SKULLFLOWER - IIIrd Gatekeeper (Expanded Reissue) - 2LP - Gatefold Vinyl

2LP - Black Vinyl. Expanded Edition in a heavy matt non-scratch laminated gatefold sleeve. Includes extra and unreleased tracks taken from the recording sessions. 

Double vinyl reissue of Skullflower’s epochal “IIRD GATEKEEPER” album - the first time that this album has been available on vinyl for 30 years. In addition to the original LP this definitive and expanded edition includes extra and unreleased tracks taken from the recording sessions. For the first time all the tracks recorded by the band during this period can be heard together giving fans unprecedented access to material previously only available in the bands’ archives.

Recorded in London in 1991 and released in 1992 on Justin “Godflesh” Broadrick’s HeadDirt label in 1992, IIRD GATEKEEPER established a worldwide reputation and following for Skullflower and convinced many who heard it that they had encountered nothing less than the best band on the planet. Arriving at the height of the “grunge” and the expansion of underground guitar “rock” into corporate America, IIRD GATEKEEPER had its roots deep in the UK noise and powerelectronics scene.

Guitarist Matthew Bower and bassist Anthony Di Franco were both graduates of the Broken Flag school of British noise making with their respective projects PURE, TOTAL and JFK. IIRD GATEKEEPER was Skullflower’s third album and was the first of the band’s albums to feature a consistent line-up throughout its production: Matthew Bower (guitar), Anthony Di Franco on (bass) and Stuart Dennison (drums). Recorded and mixed in four sessions between January and June 1991the tracks on this edition of IIRD GATEKEEPER shows the band’s new line up developing their sound, warping and evolving in real time. As such this edition of IIRD GATEKEEPER provides a unique document of the band in a state of transition, with the chemistry of the individual playing combusting in the studio to create a wave of astonishing creativity.

IIRD GATEKEEPER is perhaps the definitive British underground rock album of the 1990’s – unique and never equalled. With this new edition Dirter Promotions allows Skullflower fans old and new to listen to this classic album as it was intended: spark up, crank it up and prepare to have your ears and mind blown..

“IIRD GATEKEEPER is an exhausting, exhaustive LP, a perpetual disturbance trying vainly to pull itself together. It disrupts your composure, as if it were a foreign substance injected into your body, turning your insides into revolt. Every noise is severed from its source. All you hear are the after effects of sound, decaying signals emanating from guitars, a chorus of afterglows...feedback convulses through endless diversions, where all roads lead to a collapsed Rome. Welcome it, because it’s both a rupture and a rapture. It’s a final protest, and it’s absolutely heart wrenching.”
Album review, Melody Maker, March 27th, 1993.

Tracklist: 

1. Can You Feel It? (Recorded January 1991. The first track to be recorded for the original album.)
2. Black Rabbit (Recorded May 1991. Released on the original album in 1992.)
3. Larks Tongues (Recorded May 1991. Released on the original album in 1992.)
4. Center Puss – March (Recorded March 1991. Released on the original album in 1992.)
5. Stars And Bars (Recorded January 1991. Previously unreleased.)
6. Wand (Recorded January 1991. Previously unreleased.)
7. Pelt (Recorded March 1991. Previously unreleased.)
8. Evil Twin (Recorded May 1991. Riff inspired by Gustav Holst’s “Mars, the bringer of war”. Not included on the original album but released on a split 7” with Mauro Teho Teardo (MTT) in 1991.)
9. Saturnalia (Recorded June 1991. Recorded live to tape with no overdubs. Released on the original album in 1992.)
10.Vanadis (Recorded January 1991. Released on the original album in 1992.)
11. Godzilla (Recorded June 1991. Released on the original album in 1992.)
12. Spoiler (Recorded March 1991. Released on the original album in 1992.)