, Steve Albini = Jim Steinman
*** previously titled A Guide To Canine Foreskin Retraction

Also a mail-order only set limited to 250 of all four plus a bonus one-sided 12" of Skullflower's first ever concert recorded on October 7th, 1987 (Bower/Dennison/Jaworzyn/Mundy) plus stamped and hand-numbered package of six reproduction flyers and handbills.

[dubduboverlord]

Well. This is good news.

[Steve]

Words like "Dead", "Horse" and "Flogging" spring to my mind.

[dubduboverlord]

Words like "Dead", "Horse" and "Flogging" spring to my mind.

Why? Are those 7" tracks that didn't make the set or something?

[Steve]

As in releasing old material (yet again) with the added tease of a few as yet to be heard tracks that probably didn't make it to the ears of the general public in the first place because they were below standard.(That's just a guess ... but still, why not put the unreleased stuff on one CD or LP and sell it at a reasonable price? 

[HongKongGoolagong]

They're pretty great records which have been out of print and sought after for around fifteen years and most of the digital copies are now unplayable. The bonus 12" and flyer hand-stamped special edition bullshit is a money grab of course. Maybe there'll be an ultra-deluxe box with used syringe and 'fuck everything, Cthulhu f'taghn arse magic' written in the artists' blood for £100.

I have some tapes of unreleased Skullflower of the era (including a completely different mix/version of Xaman), two C90s somewhere in a box in the garage, I remember it all being good stuff and presume these bonus tracks are from that.

Skullflower back when it was still a real kind of ensemble although an increasingly loose one did one of the very best shows I've ever seen by anyone, Leeds summer 1995 as a five-piece with Richard Youngs on guitar. Unforgettable wonder and half the people present seemed to get brainwashed into making their own not-great attempts at capturing that sound which led to the dreadful faux-spiritual drone music scene in the UK in the late 90s/early 00s.

[Steve]

Aye, think their first LP/12" - Form Destroyer - is a killer record. Essential, and Third Gatekeeper has its' moments but the box set is pretty ...erm... like i mentioned earlier in a previous post. How long before the live gigs are ... performing Form Destroyer live type affairs? I'm just an old cynic. Simon ... I apologise.

[dubduboverlord]

I couldn't give a shit about the boxset - I'm just happy to replace my long-gone copies of Form Destroyer and Xaman. Any extras/unreleased tracks are welcome, but not a draw for me. I can't be too cavalier about it - getting hold of those albums where I live was a chore when they were originally released, and I've regretted selling them for years. Anyway, now I'm off to go get "fuck everything, Cthulhu f'taghn arse magic" tattooed on my face.

[Haare]

Would like to get this for Birthdeath & the bonus tracks but the price is off-putting.

[HongKongGoolagong]

Got a copy of Birthdeath. Nice packaging with sleevenotes by Jaworzyn, plenty of artwork by Bower. The earliest things on there from rehearsal room tapes are completely new to me - very obvious Butthole Surfers influence, some audible lyrics which may inspire mirth ("fuck this world"), one track is a semi-cover of PiL 'Banging the Door'. Later outtakes are the unreleased studio material I had tapes of - very good. The masters for the EP itself are lost, so side one is from the same cassette mix as Ruins and side two is from a needledrop. I'm kind of wishing I'd gone for the full set even if it's extortionate and I already had most of it - this is a very high quality release.