2 out of 5

Label: digital self-release

Produced by: Matthew Bower (?)

If we allow that a lot of straight-to-digital Skullflower amounts to variations on a theme of guitar riff + guitar psychedelics + noise, with levers pushing and pulling on the ratios of those layers, then how “good” one release is versus another is, subjectively, how effectively those layers are leveled.

Villa Strangiato plays pretty heavily into drone thanks to the riff being forefronted in both of its tracks – Strange Village and Weird City. On the former track, it’s more of a synth than guitar sound, and Matthew Bower effectively trades off between layers in a way that acts like a buildup: the synth (or guitar – it’s just cleaner than usual) sets an interesting pace, and then the psychedelics take over partway through. However, I kind of lose the plot when Bower switches back to the first layer – the track just kind of halts and essentially repeats. I didn’t find much value in that move, and even after a couple listens, I find myself tuning out at that point.

Weird City would be acceptable drone if I felt like we hadn’t heard these exact riffs / guitar dribblings from Bower on other tracks. A repeated guitar line takes center stage, while fretboard noodlings also somewhat repeat in the background. About halfway through, a more prominent hammering on open chords starts to poke its head in, and then some kind of broken distortion, but it’s pretty muted ultimately, and all of this stuff takes place in a tonal midrange – so nothing hits particularly hard, and the track isn’t quite big or blissed out enough to tickle my drone buzzers.