|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
2LP
|
|
DPROM 131LP
|
Double vinyl reissue of Skullflower's epochal IIIrd Gatekeeper album -- the first time that this album has been available on vinyl for 30 years. In addition to the original LP this definitive and expanded edition includes extra and unreleased tracks taken from the recording sessions. For the first time all the tracks recorded by the band during this period can be heard together giving fans unprecedented access to material previously only available in the bands' archives. Recorded in London in 1991 and released in 1992 on Justin "Godflesh" Broadrick's HeadDirt label in 1992, IIIrd Gatekeeper established a worldwide reputation and following for Skullflower and convinced many who heard it that they had encountered nothing less than the best band on the planet. Arriving at the height of the "grunge" and the expansion of underground guitar "rock" into corporate America, IIIrd Gatekeeper had its roots deep in the UK noise and power-electronics scene. Guitarist Matthew Bower and bassist Anthony Di Franco were both graduates of the Broken Flag school of British noise making with their respective projects Pure, Total and JFK. IIIrd Gatekeeper was Skullflower's third album and was the first of the band's albums to feature a consistent line-up throughout its production. Includes heavy matt non-scratch laminated gatefold sleeve.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
LP
|
|
NP 036LP
|
"Sound coiled and uncoiling, the (well) spring and trap set and first trilogy concluded with three wordless hymns to the Apep serpent, and the serpent power in general. Skullflower slithers and glides through their third LP for Nashazphone, always revolving like geologic time sufis, conjuring wrinkles and portals in the multiverses stiff unyielding fabric. As Brian Wilson still might sing 'she's givin' me serpent vibrations'." --Matthew Bower and Samantha Davies West Yorks, UK August 2021.
Skullflower: Matthew Bower- Aire Delta Slide, Travis Bean Koa, Coiled Crimson Serpens; Samantha Davies: violin, Ibanez Destroyer, Descending Gold Serpens. Vinyl master and lacquer cut by Frederic Alstadt, Angstrom Studio. Edition of 333.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
2CD
|
|
CSR 225CD
|
The Spirals of Great Harm is the new sprawling double disc from black noise classicists Skullflower - referencing Inferno XVII, Dante and Virgil's spiraling descent into the abyss on demon Geryon. Full of harsh beauty and hymns for lost Albions, battle songs against the homogenization of modern "lyfe" - fuck the new estate! Skullflower on The Spirits of Great Harm: "Hedgerows, tapestries, dream woods, dragon lands. After Draconis (CSR 190CD, 2014), we have been released to roam through the multiverse, fashioning trinkets and ornaments from jewelled sounds, and leaving them as waymarkers on our astral travels. We seem to be circling, encountering familiar territories, yet always changed, because these circles, from a true perspective; are all part of a great averse spiral, our pattern, our map, which is the terrain itself. You will hear hints and echoes of native keening, lush prog romanticism, and the charcoal textures of noise, but all subsumed within our alchemy, the unmistakable wellspring of sound that is SF." Comes in a six-panel digipak.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
LP
|
|
NP 022LP
|
The inception of an audio trilogy concerning the Darkness of Aegypt: the shadow stuff from whence dark dreams come. The Triad: dark, light and the animating serpent power are delineated by the Egyptian Gods Set, Horus, and the Apep serpent. Volume one comprises of three received transmissions from the tunnels of Set via the physical envelopes of Matthew Bower and Samantha Davies operating as the occult cell known as Skullflower. The working, the concept, and guiding hand comes from Nashazphone, purveyors of artifacts, dreams and koans, who are currently re-creating and re-writing the myths and cycles of their native land.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
2CD
|
|
CSR 190CD
|
Synapse scorching occult industrial prog-noise folk from the strings of Matthew Bower and Samantha Davies. Churning mantras and drukpa elegies for two erased darkside tree limbs: that of the Draconian in Khem, and of Drax Priory in West Yorkshire, which together with Bhutan are the Dragon Lands. The twilight language of flowers is spoken and wolves are raised, finally, Kali dances. For fans of Bathory and Popul Vuh. Comes in a deluxe 6-panel outsized double-digipak with a 16-page booklet.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
CD
|
|
DPROM 095CD
|
Finally available, after almost two years of driving Dirter & Shock to the brink of insanity -- a massive 4CD retrospective of Skullflower's early works from 1986-1990, featuring all the material previously released on Broken Flag, Shock, Majora and Forced Exposure, plus around two hours of previously-unheard music -- 14 tracks spread across the series. And this is not "out-take" dross used to fill up CDs, this is essential early Skullflower providing further insight into their uniquely twisted musical world. All material has been digitally mastered by Richard Whittaker at FX, and each CD comes in a deluxe gatefold card cover and inner sleeve with newly-unearthed artwork by Matthew. Booklets feature extensive notes and previously-unseen flyers, posters and photos. Comprises the remastered first 12" EP, available in its entirety for the first time since 1987, plus six previously-unreleased, unheard and undreamed-of tracks. This series of CDs are a co-production between the original Shock label and Dirter.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
CD
|
|
DPROM 096CD
|
The remastered first album by Skullflower, originally released on Broken Flag in 1989 -- the best it has ever sounded. Includes two "bonus" tracks from Shock's long out-of-print RUINS and two previously-unheard pieces. A truly monstrous disc of heavy, fucked up music.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
CD
|
|
DPROM 097CD
|
The most requested early Skullflower release, Xaman (1990) the original CD rendered unplayable by disc rot for 20 years and the subject of endless drivelsome internet speculation. Finally remastered, with new cover art from Matthew Bower's archive.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
CD
|
|
DPROM 098CD
|
Rounds up the first three 7" releases on Shock, Majora and Forced Exposure, the bonus track from The Portable Altamont (1991) compilation, plus six previously-unreleased tracks, including three from the Xaman sessions. A disc of total rock!
