Skullflower: Carved into Roses-Infinityland-Singles (2011)
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- Written by T. Rake
As a personal fixation, I've been considering the fallacy of time and space as interrelated truths—that somehow time is on equal footing with space betrays the mythology of time. This 3-CD set from vhf records (vhf #128) affords one the recollection of era which can be experienced in 2 hours and 44 minutes. Accepting space as a physical entity c. 2011, rather than an existential construct c. 1994, is a precept of distance (memory) which leaves one reassessing the earthly nature of time itself.
The music of Skullflower captured herein reconciles a cohesion of post-punk free noise and disembodied hippie jams of the early 70s with dour guitar scrawls, down tempo drums and nondescript vocals. The deluxe 3-CD from vhf set now presents the modern listener with a context for both time and space. Motion in decay.
Pulling together the collected recordings of the Wickham-Smith years on the first 2 CDs (Carved into Roses and Infinityland respectively) and those which surrounded it on the third disc (that's the singles part), it is difficult to affix a trajectory to it all. Formless songs strung together by woven strands of determination fostering a denseness which is inviolable. The glory of these recordings is the bliss of abandonment caught on tape.
The singles serve as a bridge to the Bower-led groups to follow (Skullflower, Sunroof!, Hototogisu, Mirag, etc.) as one context yields to another. There is a bit more focus with shorter songs, but the era of the scrawl begins to yields to riffage.
There are those who seek refuge in difference and find only despair in communion. These recordings speak to ways some negotiated the alienation of crowds with deafening chords of unbridled clarity.