SKULLFLOWER Transformer 1995

Discogs

Artist Biography by Steve Huey

Skullflower is a British noise rock band formed in 1987 who served as the flagship band of the Broken Flag collective, a group of experimental noise rock bands from the U.K. (most notably Ramleh, Total, and Sunroof!) that often swapped ideas and personnel. Led by guitarist Matthew Bower, the prolific Skullflower boasted the largest cult following of the bunch, with a sound based on sludgy, stomping, doom-garage riffs overlaid with hallucinatory feedback, fuzzed-out guitar noise, dark ambience, and monolithic drones derived from power electronics and throttling rhythms, all played at an ungodly volume. Their lyrical subject matter is obsessed with death, violence, misanthropy, and sexual deviancy. Always an improvisational outfit, their textured noise freakouts grew increasingly free-form over the course of their career, moving farther and farther away from even loose definitions of "rock." While recordings such as 1989's Form Destroyer and 1995's Transformer revealed a true post-punk approach to rock, later offerings such as 2008's Taste the Blood of the Deceiver and 2010's Strange Keys to Untune Gods' Firmament revealed an evolving sound that relied more on sonic deconstruction and spontaneous improvisation than formal process.

Tracklist  

1	The Lords Of Increase	2:25
2	3/5 Of A Mile In 10 Secs.	3:13
3	Cut Loose 1 + 11	14:03
4	Golden Hair	9:03
5	Morning Dew	11:28
6	Cicada	17:10
7	Surf Creature	2:50
8	Ponyland	7:22
9	Fake Revolt	5:14