gonna do a special post here for the one and only Matthew Bower and his solo Sunroof! project. you may know Matthew Bower from his many other projects including: Skullflower, Total, Hototogisu (his amazing project with Marcia Bassett of Double Leopards) and he has recorded two albums with Richard Youngs and often been a guest on many Vibracathedral Orchestra LP's.
first off is a pretty rare Sunroof! LP called "goldfoxradianthowl" courtesy of the Melted Mailbox subscription series which unfortunately only lasted for one year, but put out some great one sided LP's by Keith Fullerton Whitman, Ariel Pink, Carlos Giffoni, Dino Felipe and more. this one sided beauty is a solo live set from Mr. Bower in Leeds back in 2005. from Bower himself:
"made of: guitar and microphone signals, singing and feedback, folded and exploded"
what starts off pleasantly enough from high pitched drones slowly turns into exploded feedback and controlled choas that isn't far off from some of his work in Skullflower and Total. not necessarily what i was expecting considering Sunroof! was his slightly tamer project focused more on drones and zones. still this short and sweet set shows Bower's control and sense of direction. great great stuff. good luck finding a copy of this LP. only 500 printed I believe and it's long OOP. i was lucky enough to find one on eBay a while back. it's a beautiful package if you can get your hands on one. in the meantime listen to it here.
next up is my favorite Sunroof! record that i've heard, the other thing about Bower is that he is incredibly prolific with close to 80 releases to his various projects in the past 2 1/2 decades!!! this one is a studio album in the best sense.
released by the wonderful VHF label back in 2003. Bower again starts off with high pitched drones but adds more subtle touches like piano, drum machines and lots of gurgling electronics and keyboards as well as his signature guitar moves (just minus the layers of distortion common on Skullflower recordings). at times it could almost be mistaken for a weird electronic record.
but all in all this is a really tolerable and quite listenable album for even the casual listener. it gets a little harsh at times but overall kinda comes across as a noisier and slightly updated version of Ashra or other later krautrock/kosmische albums. only on 3 of the last 4 tracks does Bower get into his heavier guitar driven sound ("tornado rose canoe" pulls out some killer psych moves with bower even kinda playing some solos, sorta) but it all comes to a beautiful close on "silver zero" with a light drum machine and some nice floating keyboards. this is truly an incredible album that everyone should have.
unfortunately was never released on vinyl (if there was ever a reissue on vinyl i'd be the first in line though). CD copies may still be available at VHF. listen to it here to get your mind blown for real.
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