skullflower rfi

Also my copy of the Blue Orchids 'View From the City' cd comp has had a similar effect (release date unknown ? - but definitely early 90's), and others with the cd have said the same. But thankfully it still plays well.

Also, this cracked me up:

(actually, all beatles records suck even though i've only heard one).

Terrific critical acumen there.

I tracked down the ramleh singles comp and I had a merry Xmas with it. quite nice but not as good as skullflower at their best.

Switch back and forth on: CARVED INTO ROSES

After one adventurous day I found myself with a post-it note from myself that read "dear nick, welcome to your spine." That sums up skullflower well for me.

(and plenty of non-skullflower)

GIMME

Someday I'll get around to writing that Skullflower discog overview...

what did ppl think of 'Orange Canyon Mind' - to my ears not that diff from recentish Sunroof stuff, and not as tasty as the hototogisu stuff w/ marcia b (i know el sabor will prob disagree!)

i wish Stefan was a prolific as Bower

http://www.villagevoice.com/music/0424,eddy1,54363,22.html

Matt Bower and Robert Creeley, separated at birth?

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/BOWER.jpg

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/CREELEY.gif

So anyway, Crucial Blast reissued IIIrd Gatekeeper, and while I already had it, it's nice to hear/have rip open my head again. (Also the liner notes are invaluable for providing a detailed early history of the band, and imply that more reissues are due.)

Amazing album.

I'm rather fond of Obsidian Shaking Codex, myself. It hardly ever seems to get any mention, for some reason.

it's XAMAN for me, total mind destruction. i hope they can rescue somebody's CD for reissuing purposes at some point.

i thought i commented earlier ITT about IIIrd gatekeeper being kind of an odd choice as a reissue as it's already relatively easy to find. and i also thought i expressed some vague hope stefan jaworzyn would stop being a cock and let them reissue the early stuff.

Well, it's a good gateway drug of an album, I'd say. More focused, more conventionally RAWK, and given Crucial Blast's general approach, it suits them. So why not?

hey, more skullflower is always better than less. i just hope it sells and they're able to do more. go, crucial blast, go.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Edward III for that Skullflower singles comp he posted a while back. Thanks!!!

Did I miss that? Is it still around?

yeah was that on leonardo or something?

It was on Leonardo, I can send you an email in a week or so if it is gone.

(xpost to Ned)

it's XAMAN for me, total mind destruction.

seconded

One of the ugliest band names ever. Just felt like getting that out of my system.

http://www.newtrose.com/images/Gratefuldead/420703.jpg

xpost - no way. brilliant name. suits them to a T.

Yeah, I've always thought it was a very extremely awesome name.

you are welcome sleeve, glad you dug it...

for those who missed it's like scraping resin canyon

thanks!!!!!!!

Agreed!

Thx for posting links to those interviews. I've liked Skullflower for years but never researched them at all. Im particularly fond of Xaman.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmHdmvJ_aX8

YEAH

Kewl. But I admit I was hoping for a 1991-era clip or something similar!

kewl?

1991 talk on my part, clearly.

awww, whadda drag. would anyone mind re-upping that singles comp? I'd love to hear it.

Theres a new one out. I forget the name of it but I saw it floating around the WNYU studio... Will post when I figure it out.

Its called "Desire For A Holy War," out on Utech. The song "Frozen Spectres" is pretty cool.

I was at the Skullflower gig - Bower started the performance 'singing' from inside a big sack-like blanket, for reasons that I'm afraid escaped me

there's also ANOTHER new skullflower. "pure imperial reform."

np

tl;dr fun fact: matt bower played drums on "elephant's graveyard"

I noticed that!

We've also had a mutant called JFK on bass on the two above tracks. The stuff he played was real good but he's not the kind of person you really want to have to look at or converse with

jfk rfi

JFK was an alias of anthony difranco, he was the bassist on IIIrd gatekeeper

lot of shots fired in that interview lol

Thanks for pulling out the other interview.

He has a mixed relationship w/publicity. Wantng Skullflower as a group to be known a bit more, gain a visibility - at fanzine level, rather than getting to the mainstream music press - but then after splitting away not ever having a web presence at all, and he is fairly hostile to anything web (eBay etc.)

For a group that sounded quite improvised its surprising how far between their live appearances were. And its a bit of an untold tale how he got to acquire 'notes'. His work with Ascension etc isn't texturey at all. Look at Jason Pierce's attempts at imrpov by comparison. SJ really absorbed the free stuff he was listening to.

