4 out of 5

Label: WKN

Produced by: Der Blutharsch and Skullflower (?)

I recognize I’m just reading into ‘…and the Infinite Church of the Leading Hand’ addendum to Der Blutharsch’s name to add assumptions to the band’s “sound,” not being much familiar with their output over the years, but Albin Julius (and others?) collabo with Matthew Bower’s Skullflower adds a mesmeric, meditative miasma to Bower’s guitar noise / pychedelia, to incredibly transportive effect on the whole.

This is four pieces, not with necessarily striking divides (especially the third and fourth, which flow into one another), but definitely with clear vibes between each. I listened to this on cassette – the A-side of which amazes, the opening most directly hitting on that Skullflower guitar + warped church hymnal vibe, building and building to emotional extremes as it goes along. The followup veers more toward “typical” SF territory – almost Sunroof!-y, in its burbling-ness – but Bower can sink into the background and work on a floating, endless solo as ambient noise washes over the forefront.

On the B-side, the extended third track (taking up most of the side) is the one bit where I don’t necessarily here commingling artists; it’s an excellent piece of drone, but we haven’t been working with drone up to this point, rather stuff with more momentum attached, at least relative to this genre. As such, in this context, this song can start to drag a bit, but if presented on a solo SF album, or alongside other similar pieces, it would be spell-binding. Finally, there’s a wonderful bit of keys / noise freakout in the last few minutes, as a fun little opposing joint to the previous stretch, and kind of reminding that more than one hand touched this thing, encouraging relistens with headphones to undoubtedly pick up on other flairs throughout.