Harvesting set of ritual brain clamour, drone-chuff and synapse chauffeuring blitz from this free-improvising big band consisting of members of Pelt and Rake. This inter-band ensemble blew across the States a bunch of times during their short existence – 1996/97 – and this limited to 330 copies vinyl LP is a beautiful document of their scorching style, an extract from a two-hour performance at Tommy’s in Richmond in April 1997. The line-up is: Mike Gangloff (guitar, shenai, electronics), Jack Rose (lap steel), Patrick Best (guitar, bass resonator, conga), ~SKB (bass and percussion), V2G2 (nylon string guitar, percussion, shenai and voice), Planet C (moog, sax, percussion), Mick (dumbek and dijembe), Beth Jones (dijembe).

The first ever release from the Hototogisu duo of Matthew Bower (Skullflower/Total/Sunroof) and Marcia Bassett (Double Leopards) that even approaches being ‘generally available', Green is a real CD - not a CD-R - pressed up for the group by the sainted Ed Hardy of Eclipse records and available in an edition of 1000 copies complete with a suave full-colour booklet reproducing a bunch of the duo's art. Anyone whose mind was blown by the vision of this pair powering their way through one of the most magical/unforgiving sets of Subcurrent 2005 will find plenty to drown in here. Tracks are shorter than on previous releases, though even more obsessively detailed. There are points where the cacophony is so insanely oversaturated that the noise starts to sound as if it's spontaneously giving birth to language: you start hallucinating words and sentences, almost as if the film protecting you from a constant bombardment of information-heavy environmental radiation has been blown apart. Green also features some of Hototogisu's most straight-ahead death/doom metal moves. Although they're not quite Skullflower, the first track features snatches of classic death metal riffs alongside the stomach-punch of a cheap drum machine and on their theme song, the beautifully ferocious “Heavy Blossom”, Mick Flower of Vibracathedral Orchestra plays drums. Alongside all the iron first action, there are some beautiful moments where Marcia and Matthew's voices melt into ribbons of pure white light and the whole thing floats to the ceiling. A modern classic, and possibly the best Hototogisu album to date. Highest recommendation.

Edition of 100 copies art book presenting colour reproductions of six of Marcia Bassett’s (GHQ/Zaimph/Hototogisu) psychedelic paint/collage works, running from Rorschach forests peopled by huge kittens through weird crystal geometries and distressed anatomy. Stapled card booklet.

Massive double studio LP from the duo of Marcia Bassett (Zaimph/GHQ et al) and Matthew Bower (Skullflower/Sunroof), recorded at the NNCK-related Black Dirt Studios, issued in a run of 700 copies in gatefold sleeves, long out of print. Pale Fatal Sister feels like the apex of the Hototogisu catalogue to date, the ultimate statement of their ecstatically overloaded aesthetic. Parts of this recording sound like Angus MacLise’s Joyous Lake Aspen flexi disc played through a mountain of Marshall stacks while storms generate huge elemental Oms in the background, all of which is broadcast through an obliterating wall of pure electricity. Sounding simultaneously uplifting and oppressive, this is Valkyrie –styled drone that vibrates with rainbow visions of the blackest psychedelia, the most extreme metal and the most bombastic avant garde composition. A new peak for this group, just mindblowing. Highly recommended.

Limited edition of 100 copies documenting a live solo show from Marcia Bassett that took place 6/6/06 in Hasselt. 28 minutes of thick, frozen air, slow brain-bloating highs, and thunderous ecstasy peaks. One of the darkest/densest blats from Marcia to date and highly recommended. Comes in wraparound colour pro-printed sleeves.

Brand new full-length recording from the duo of Matthew Bower (Skullflower/Total/Sunroof et al) and Marcia Bassett (Double Leopards/Zaimph/GHQ) features a more rock-reverent take on the kind of vertical screens of impossibly detailed overtone that defined their earlier albums, with Marcia's viola slow-burning fluttering afterimages of neon spirals deep into the air while Bower's guitar/microphone worship generates repeat-ascensions of overloaded ecstasy tone. Something grittier, more immediately tactile, that makes this their most dramatically meat-based orbit of hallucinated space/time vectors to date. Highly recommended.

Heavy collaborative album in an edition of 300 copies from Marcia Bassett (GHQ/Zaimph/Hototogisu et al) and Carlos Giffoni. Bassett feels like the dominant voice here, rolling out wave after wave of crushing tonal feedback and huge rushes of iron-clad chords while Giffoni stacks perilous accumulations of rotor tones, analog drones and monolithic electricity.

New set of solo electric guitar recordings from Marcia Bassett (Double Leopards/GHQ/Hototogisu et al). Tectonic string work that has the weight of planets, with high, eerie melodies threaded through massive baseline drones. Aspects of Keiji Haino, Charalambides and Electronic Meditation-era Tangerine Dream make this a particularly explosive set. On Brother Raven’s label, hand-numbered edition of 200 copies. 

Hand-numbered edition of 200 copies LP on Manuel Mota’s private Headlights imprint documenting a heavyweight duo set from Marcia Bassett of Zaimph, Hototogisu, Double Leopards, GHQ et al and improvising Portuguese bassist and guitarist Margardia Garcia. Garcia is one of the major new generation European free players, coming out of the same scene as Mota, and she’s just as capable of generating Swans-style Industrial entropy as she is playing explosive fire music. Here Bassett uses keyboard and guitar to create austere arcs of Industrial-strength drone that Garcia anchors with tactile, questing strings, giving the whole thing an odd avant-classical backbone. 

New line-up and new post-Metal stance for Matthew Bower’s Skullflower, with thundercrack guitar and epic/baroque classical European bombast married to sheets of obscuritant power electronics: “The most remorseless, brutal Skullflower ever! Alternating between granular lo-fi primitive rock and granular lo-fi primitive Power Electronics, this taut disc is a chain mail glove of hate to any lazy minds who've tainted the air with describing Skullflower as 'psychedelic'. But that's not to say this is an all out total assault. There are also moments of tender acoustic balladry, it’s just that they don't exist. The remorseless brutal sound is primitive, but as detailed and rich as a blood soaked medieval canvas, somewhere betwixt The Rita and Clandestine Blaze, but more brutal! Long live the New Flesh! Kether is in Malkuth, Malkuth is in Kether, but in a different way...” – CSR.