Shame that Borbetomagus comp never came to be. The Dead C comp issued on Shock is one of my favourites in a very underrated calatogue.

lot of shots fired in that interview lol

Yeah, kinda fashionable at the time to take pops at Mike McG iirc, which always seemed like some bullshit to me.

I never dug the Ascension stuff as much as Skullflower, but SJ did an awesome interview in Marc Master's Crank Automotive zine that was big reading for me in college. Same issue had an equally epic Richard Youngs interview.

Stefan used to be a regular punter at the bookshop where I worked, and was always a really sociable dude (I'm not sure the humour behind a lot of his opinions comes across that well in these interviews.) One day he came in while I was playing 'Copy Shoot Cop' by Spiritualised. Stefan asked me what it was, and when I told him it was Spiritualised, he was REALLY disgusted (w/ me, w/ himself, w/humanity)

Copy Shop Cop

http://jpburnett.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/skullflower252b252biii.png

V good interview w/this guy in the wire. Repeats his hostility to vinyl.

Also pleased he had a not so favourable reaction to Funhouse.

Also lol @plans for a Derek Bailey solo alb to called One More Solo Album

Sad sad that never came out.

Playing tonight: http://www.cafeoto.co.uk/voice-and-guitar-beyond-tradition.shtm

kvetch #1: o great reissuers of skullflower, you serve a worthy and honored purpose, but why o why do you place bonus tracks at the beginning? that must be some pretty righteous shit if you think I need to hear any of it before "elephant's graveyard".

actually…

Last Shot At Heaven! up at Bandcamp with bonus track
https://skullflower.bandcamp.com/album/last-shot-at-heaven

I don't think I've heard any Skullflower since 2008. Am I missing anything?

The KIno series of remasters?
I think I gave up on them after that . I think I have Argon somewhere and could never get into it.
Had the IIIrd Gatekeeper in its original cd form which I got in Dublin in the mid 90s and like muchly. Also really like Ramlegh's Homeless for some of the same reasons.
mauy prefer Loop for better groove.
BUt have got into the KIno volumes I bought recently. Mainly IV though.

despite it's questionable title, Homeless features one of my favorite songs from either group...Fagenders.

fwiw a fag end is a cigarette butt in the UK

hah. I feel better about it now.

not like Ramleh never toyed around with some questionable stuff of course.

Ramleh's Circular Time 2cd from a few years back is well worth checking out... massive grooves, kinda noisy but earth-moving.

I actually just got all of the Kino CDs (I had Form Destroyer and Xaman on vinyl already but bonus traxx)! Was kind of wondering if he had gotten out of his uninteresting, headache-inducing black metal inspired phase 'cause I liked og Skullflower. I liked the weird, Krauty stuff he did in the later Sunroof! era and the first revival of Skullflower. I loved the weird, acoustic drone stuff he did for a while. But that shrieky shit makes me check out fast.

https://skullflower.bandcamp.com/

I was hoping someone else had already spent weeks trawling through the Bandcamp but anyway

http://skullflower.bandcamp.com/album/the-wisdom-of-venom

Pretty listenable excepting some moments of high pitched feedback, but the last song is really cool... twisty organ loop into some epic guitar fuzz arching into the blastosphere. Kinda Sunroof! or Total vibes.

oh cool, sunroof! still one of my all time favorites even though i haven't kept up

though imo his peak is youngsbower

Yeah Youngsbower was amazing. Sigh. Why no Youngsbower 2?

That period where like Boredoms VCN and Super AE vibes and also Krautronic burbling melodies were influencing Bower was primo

I was hoping someone else had already spent weeks trawling through the Bandcamp but anyway
― The Man Who Saw The Midwife (GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ), Sunday, August 20, 2017 4:46 AM

haha it is a lot to go thru. no tinkling synths yet but the more recent stuff under the "yllustrous forger of dreams" moniker is reaching back to the calm era. will prob buy the newest one - https://skullflower.bandcamp.com/album/the-108
https://skullflower.bandcamp.com/track/burning-swamp-of-pitch

this one is also nice owing to the psaltery playing - https://skullflower.bandcamp.com/track/melek-taus

also:

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3931828151_10.jpg

Thanks! "Dove Grey Lagoons" on the 108 is great!