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
CD
|
|
CSR 151CD
|
The most remorseless, brutal Skullflower ever. Alternating between granular lo-fi primitive rock and granular lo-fi primitive power electronics, this taut disc is a chain mail glove of hate to any lazy minds who've tainted the air with describing Skullflower as "psychedelic." But that's not to say this is an all-out total assault. There are also moments of tender acoustic balladry, it's just that they don't exist. The remorseless brutal sound is primitive, but as detailed and rich as a blood-soaked medieval canvas, somewhere betwixt The Rita and Clandestine Blaze, but more brutal! Long live the New Flesh! Kether is in Malkuth, Malkuth is in Kether, but in a different way.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
CD
|
|
UR 015CD
|
"Desire for a Holy War is mayhem piled on top of mayhem piled on top of squalls of caustic feedback. Furies spitting oaths of shrouded vengeance from ancient tongues. Plague riders dealing death on mounts of venomous ether, hooves pounding the wild earth. Matthew Bower may have reached a watershed with last year's Abyssic Lowland Hiss (Heavy Blossom), but it is with Desire... that he has come to conquer. Never has Skullflower sounded so severe or remorseless. Utech Records has invoked a connate soul in visual artist Stephen Kasner to develop a second fine art series of CD releases for the label. The series will comprise nine volumes of 750 copies each over the course of 2008 beginning in April. Kasner has committed the bulk of his next outputs to painting original and exclusive canvases. His subject matter has yet to be disclosed, but the artist has spoken in general terms of a new direction he wants to explore in his work. A package unique to the series has been designed to highlight Kasner's residuum and the accompanying music. The foundation of the series is the belief that a visual device can bind a disparate body of music in a meaningful way. The genesis of this idea was first explored with photographer Max Aguilera-Hellweg in 2007 and the result was Utech Record's acclaimed Arc Series. Fruit borne from that venture has led to this stab at further examination. Kasner immediately saw value in the theory and agreed to help cultivate and refine it." Last copies, deleted edition.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
CD
|
|
VHF 023CD
|
2010 repress of this all-time classic, originally released in 1996. "Evolving out of Pure and then Total, Skullflower coalesced in 1987 and debuted in 1988 with the self-titled EP on Broken Flag. Over the next decade, a large assortment of characters (including guitarist Matthew Bower and drummer Stuart Dennison, the only members to appear on all their releases) would generate a truly amazing amount of loud noise masquerading as music (or vice versa) before going on indefinite hiatus after 1996's This Is Skullflower, a release that confounded expectation by taking a quieter tack (not necessarily more minimal), away from the extreme noise for which Skullflower was known. 'Lounge' balances steady feedback with throbbing rhythm. On 'Glider,' piano provides steadiness while swirling guitar offers a strong contrast. 'Creaky Rigging,' with an entrancing, soft psych-jam guitar line, makes its way over an increasingly discordant drone arrangement as Dennison's viola adds an unearthly element. The final song, with Richard Youngs in on guitar, is the monster: 'The Pirate Ship of Reality Is Moving Out,' a nearly-40-minute piece recorded at a live club date in 1995. The sheets of white noise and feedback on top of feedback return with a vengeance as the song progresses -- by 12 minutes in, the damage level is near indescribable, yet a strong undercurrent of soft melancholy strips back to almost nothing -- a balance of abuse and restraint carefully performed."
|