SKINFLOWERS
Harking back to those halcyon days of yesteryear, when albums were albums and not a couple of singles with some filler, the brothers Skinflower quite simply write hauntingly beautiful guitar based songs with subtle hooks and big choruses that will be with you for some time after listening. Songs that lull you slowly in with traditional structures which then bend out of shape around you and sneak up on you behind before the realisation finally dawns that you're not in Kansas anymore. In the bands own words :-
"We make music. We make music that is kind of twisted out of shape, the kind of music your car stereo might be playing after a particularly unfortunate car accident that leaves your car absolutely mangled but yourself relatively unharmed. Nonetheless, the car stereo keeps playing. We make music for situations just like that. Not heavy music, not tyres screeching and metal mangling, not a 4x4 hitting a lorry head on over a tiny humped back bridge because someone has jumped the temporary works lights. But music for that indefinable feeling of wrongness. Lyrically, we're spiritual wrongness. We're M. Scott Peck experiencing a flash of realisation, the blinding light of a nuclear explosion mistaken for the presence on a Damascus bound road. We're two broken angels speeding away from heaven as fast as possible on a Friday night, looking for somewhere basket weaving isn't considered fun. Looking for what's always been inside. But hitting a lorry head on while speeding over a humped back bridge because we've jumped the temporary works lights. We're the near silence that follows, interrupted only by the mangled car stereo playing awkward music."
Live the band let loose a little, rocking out with some Albiniesque distortion and an Atari out back. Recent collaborative live forays with The Chaos Engine have seen the brother Skin continue their mystical alcohol fuelled transformation into the Gods of Rock. And they used to be such nice boys too.
PRESS QUOTES:
"I
love the Skinflowers! There! I've said it. Big themes and soul-searching
questions emerge from a critique of 21st century culture and lifestyle.
Spiritual without the whiff of cliché or blandness, this is emotional
music with a fragmented sound that simply underpins their observations...
this is fabulous, fascinating and challenging - everything that's best
about independent releases is here"
-10/10, album of the month, Cross Rhythms Magazine
"A
mash-up between hardworking techno-punks Chaos Engine and introspective
types Skinflowers shouldn't work, but on songs like 'Employee Of The Year'
they use their 4 guitarists to stunning effect"
-8/10 Metal Hammer Review of 'Working With Children & Animals' CD launch
"They
have been described as "Radiohead produced by Steve Albini" but I'd say
that hits nowhere near the mark, they are far more talented than that.
I cannot begin to describe the incredibly large sound that these two skinheads
with their guitars and computer produced onstage. It really was a sight
and sound to behold. One to watch."
-Meltdown
Magazine
"Skinflowers
bloom - Brockworth sibling duo Skinflowers have released a blinder of
a debut album. Data in A Hurry is out now on Wasp Factory, the record
label run by Cheltenham industrialists Chaos Engine. Radiohead is undoubtedly
a strong influence but Skinflowers' superbly crafted songs are poetic
and never predictable. Acoustic and electric sounds collide as the album
twists and turns through folk to industrial, with plenty of extreme sounds
in store."
-Owen Adams, Spank Magazine
"Data
In A Hurry is a wonderfully experimental piece of plastic...difficult
to believe that there are only 2 members in the band, I don't know what
else to say that could possibly praise this album enough other than buy
it and find out yourself!"
- 5/5, Natasha Scharf, Meltdown Magazine
"It's
only a short set for them but in this space of time, with a series of
increasingly claustrophobic tunes, they manage to create an onstage atmosphere
of genuine menace... Although Skinflowers are probably the least "Goth/related"
band on the bill, they certainly take the prize for being the darkest.
Final song, "I Don't Need More Money I Need More Time" is better than
everything Radiohead have ever done put together"
- This Rocks online Zine
"There's
bleeps but there's serious rock. There's unquestionably a seriously punk
attitude going on, but hang about, didn't they just play about seven minutes
worth of space rock? And wait a minute, they opened with a folk song!
Seriously top stuff all round and refreshing to see a set that leaves
me at a total loss to properly describe."
-The Rattler
"Pleasingly
Spiteful"
-N.M.E.
DISCOGRAPHY
EVIL VILLAGE EP (self released)
MAN OF BLOOD CDEP (self-released)
DATA IN A HURRY CDLP (WASPFAC002)
VARIOUS
ARTISTS - WORKING WITH CHILDREN & ANIMALS VOL. 1 (WASPFAC004)
(includes 3 tracks by Skinflowers)
TALKS IN CONTRACTS (WASPFAC011) - Released Autumn 2002