3 out of 5

Label: Crucial Blast

Produced by: Scott Hull (mastered by)

Skullflower has kicked out approximately a billion and a half albums in their time, ranging in tone from psych to noise to more structured rock, so it’s rather foolish (of me) to make any generalizations about their sound, but nonetheless, I find it amusing that Orange Canyon Mind – one of, to my ears, SF’s more tame releases – appeared on a label with a lot of harsh, noise output – Crucial Blast – and featured goth metal font for its logo, atop a putrid green / red landscape.  Not that the album is particularly accessible, or not noise, but it’s very restrained, even in its more aggressive assaults, juxtaposed with some humorously supernatural-tinged song titles: Annihilating Angel; Vampires Breath; etc.

The album kicks off with its two most generic tracks – Starry Wisdom, all noise and slight dashes of electronics / keys, and the title track, distorted drone over a muted beat – which somewhat sets a template for how the tracks thereafter alternate.  That said, while the former song comes across as shorthand Matthew Bower and the latter isn’t quite distinct or drone-y enough to land, they are just warmups: the middle of the album, despite underwhelming production, has some phenomenally constructed passages.  Annihilating Angel is a particular standout, building on layers, and Vampires Breath adds a grinding riff to the drone / beat format.  Followups Ghosts Ice Aliens and Goat Of A Thousand Young continue swirling around a sound of hefty distortion with a dark, plodding edge, before Star Hill and closer Forked Lightning take a step back, opening things up a bit for a winddown.

Perhaps mastered with a bit more extremes between highs and lows, Orange Canyon Mind would seem more fitting for its “extreme” look and label.  As is, it’s not an SF album that particularly sticks out from their extensive catalogue, but given their range (within the noise genre), its take on a more tempered version of drone was a worthwhile experiment, and possibly a good way for people with more cautious ears to test the band out.