Flour

As bassist for two of the finest post-punk/guitar noise bands of their era, Breaking Circus and Rifle Sport (the latter also contained Todd Trainer, later of Brick Layer Cake and Shellac), Pete “Flour” Conway had a hand in shaping both the harsh Chicago sound of the mid-’80s and its more loosely defined Minneapolis counterpart. He also released four consistently good solo albums of claustrophobic noise, of which Fourth and Final is, as the title suggests, the last. With only incidental instrumental assistance and driven by an overtaxed drum machine, the record is less atmospheric and more aggressive than Flour’s earlier releases, closer in sound to the Chicago skronk of bands like Big Black and Bastro. Flour has a poppier sensibility, however, and he tempers the factory floor pounding with small, surprisingly delicate melodies (“Godiva”) and some new wavey flourishes (“Cyannized”).