Spunflower by Spunflower

Humboldt County has been known for three things the last few decades: celestial redwoods, the most famous hairy crptid, and potent botanicals. In the early OOs it started to also be known in certain circles for amazing outsider rock and psych jams, when bands such as Starving Weirdos and White manna began pushing and exporting Humboldt’s unique style of free-minded music. From their methods of operation to their fried synaptic frequencies, Spunflower is creating a new sound in Humboldt, but for the world.

For this LP, Anthony, Nicholas Talvola and Luke Aronie set up a remote session at The Old Steeple in the Victorian village of Ferndale. This neatly 120 year-old former Methodist Church is infamous as one of the vibiest places in Humboldt, no doubt having its aura fed by the graveyard that stretches up the hill behind the church (a zone so saturated with heaviness that they filmed scenes from ‘Salem’s Lot’ there).

Before the session, Spunflower prepared their minds with a heroism on par with the communes of the late 60s, locked themselves away, and then tuned in to only each other and their immediate surroundings. This experimentation and total immersion in set and setting in order to lock their sound on to a singular mission brings to mind Wümme studio era of Faust or the infamous Open Studio session of Turkish band Haza Vuzu (who locked themselves away from the world for a month in the French countryside with only a single land-line to a satellite house as their connection to the world).

With Luke behind the drum kit, Nicolas and Anthony plugged their synths directly into their recording equipment, all three of them connected physically and sonically through their headphones. For three nights and four days they rode the same plane communicating with each other through improvisation,rhythm and decalcomania, teasing out new forms not immediately apparent. Cutting away some sounds while building new ones, Nicholas and local musician Russ Thallheimer overdubbed new horn sections and Michael Dieter added bass, transforming the record into a wholly new beast.

To my ears, this final record that you hold in your hands exists in the same sonic fold of a universe that houses the Italian band Sinistri's 'OnThe Corner' influenced decontructed funk, Jodorowsky's compositions for 'El Topo', Sun Ra's 'Cosmic Tones For Mental Therapy', and maybe just a touch of Chrome's mechanical dystopian visions. Despite these surface comparisons, what Spunflower have made here is a record that could have only come from Humboldt, one with a wholly singular vision and the best example of taking a heavy space and offering its sound to the world.

Ben Chasny - Mckinleyville May 2024.