Untitled

The LP comes in a handmade concertina style pop-out cover featuring a caged bird suspended in mid flight. First full LP of new material from Dean Brown’s Little Skull project since 2019’s ‘A Light in the Window Will Guide Us Safely Home’ on Planam. Little Skull began in the mid-2000’s, shortly before Brown relocated to London. Although the trademark NZ/Aoteara underground sound is evident, comparisons to the contemporary Gothenburg underground or outliers like Richard Youngs & Genghis Cohn can also be drawn
This particular (untitled) LP began while Brown was preparing for his first London performance at the end of 2021. It’s stripped-down, mainly improvised, sound was dictated by practical rather than aesthetic decisions. Despite his economy of means, Brown has a keen sense of sequencing and narrative with both his live sets and recorded output resulting in an immersive and engaging listen. The set incorporates piano, organ, saw, harp, and guitars (both ebowed and played with a screwdriver) bathed in tape hiss and amp hum
Although it’s probably the darkest and most minimal Little Skull LP to date, there are still moments where the light shines through. Similar to Andrew Chalk, for example, even when Brown is in pastoral, melodic territory, his noise roots are still evident. Perhaps it’s this inner tension that gives Little Skull releases such an irresistable sound?