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***This is the first release in three years from Portland, Oregon's revered Bugskull (no longer a band, now the solo efforts of Sean Byrne). Big White Cloud is the name used by Byrne's collaborative partner on this release, Phil Quistlund, formerly of the also-revered and also-from-Portland Sone, whose 1995 album Holiday & Sport certainly was ahead of its time in merging an assortment of fresh sounds. Earlier Bugskull albums on labels such as Road Cone, Scratch, and Shrimper were all critically championed. Bugskull has made music that has fit in the camps of indie rock, sound collage, space rock, etc., but there is an undeniable spirit and humanity in the work of Sean Byrne that elevates his records to a special level that makes use of such genre-specific labels not entirely accurate. Bugskull's Sean Byrne is just one of a great many lo-fi space rock obscurists committed to documenting the intergalactic travels of their narcotized minds. Byrne is clearly committed to boldly going where Stars of the Lid, Sabalon Glitz, Windy & Carl, et al., have already been.... What marks this Portland-based act out from the competition is an other-worldly variant on that most treasured of qualities, namely soul. This, in turn, may stem from a disconcerting mix of sparse, non-humanistic live playing and organically gritty electronics. Either that or it comes from the Byrne's laconic vocals which evoke the stoned mumble of Spacemen 3 / Spectrum / E.A.R. mainman Sonic Boom.... -The Bubblegum Cage Sone definitely cross paths with Bugskull with their noise bursts and non-conformist construction. Some-where between ... Pavement and vintage Ubu... a bit like Dead C., too.-Broken Guitar |
