Band:	Skullflower
Album:	Orange Canyon Mind
Style:	Noise rock
Release date:	2005
Guest review by:	!J.O.O.E.!

01. Starry Wisdom
02. Orange Canyon Mind
03. Annihilating Angel
04. Vampires Breath
05. Ghosts Ice Aliens
06. Goat Of A Thousand Young
07. Star Hill
08. Forked Lightning

Matthew Bower is undoubtedly the key behind the British noise rock scene, appearing in and contributing to a dizzying array of influential outputs including the seminal Double Leopards, the weird and beautiful Sunroof! and his more recent work in Mirag to name a handful, but Skullflower has been his constant in terms of quality, varied experimental music and noise and early works such as 'IIIrd Gatekeeper' and 'Xaman' are held in high regard for shaping British noise rock today.

Compared to his other releases, and most definitely his more recent work, 'Orange Canyon Mind' is a far easier listening experience, conveying a warm psychedelic buzz rather than a harsh, low-end white noise assault, achieved by being very much a rock album at its core with prominent Sabbathian riffage throughout. Entirely without drums and vocals, instead, meticulous layers of haze, distorted droning guitar feedback and mind altering noise conjure images of vast digital extraterrestrial fields of rainbow coloured grass saturated with drugged up robotic insects. The lengthy songs both reward and test listeners, intoxicating them with a fluctuating and unpredictable melange of ever winding static and guitar groove, like trying to crawl your way out of an acid trip turning bad. Despite the somewhat extreme nature of the style one cannot help being enveloped in a gleeful hypnotic daze, especially with comparatively subtle tracks like 'Starry Wisdom' and the album title track. With respect to this, the album structure is somewhat methodical, the initial aforementioned tracks bleeding into more challenging and seemingly chaotic compositions, finally relenting with 'Forked Lightning'; an uncompromising harsh noise onslaught and intriguingly, a logical lead on to the follow up album 'Tribulations'. Highlight tracks include 'Annihilating Angel' with its swathes of soft terror and expert use of what could almost be construed as noise breakdowns and 'Ghost Ice Aliens' catchy and repetitive riffs harking back to the delicious monotony of the 'Exquisite Fucking Boredom' LP.

The aesthetics of the track names have always been a good indicator of what Bower might have intended with his music: contradictory extremes, the infinity of space and nature and even human mental breakdown. This, combined with the album art's stark contrasting alien green and earthy muddy brown/orange, create a weird tapestry that amplifies the sonic textures exponentially.

I dare say this is an ideal start for Skullflower beginners (and precisely where I began my journey down Noise Lane), and perhaps a good introduction to some of the more unusual and modern noise rock releases today. Though decidedly less complex and easier going than say 'Desire For A Holy War,' on its own merits this is a fascinating and evocative piece of meta-metal that should prove an interesting departure for open minded metal fans. To noise connoisseurs however, this release may seem somewhat standard, instead preferring the indecipherable levels of both older and new Skullflower works. Jonathan Selzer of Terrorizer made an interesting comment about Skullflower describing them as "Sunn O))) inverted." The slow, ten-ton drones translating into high frequency bursts of heated light; searing brain cells and shattering teeth. Food for thought?