SKULLFLOWER (Orange Canyon Mind) CD
SKULLFLOWER are purveyors of heavy feedback with an industrial tint. Veterans of the mid-80's UK industrial/avantgarde scene, who have perfected their brand of proto-drone and electronic intoxication to an acute degree. Utilising some complex technology they spinning their web of guitar riffs, swirling distortion, beats and strange other-wordly rhythms around the listener. Purely instrumental they create a unique and mesmerising sound on "Orange Canyon Mind", that is very different from their previous releases, especially the one's for Justin Broadrick's (Godflesh/Jesu)HeadDirt label. The eight long soundscapes on "Orange Canyon Mind" are sometimes very psychedelic as, for example the title-track or the pulsating "Vampires Breath" which brings back Hawkwind to my mind, but despite of the psychedelic sounds, it isn't a trip into typical rock music.
For it, the band never wanted to be limited by conventional musical frames, and has defined their own sonic cosmos during their exsistence which covers two decades. "Goat Of A Thousand Young" is a drone-laden hybrid of power-electronis and machine gun-like rhythms, which enfolds a hypnotic effect to the listener, but the closing track "Forked Lightning" is very harsh and pure torture for the presentimentless ones. Well, SKULLFLOWER remains a band, that never created music for the masses, and "Orange Canyon Mind" won't change anything about it, but to come up with an accesible sound was again not the band's intention. But in times where more people are showing a stronger interest in heavy sonic feedback, SKULLFLOWER should find new fans with the help of "Orange Canyon Mind", and I can really understand, that Crucial Blast is proud of this release.
(KK)