Orange Canyon Mind

Artist: Skullflower
Label: Crucial Blast
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1

UPC: 790168521324
EAN: 0790168521324
ASIN: B0009A1B7M

Release Date: 2005-05-24

Orange Canyon Mind

Related Categories:

General

| Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

Alt Industrial

Indie Rock

| Indie & Lo-Fi | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

Noise

Experimental Rock

General

| Rock | Styles | Music

Pop Rock

| Pop | Styles | Music

Tracks:

Starry Wisdom
Orange Canyon Mind
Annihilating Angel
Vampires Breath
Ghosts Ice Aliens
Goat of a Thousand Young
Star Hill
Forked Lightning

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Customer Reviews:

Where 'Noise' meets 'Ambience'.......2006-11-15

This is pretty much the first "experimental noise" record I've purchased. I've heard some Merzbow and some Nurse with Wound, but that's as far as my "noise" expertise reaches. I guess the next closest artist I can think of is Sunn O))), (of who I have heard several songs from but not mustered up the courage to purchase any of their records yet, albeit they are unusually and subtly alluring) who is similar in that "drone" sense that I have undoubtedly noticed here, but not really "electronic" or "noise" at all.

I would almost consider SOME tracks ambient, minimalist, somewhat bland atmosphere rather than "noise." I mean when I think of noise I think of really, well, unpleasant, random sound, However, a few tracks here are really relaxing, and if you listen carefully you might be able to make out some actual melody. Sometimes the noise is so repetitive and constant, that it actually becomes hypnotic after a little while. The title track is actually probably my favorite track, being one of the most relaxing yet having a lot of guitar melodies, even though they are quite repetitive. The first song, "Starry Wisdom" is also one of the more relaxing tracks, although having pretty much no variation.

Some tracks are definitely much noisier; "Annihilating Angel" consists of many different layers of industrial and alien buzzing noises, and dulls down a few times to some light, windy, ethereal sounding synths - one of the better tracks. On the other hand, if you can listen to "Goat of a Thousand Young" all the way through with headphones, you deserve some kind of award; it consists of high-pitched, rapid pulsing, that will burrow itself in your Primary auditory cortex and linger for hours. It is more torturous than the most brutal death metal or the most annoying pop music.

One thing I don't like is that the tracks have very abrupt starting and endings, they seem to just cut off with no real structure or thought whatsoever. At least a short fadeout would satisfy me, or even better tracks that actually gradually flow into one another, because I get used to a certain vibe a song is giving off and then suddenly it is a totally different tone and feeling, like someone unexpectedly changed the radio station (not like this would ever BE on the radio, but you catch my drift) The title track, for example, seems like it starts out halfway between an idea, like the first minute of it is cut off.

Anyways, I guess, I'm not particularly impressed, nor disappointed with Skullflower. This is pretty much just about what I thought it would be like. I really don't see myself buying too many more records like this. I don't have a problem with the noise "genre," however; it needs to be either a little more interesting or atmospheric than this. It seems like they could do so much more with it.

A monotonous monolith of sound.......2005-10-09

Skullflower's Orange Canyon Mind is an extremely difficult listen. I would have dismissed this as garbage had it not been for the fact that they've been around since the mid-80's and have continuously experimented in the field of drone rock meets avant garde meets tons of distorted electronic soundscapes. Truth be told, after tens of listens with an open mind, I am still of the opinion that filling a 60+ minute disc with eight tracks all loaded with the aforementioned elements is a weird task to say the least. There sure must be people out there who love this band for what they are, but I personally think it's all done a bit excessively and the music is too much out there.

Admittedly, first spin suggested I hated this disc. Second and third spins didn't really change my opinion much. Actually I had a headache listening to it from start to finish, especially when I tried to play it consecutively. So I put it aside for a couple of days only to return to it; I just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing anything vital. Each listen cemented my opinion that this isn't the type of music I enjoy, even though I quite like most of the albums Godflesh have put out, a band Skullflower guys claim they have heavily influenced. The drone factor prevalant on this disc could evoke some of the Sunn O))) stuff, except that Sunn O))) is more of a doom drone band, while Skullflower is on the more electronic side of the spectrum. Their songs are long, and very monotonous, and they have absolutely no hooks, no real rhythm or structure, or even purpose. They just endlessly drone and drone to the point that you may want to know what the point is, but then maybe that's the entire point. Maybe these guys just love to stretch their compositions through endlessly repetitive guitar chords that come through incredibly thick distorted sound waves, guitar feedback, and loops. At times you're not sure if what you hear is what they actually had on mind, as it's a huge load of electronic sound draped over low-key guitar themes and barely audible drum beats. The sound can get immensely static with little no change or variation whatsoever, and they'll stretch the piece into infinity, only to abruptly cut it out and bleed into the next track. Interesting, no?

Thankfully, patient repeated listens enabled me to find some nice moments on some of their songs. Let me try to go through some of them. "Starry Wisdom" is filled with swirling electronic sounds, extremely repetive and droning, and they're looped over and over again. However, I do detect a nice analog synth motif planted underneath it, albeit hard to hear, which shows the guys in Skullflower do understand melody. They just don't practise it. The title track, after the heavily distorted opening number, is like a breath of fresh air, even though most people who've never heard Skullflower would more than probably hate it. There is a more cohesive melody line that runs through distorted chords of white noise and it actually develops into a nice guitar riff, something that is vastly missing on this album. "Annihilating Angel" marries symphonics with industrial music and drones on for a good 4-5 minutes, but it does break into a nice calm midsection that is listenable. The 'windy' guitar work on "Vampires Breath" and the relatively more melodic songwriting on "Star Hill" are also proof that the guys know how to compose melody, but strangely refuse to hone it into their craft. The 9-minute "Ghosts Ice Aliens" simply fails me after all these listens. It just messes with my head, even though I feel their experimentation in freeform jazz and analog sounds could have made for an interesting combination. "Goat of a Thousand Young" is their most chaotic work. It has an industrial tone to it, but quickly slams into an electric machine-sound that feels like someone's drilling your brains out. The word "awkward" would describe it best.

Music Album:

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