Review Summary: Skullflower's flawed but still cool debut. Distortion-soaked, dull and hazy stuff.
Skullflower is the brainchild of experimental guitarist Matthew Bower who got his start with the minimal ambient based project Total in 1986. Soon after he started working on a more guitar-based sound and joined forces with Gary Mundy (owner of the infamous DIY noise label Broken Flag and member of the seminal noise group Ramleh). Mundy had been changing his style from harsh noise/power electronics to distortion drenched repetitive stonerish jams with drummer Stuart Dennison. Mundy and Dennison essentially stepped in as session musicians to record Skullflower's first effort, a 4 song EP titled "Birthdeath". Expanding on what Ramleh had just been toying with, Skullflower forged this extremely repetitive almost psychedelic like fuzz-driven sound into their signature style. Stuart Dennison would also take vocal duties and become a core member of the band for the next 10 years, churning out oodles of great albums alongside Matthew Bower. (*Edit: Stuart Dennison didn't appear on Ramleh recordings until a few years after joining Skullflower. Mundy, Bower and Dennsion shared a recording space around 87-89, at which time Skullflower and Ramleh were essentially the same band.) Birthdeath is the very beginning of their journey, and while flawed compared to some of the stuff they'd put out a few years later it's still a great EP and an excellent piece of Skullflower's mighty legacy.
The style here consists of extremely fuzzy guitar distortion ringing out with huge amounts of delay and drums pounding into a hypnotic repetitive beat which is almost tribal at times. The production is low, minimal and basic, with a very warm analog tone. At this point in Skullflower's career the sound was somewhat lacking and things are a little weak and almost too hazy. The guitar riffs almost only serve to let waves of hypnotic fuzz pour over simple percussive sounds. Although they do employ very minimal riffs, there's little more than chords ringing out with lots of delay for the most part. Matthew Bower's guitar style is typically more about atmosphere and effects than riffing. Unlike most of Skullflower's work, this EP contains lead guitar (played by Gary Mundy). The leads are extremely simple, barely forming melodies and serve more to just let higher notes ring out and feedback work into the haze of distortion and delay. He doesn't play particularly skillfully, but it works works well enough with the sound. Stuart Dennison's drumming and vocals are the defining characteristic of the first era of Skullflower (1988-1998). He plods along on the toms at a very slow tempo for the most part, and really adds to the repetitive hypnotic haze with his pounding tribal style. On some songs he'll work it into a slightly faster tempo, typically when the riff is just a little more rock-like than the usual waves of distortion. His vocals are very interesting and strange. They're very low in the mix and don't play into the music in the way one would expect. He has almost a nasal moan or chant that emanates over the riffs and has some delay of its own. Each aspect of the music matches the same dull, hazy, hypnotic and weird tone which is definitive of Skullflower's style.
Skullflower's debut defines many characteristics of their sound, but doesn't execute it as skillfully as their later masterpieces such as Last Shot at Heaven and IIIrd Gatekeeper. Still, it's an interesting and essential piece of their legacy and contains some great work (albeit slightly marred by the weak production). Their style is difficult to neatly categorize and has been called everything from stoner rock to noise. It's suitable for fans of very straightforward fuzz-laden entrancing jams, but not so much for those who expect typical rock structures driven by catchy rhythms and melodies and vocals you can sing along to. Skullflower are some what of an experimental oddity, and unlike the "noise/drone" that share certain aspects of their style and aesthetic, Skullflower employ their sound skillfully, and most importantly actually use a drummer. Check this out if you're ready to be soaked in big waves of reverberating fuzz (and if you dig it check out the albums they did in the 90s). And finally a small disclaimer for those who go and check out newer albums of a band first: 2000s era Skullflower doesn't use percussion or vocals and really is just a storm of improvisational gutiar noise and drone. I don't personally dig that.
