[This review was originally published in Badaboom Gramaphone #3 and appears here with permission.]
The London (Croydon, actually) group Skullflower began as a riff-oriented post-industrial outfit in the mid-’80s; over time, through several lineups, the sound gravitated toward improvised and pure drone-based sonics.
The early records on Broken Flag were items of total mystery, much acclaimed in the loner/collector/fanzine scene for their combination of howling feedback and menacingly repetitive riffing by guitarists Matthew Bower and Stefan Jaworzyn over simple bass, drums and synth accompaniment provided by an ad hoc cast that included Gary Ramleh and Stuart Dennison. An entire side of Xaman (with a creepy cover drawing by the British rock cartoonist Savage Pencil) is taken up by “Wave,” a track which sounds much like its name and is the pinnacle of this early lineup. Following Xaman, Jaworzyn (also operator of the Shock label) left the group. The Ruins CD combines the contents of Birthdeath and Form Destroyer with a pair of previously unreleased items.
Bower carried on with the rhythm section of Anthony Di Franco and Stuart Dennison. IIIrd Gatekeeper, which was released via Godflesh’s HeadDirt label, was a nadir of sorts (aside from a few compelling moments), failing to match the noise level of the earlier records and lacking the sophistication of what followed. Last Shot at Heaven brought Russell Smith (formerly of obscure freak-out group Terminal Cheesecake) in on second guitar and was a complete turnaround, offering a new and improved sound that leans heavily on the trance aspect of the first couple of records. Some tracks recall the compositional stasis and dronescapes (but not the sound) of early ’70s electronic groups like Tangerine Dream.
Obsidian Shaking Codex took basically the same approach. Anthony DiFranco’s tremendous sound collage “Smoke Jaguar” was a foreshadowing of his solo records as Ax. “Diamond Bullet” has one of the band’s all-time best riffs.
Bower, Dennison, Smith, Phillip Best and guest Simon Wickham-Smith recorded Infinityland and Carved Into Roses as a planned double CD but then divided them into two distinct releases. Both are thick with spaced-out guitar and synth trance, but Inifityland is a little bit more “rock”-oriented compared to the trippier Carved.
Argon offers four versions of the same modal improv track, the best of which is a studio version with Tim Hodgkinson (ex-Henry Cow) on saxophone. The meandering live tracks on Argon are further bogged down by poor fidelity.
Transformer is a strange foray into psych-rock, with extrapolations on themes by Syd Barrett and the Jefferson Airplane. An oddity.
Replacing Best with John Godbert (reeds, horns), Skullflower firmly established its relatively refined modal/drone-improv sound in the mid-’90s. The four live tracks on Adieu, All You Judges, a split CD with Ramleh (the two groups shared some personnel over the years), are better than the live tracks on Argon, but frustratingly short. This Is Skullflower… was meant to be a definitive statement and as such presents pretty much the entire width of the band’s repertoire (save for the pummeling style heard on the early records), with somewhat better fidelity than usual. The band broke up after that release but resumed in 2003 and has released literally dozens of albums since.
Sorties is a cassette of live tracks from 1995, worth looking for if you liked the sound of the band’s last few records.